All reviews for Essere umani (2012)
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One of the most enjoyable nonfiction books I've read in a long time. Brian Christian is a poet as well as a computer programmer, and both sensibilities inform this book. Christian uses his experience serving as one of the human "controls" at the big annual Turing Test as the jumping-off point for a clearly and warmly written popsci survey of various topics in cognitive science, linguistics, information theory, and AI research. Lots of clever lines, lots of great quotes, lots of subtle and overt encouragements to the reader to be more the kind of person I also want more people to be: curious, idiosyncratic, novelty-preferring, dissatisfied with confining, predictable roles and language. I find Christian to be a kindred spirit -- I liked his book, and after reading it I liked him.
This is a book about the Turing Test, where computers compete for the Most Human Computer Award, trying to convince judges they are not a computer. To do this, they have to also include humans--referred to as confederates--in the competition. The humans all compete for the Most Human Human Award. As Brian Christian talks about his experience being a confederate in 2009, he brings up many interesting points that arise from a competition like this. Aspects of Philosophy, Humanism, Identity, Communication, and Language are discussed throughout this book, all trying to answer the question of "what does it means to be human?".
Endlessly interesting, and informative about both humans and computers.