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The Most Human Human: What Talking With Computers Teaches Us About What It Means To Be Alive (2011)

by Brian Christian(Favorite Author)
3.9 of 5 Votes: 1
ISBN
0385533063 (ISBN13: 9780385533065)
languge
English
genre
publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
review 1: This would easily be a five-star book except that, as I have very little patience for poetry and poets, I couldn't stop myself from performing several 360-degree eye-rolls at Mr. Christian's various English-Major moments. Some are quite good, while others are groaners. However, this is more a result of my various pet peeves. Objectively, this book is a fascinating deep-dive into the topic, and well-worth reading for anyone and a must for those working in the field.
review 2: So, I read this book after watching Her (which is fantastic and thought provoking and wonderful), and so I had rather different expectations for this book, especially based on the back of the book, which describes Brian Chistian's quest to win the Most Human Human award, a prize given at th
... moree Turing test. (The Turing test pits computer programs against humans to determine if computers can think/convince the judges that it is a human. Humans also anonymously interact with the judges for comparison purposes and while the best program wins the most human computer award, there is also a most human human prize.)So like, this story is told, albeit dragged out throughout the entire course of the book and not necessarily told well. I would almost rather that Brian had just written about this experience separately as a short story, as opposed to scattering it into parts. But whatever.In between this overarching story line, the reader learns about different computer programs in the past that competed to win and how they operated/attempted to trick the judges. This part was cool. There's lots of history about the development of Artificial Intelligence as well, so that's cool if you're interested in that sort of things. Some philosophical questions about AI are posed, similar to in Her, but obviously not as beautifully or poetically. There's also lots of discussion about the computer that beat the grandmaster at chess as well as similar case studies.Overall, this book is interesting, but it's really not the most compelling read because of how it's structured- it's very easy to just stop reading for a while and feel no need to pick it back up. Also, the back of the book is kind of a lie.Here's a tangent not really related to me reviewing this book, but rather a personal note about this book:What really surprised me personally though, was just the fact that this book managed to inadvertently and completely casually mention so many things that are sort of particularly relevant in my life. It's like when you meet a new person and you realize you're going to be good friends because in the course of a five minute conversation, they manage to offhandedly reference so many things that you happen to really like. For personal reference here's a list of stuff (not even all the stuff) that this book manage to reference that I really appreciated: a particular episode of NPR's This American Life that I've actually listened to, basically every book I read in Ethics class last semester, the Phantom Tollbooth, David Foster Wallace, Feist, movies on my to-watch list such as Before Sunrise and My Dinner with Andre, and a bunch of other stuff.Like, not saying this book was written for me or anything, but it was sort of uncanny how well Brian and I would probz get along in real life. less
Reviews (see all)
inadin
3.5 stars. This book was a mixed bag. Many parts I loved while other parts fell flat.
LauSantana
Very interesting! I liked the anecdotes comparing humans and AI.
hyphen
Interesting topic, made me want to learn more on the subject
readingbuddiesrock
Fascinating read and terrific references.
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