The Most Human Human

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

By: Brian Christian

Narrated by: Brian Christian

Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

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?

©2011 Brian Christian (P)2011 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"THE MOST HUMAN HUMAN is immensely ambitious and bold, intellectually provocative, while at the same time entertaining and witty – a delightful book about how to live a meaningful, thriving life." (Alan Lightman, author of Einstein’s Dreams and Ghost)

"A book exploring the wild frontiers of chat-bots is appealing enough; I never expected to discover in its pages such an eye-opening inquest into human imagination, thought, conversation, love and deception. Who would have guessed that the best way to understand humanity was to study its imitators?" (David Eagleman, author of Sum and Why The Net)

"This is a strange, fertile, and sometimes beautiful book. It has been said that man creates images of himself, then comes to resemble the images. Something like this seems to be going on with the computer. Brian Christian writes with a rare combination of what Pascal took to be two contrary mindsets: the spirit of geometry and the spirit of finesse. He takes both the deep limitations and halting progress of artificial intelligence as an occasion for thinking about the most human activity - the art of conversation." (Matthew B. Crawford, author of Shop Class as Soulcraft)

Engaging, insightful, and thought-provoking

-Brian Christian really fleshes out the central anecdote, his participation as a convince-you-I'm-human "confederate" vs. AI chat-bots at the Loebner Prize (a Turing Test challenge), framing the contest with asides in psychology, philosophy of mind, physics, logic and computing, games, communication, language and linguistics, and other topics that illustrate the complexity of interaction on display here. Broadly insightful and rarely overwrought.

-Author's background in science writing and philosophy plus his MFA in Poetry correspond well to the fluidity with which he moves between tangential topics while keeping sight of the central theme. The book revolves around communication, in particular the written word since text is the format for the Turing Test undertaken, and Brian Christian's well-written prose shows off the fact that he studied and contemplated the topic well in preparation for his Loebner Prize contest and vie for the Most Human Human.


-Topically related to the also recently published book by
James Gleick, The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood.

How do you know a human wrote this review?

Any additional comments?

This book really knocked my socks off. Under the guise of telling about his experience as a human competitor in an annual contest to see if computers can fool humans in a text-off, the author covers the evolution of chat-bots, but also dozens of other topics. Page after page dealt with concepts I had never given any thought to, but which were fascinating. Such as: did you know that competitive checkers basically died in the late 1800s when the two top players in the world played the exact same “perfect” game dozens of times in a row? And that the same thing is happening to competitive chess right now? How does your smart phone know what you are going to type before you type it? Do you think all those helpful chatters who appear in popup windows to “answer your questions” while you are shopping on the Internet are real human beings? What is the algorithm for knowing when to interrupt someone in a conversation? All this and much, much more awaits you in this outstanding blend of hard science, philosophy, linguistics and the-future-is-now computer facts. The author does a decent job of narrating his own book, but I believe a professional narrator would have given more life to the performance.

Fun and interesting.

My only snag with it is it pretty much contains the same information that a whole lot of other books written my journalist write. If your looking for this kind of concepts read something by malcolm Gladwell. If you like a good story and and have already gone through the other journalists this is worth the listen.

Super interesting

I really enjoyed this book, and learned a lot at the same time. It's not like a textbook with unbiased, plain facts, it's put into the context of humanity with many interesting anecdotes.

While I never found myself bored, or not smart enough to understand, I found his tangents that turned into full chapters slightly annoying. While he's in the middle of one thing, he branches off into a side note, or anecdote, and that's fun, but they occasionally drag on for 45 minutes and you completely lose sight of the original message.

What makes us human?

Where does The Most Human Human rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Easily among the best!

What did you like best about this story?

This book made me revisit the philosophical question,

Some very insightful moments!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This book builds some great insights into both humanity and and computer science. i would defiantly recommend it to anyone with technical interests

What other book might you compare The Most Human Human to and why?

I dont think i have read much that goes along these lines, but it looks like there is plenty out there

What three words best describe Brian Christian’s performance?

animated and articulate but at times a little unclear

Any additional comments?

i think this book says quite a lot for its length compared with many other books, defiantly worthwhile...

Too technical

Book made a lot of good points, but just a hair too technical for the average reader.

More than the title suggests

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Depends on the friend's interests. This book is entertaining, but also thought-provoking.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

This is really a philosophy book with the theme of the Turing competition between humans and computers to appear human as a theme to create some suspense. The thought and research that the author put into what makes us human, and the nature of human discourse is fascinating, but the Turing test is almost a distraction. (I must admit a prejudice. I think the idea of computers emulating humans is a waste of time and discussion, and not a valid direction for research. I published Computer Oriented Approaches to Pattern Recognition in 1972 and The Software Society this month that goes into this further.)

Christian's ideas, independent of the Turing test theme, are interesting and thought-provoking. They are well-written and enthusiastically presented in audio form. It seems today that we must come up with titles that grab a potential readers attention, but a title like "What it means to be a human" describes his focus better. Too bad that more readers aren't simply interested in philosophy and ideas.

What about Brian Christian’s performance did you like?

It seemed like a personal message.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

No one moment I can cite, but the discussion of how we converse, with its subtleties and meaningful pauses, is a subject that I found persuasive and haven't seen elsewhere in general reader sources.

Wide-Ranging Yet Highly Cohesive

Super fun read touching on psychology, mathematics, history, etc, with some funny anecdotes to boot.

Are you a robot? No!

This is a remarkable book that centers around a short game/conversation between us (humans) and them (our computer creations). But more than that it explores language, philosophy, poetry, art and the very nature of creativity and our wild unpredictability as humans that makes us irreplaceable. One of my very favorites. Read and be encouraged to be the undefinable being you are.