Status
Available
Collection
Publication
Penguin (2012), 320 pages
Description
"The Most Human Human" is a provocative 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."
Media reviews
In his landmark 1950 paper “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” the mathematician, philosopher and code breaker Alan Turing proposed a method for answering the question “Can machines think?”: an “imitation game” in which an “interrogator,” C, interviews two players, A and B, via
Turing’s radical premise was that the question “Can a machine win the imitation game?” could replace the question “Can machines think?” — an upsetting idea at the time, as the neurosurgeon Sir Geoffrey Jefferson asserted in 1949: “Not until a machine can write a sonnet or compose a concerto because of thoughts and emotions felt, and not by the chance fall of symbols, could we agree that machine equals brain — that is, not only write it but know that it had written it.” Turing demurred: if the only way to be certain that a machine is thinking “is to be the machine and to feel oneself thinking,” wouldn’t it follow that “the only way to know that a man thinks is to be that particular man”? Nor was the imitation game, for Turing, a mere thought experiment. On the contrary, he predicted that in 50 years, “it will be possible to program computers . . . to make them play the imitation game so well that an average interrogator will not have more than 70 percent chance of making the right identification after five minutes of questioning.”
Well, he was almost right, as Brian Christian explains in “The Most Human Human,” his illuminating book about the Turing test. In 2008, a computer program called Elbot came just one vote shy of breaking Turing’s 30 percent silicon ceiling. The occasion was the annual Loebner Prize Competition, at which programs called “chatterbots” or “chatbots” face off against human “confederates” in scrupulous enactments of the imitation game. The winning chatbot is awarded the title “Most Human Computer,” while the confederate who elicits “the greatest number of votes and greatest confidence from the judges” is awarded the title “Most Human Human.”
It was this title that Christian — a poet with degrees in computer science and philosophy — set out, in 2009, to win. And he was not about to go “head-to-head (head-to-motherboard?) against the top A.I. programs,” he writes, without first getting, as it were, in peak condition. After all, for Elbot to have fooled the judges almost 30 percent of the time into believing that it was human, its rivals had to have failed almost 30 percent of the time to persuade the judges that they were human. To earn the “Most Human Human” title, Christian realized, he would have to figure out not just why Elbot won, but why humanity lost. . . .
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teleprinter, then decides on the basis of the exchange which is human and which is a computer. Turing’s radical premise was that the question “Can a machine win the imitation game?” could replace the question “Can machines think?” — an upsetting idea at the time, as the neurosurgeon Sir Geoffrey Jefferson asserted in 1949: “Not until a machine can write a sonnet or compose a concerto because of thoughts and emotions felt, and not by the chance fall of symbols, could we agree that machine equals brain — that is, not only write it but know that it had written it.” Turing demurred: if the only way to be certain that a machine is thinking “is to be the machine and to feel oneself thinking,” wouldn’t it follow that “the only way to know that a man thinks is to be that particular man”? Nor was the imitation game, for Turing, a mere thought experiment. On the contrary, he predicted that in 50 years, “it will be possible to program computers . . . to make them play the imitation game so well that an average interrogator will not have more than 70 percent chance of making the right identification after five minutes of questioning.”
Well, he was almost right, as Brian Christian explains in “The Most Human Human,” his illuminating book about the Turing test. In 2008, a computer program called Elbot came just one vote shy of breaking Turing’s 30 percent silicon ceiling. The occasion was the annual Loebner Prize Competition, at which programs called “chatterbots” or “chatbots” face off against human “confederates” in scrupulous enactments of the imitation game. The winning chatbot is awarded the title “Most Human Computer,” while the confederate who elicits “the greatest number of votes and greatest confidence from the judges” is awarded the title “Most Human Human.”
It was this title that Christian — a poet with degrees in computer science and philosophy — set out, in 2009, to win. And he was not about to go “head-to-head (head-to-motherboard?) against the top A.I. programs,” he writes, without first getting, as it were, in peak condition. After all, for Elbot to have fooled the judges almost 30 percent of the time into believing that it was human, its rivals had to have failed almost 30 percent of the time to persuade the judges that they were human. To earn the “Most Human Human” title, Christian realized, he would have to figure out not just why Elbot won, but why humanity lost. . . .
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User reviews
LibraryThing member bragan
Brian 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
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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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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LibraryThing member LynnB
Author 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,
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!
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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!
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LibraryThing member jimocracy
There 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
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recently) by computers. Great read! Show Less
LibraryThing member Paul_S
I 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?
LibraryThing member capewood
There 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
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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 Show Less
LibraryThing member Bodagirl
If I had read this book when I initially added it to my TBR in 2011-ish I would have found it interesting, but AI and GenAI have evolved too much.
Stopped before 100 pages.
Stopped before 100 pages.
Awards
Bristol Festival of Ideas Book Prize (Nominee — 2012)
Booklist Editor's Choice: Adult Books (Social Sciences — 2011)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2011
Physical description
320 p.; 7.8 inches
ISBN
0241956056 / 9780241956052