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Audiobook9 hours
The Most Human Human: What Talking With Computers Teaches Us About What It Means to Be Alive
Published by Penguin Random House Audio
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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About this audiobook
The Most Human Human is a provocative, exuberant, and profound exploration of the ways in which computers are reshaping our ideas of what it means to be human. Its starting point is the annual Turing Test, which pits artificial intelligence programs against people to determine if computers can "think."
Named for computer pioneer Alan Turing, the Turing Test convenes a panel of judges who pose questions-ranging anywhere from celebrity gossip to moral conundrums-to hidden contestants in an attempt to discern which is human and which is a computer. The machine that most often fools the panel wins the Most Human Computer Award. But there is also a prize, bizarre and intriguing, for the Most Human Human.
In 2008, the top AI program came short of passing the Turing Test by just one astonishing vote. In 2009, Brian Christian was chosen to participate, and he set out to make sure Homo sapiens would prevail.
The author's quest to be deemed more human than a computer opens a window onto our own nature. Interweaving modern phenomena like customer service "chatbots" and men using programmed dialogue to pick up women in bars with insights from fields as diverse as chess, psychiatry, and the law, Brian Christian examines the philosophical, biological, and moral issues raised by the Turing Test.
One central definition of human has been "a being that could reason." If computers can reason, what does that mean for the special place we reserve for humanity?
From the Hardcover edition.
Named for computer pioneer Alan Turing, the Turing Test convenes a panel of judges who pose questions-ranging anywhere from celebrity gossip to moral conundrums-to hidden contestants in an attempt to discern which is human and which is a computer. The machine that most often fools the panel wins the Most Human Computer Award. But there is also a prize, bizarre and intriguing, for the Most Human Human.
In 2008, the top AI program came short of passing the Turing Test by just one astonishing vote. In 2009, Brian Christian was chosen to participate, and he set out to make sure Homo sapiens would prevail.
The author's quest to be deemed more human than a computer opens a window onto our own nature. Interweaving modern phenomena like customer service "chatbots" and men using programmed dialogue to pick up women in bars with insights from fields as diverse as chess, psychiatry, and the law, Brian Christian examines the philosophical, biological, and moral issues raised by the Turing Test.
One central definition of human has been "a being that could reason." If computers can reason, what does that mean for the special place we reserve for humanity?
From the Hardcover edition.
Editor's Note
Machines vs art…
Full of poignant observations about the ways humans & computers differ (or operate similarly). If you’re interested in machines or art, and especially why machines can’t make their own art, Christian’s debut is for you.
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Reviews for The Most Human Human
Rating: 3.8911290322580645 out of 5 stars
4/5
124 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5There is an annual contest in England between developers of artificial intelligence systems and human beings. Questions are asked simultaneously to computers and humans and a team of judges try to determine which answers came from a computer and which came from a human. There are two prizes, one for the most human computer and one for the most human human. Brian Christian set out to win the most human human award. He spent a year studying past competitions and what it means to be human. It's a good story. He's another I saw on "The Daily Show" prior to reading the book
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I enjoyed the musings but was put off by the lack of depth and superficial research. How many times will this Ada Lovelace myth be repeated?
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Witty and clever musings and discovery in the worlds of philosophy, linguistics and artificial intelligence. Plus a great account of how the author was awarded a prize for being "the most human human." Non-linear in structure (lots of fragments and tangents) and a little too clever at times.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5There were parts of this book that teased the notion of boring but given the subject matter was in actuality, pertinent. Overall, I enjoy this book conceptually and philosophically. It is interesting that our uniqueness as humans is constantly being challenged by other animals and (now more recently) by computers. Great read!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Author Brian Christian enrols as a contestant in the Most Human Computer contest, in which judges have conversations with both computers and humans. Their job is to determine which is which, and the computer which fools the most judges is awarded the Most Human Computer prize. Mr. Christian is, however, more interested in the Most Human Human award, given to the participant who is most often correctly judged as human. This book is an examiniaton of what makes us uniquely human -- what is it that AI and computers more generally will never be able to replicate? I enjoyed the book, but found it disjointed and prone to wander down different avenues of discussion. How human!
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I was hoping for more of the artificial intelligence part of this book, but it turned out to be more "what we can do better than AIs", which wasn't quite what I was interested in. It's an interesting meditation on what sets us apart, in some places, though it's lacking in organisation -- if I tried to turn in my dissertation with such random chaptering and subtitles, I'd be whacked over the head with the red pen of loving correction by my supervisor. It didn't flow at all well. And I know it's non-fiction, but it felt clunkily info-dumpy. Half the time I was going duh, I know this stuff, that's why I'm reading this book and the other half whoa, slow down.
I think this could be a very interesting book, if it caters to what you're interested in. I was more interested in the artificial intelligences, of which there's very little direct discussion... - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brian Christian was a (human) participant in the 2009 Loebner Prize Turing test competition, in which chatbots are pitted against each other and against actual people in an attempt to convince judges of their humanity. As well as an award for Most Human Computer, which honors the chatbot that is able to fool the most judges, there's also a Most Human Human award, for the real person who was least often confused with a machine. Christian decided he was going to win that Most Human Human prize and, despite repeated advice to just be his incontestably human self, he set about putting some real thought and preparation into how to be the most human conversationalist he could possibly be.Honestly, it sounds kind of like a joke: "Yo momma so stupid, she had to study for the Turing test!" But Christian takes it all very seriously, using the competition and his role in it as a starting point for a discussion, both scientific and philosophical, about all the things that make us similar to and different from computers. How much of human activity, including conversation, is essentially mechanical? Where does the essence of human creativity lie? How can contrasting ourselves with computers help us to be more human? Some of his thoughts on the subject are more insightful and original than others, but the book as a whole is thoughtful, engagingly written, mildly provocative, and generally worth a read.
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