The Information Animal: Humans, Technology and the Competition for Reality

by Alicia Wanless

Depending on the news you read, new tools like AI will either save or destroy us. But our response to emerging technology’s ‘unprecedented’ threats actually follows a pattern as old as civilisation. From ancient Athens to COVID-19, social media to spam, Alicia Wanless shows how humans have always consumed information, whether accurate or not.

First a new technology changes how information is shared, broadening its availability and accelerating how fast it travels. Then, as more people engage with this new content, fresh ideas arise, often challenging prevailing beliefs. Some use the new tools to promote their views, win power or simply profit, adding to the mounting information pollution. Competition and conflict follow. We scramble—in vain—to control information flows and use of the new technology.

With democracies worldwide lurching from crisis to crisis, knee-jerk reactions to information conflict won’t suffice. What’s needed is an understanding of our nature as ‘information animals’, in a millennia-long relationship with technology—and of how a content-saturated world impacts the political battle for hearts and minds.

272 pages, Hardcover

Published September 1, 2025

Reviews

[Nick Ferraro · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF, a bit all over the place

[Laurent · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is all over the place. It is packed with historical facts that do not contribute to any real thesis.
At best it is a mush of platitudes.
Only the 2-3 last chapters start touching on some interesting topics that won’t be double clicked anyway.
Very disappointed.