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Title details for The Most Human Human by Brian Christian - Available

The Most Human Human

What Talking with Computers Teaches Us About What It Means to Be Alive

by Brian Christian
Brian Christian
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
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?

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 1, 2011

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780307879165
      • File size: 277008 KB
      • Duration: 09:37:05

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Christian examines what it means to be human, focusing on something called the Turing Test, to which he happily subjects himself. The book encompasses a lot of material--from philosophy to aspects of human nature and beyond. Ultimately, the subject matter is scattered across too large a field and uses too many tangential examples. As a narrator, Christian is functional. He plays it straight, covering topics that run from chess to hockey, and from the syntax of language to the process of file compression. This book, however, should be reserved for deep thinkers only. M.B. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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