Documents of ADATS - Book 5
Teaching Notes on Human Information Networks (September 2026)
Human civilisation has been built not primarily on truth, but on information networks that create cooperation, order, and shared realities. The enduring question of history is how societies balance the pursuit of truth with the need for social order
Information is far more than a collection of facts about the world. Rather than primarily serving to represent reality, information functions foremost as a force that connects people, creates networks, and enables large-scale cooperation. Human history, in this perspective, is the story of how information networks evolved and transformed societies.
The common assumption that information exists mainly to convey truth is wrong. Information becomes meaningful not because it perfectly reflects reality but because people act upon it. Reality itself is presented as having objective aspects, which exist independently of human belief, and subjective aspects, which depend on individual experiences and feelings. Human societies introduce a third layer: intersubjective realities such as nations, religions, laws, money, corporations, and states. These exist only because large numbers of people collectively believe in them and continuously reinforce them through communication.
The unique ability of Homo sapiens to cooperate in enormous numbers. Unlike other animals, humans are capable of creating and believing Stories that connect strangers. Shared myths, religions, national identities, brands, and ideologies allow millions or even billions of people to cooperate without knowing one another personally. These stories are not merely falsehoods or delusions. Rather, they create powerful social realities that organise human behaviour and make large-scale societies possible.
We then examine power, populism, and ideology. We reject both, the naïve belief that information naturally leads to truth and the populist belief that all information is simply a tool of domination. Instead, human societies require a balance between Truth and Order. Truth allows societies to understand the world accurately, while Order allows large groups to function together.
A major turning point is the invention of documents. Stories alone could unite tribes and religious communities, but they could not efficiently manage complex states. Written documents made large-scale administration possible. Documents do not merely describe reality; they often create it. Ownership, debt, and legal rights exist because documents establish and preserve them. Written records therefore shifted authority from oral traditions toward bureaucratic systems.
As documentation expanded, bureaucracy emerged as a solution to the problem of retrieving and organising information. Bureaucracies categorise the world into manageable compartments and procedures. This creates efficiency, but also distorts reality by forcing the complexity of life into rigid administrative categories.
We then explore humanity's attempt to eliminate error by appealing to supposedly infallible authorities. Holy books such as the Torah, Bible, and Qur'an are technologies designed to preserve unchanging truths. Yet these texts never escape human interpretation. Their contents were selected, edited, copied, translated, and debated by people over centuries. As a result, religious traditions repeatedly return to the same challenge: how to distinguish divine truth from human error.
The print revolution dramatically accelerated the spread of information. It also amplified falsehoods. Information networks can spread fantasies just as effectively as facts.
The scientific revolution is humanity's most successful effort to create self-correcting information systems. Science advances not because scientists are infallible, but because scientific institutions assume that everyone is fallible. Their strength lies not in certainty but in their willingness to acknowledge ignorance and expose errors.
Finally, we compare democratic and totalitarian information networks. Democracies distribute information across many independent centres such as parliaments, courts, universities, media organisations, and civil society groups. These institutions act as self-correcting mechanisms that limit the concentration of power. Democracy is therefore not simply as majority rule, but as an ongoing conversation among multiple sources of information. Elections are important, but they are only one part of a wider system.
Totalitarian regimes operate differently. They seek to centralise information and suppress competing sources of authority. Such systems prioritise order above truth.
We conclude by arguing that all information systems throughout history have wrestled with the tension between truth and order. Too much emphasis on order risks authoritarianism and delusion. Too much emphasis on relentless criticism can undermine social cohesion. The challenge for every society is to maintain a balance between these competing needs.