God, Human, Animal, Machine

Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning

By: Meghan O'Gieblyn

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman

Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

A strikingly original exploration of what it might mean to be authentically human in the age of artificial intelligence, from the author of the critically acclaimed Interior States.

"Meghan O’Gieblyn is a brilliant and humble philosopher, and her book is an explosively thought-provoking, candidly personal ride I wished never to end ... This book is such an original synthesis of ideas and disclosures. It introduces what will soon be called the O’Gieblyn genre of essay writing.” —Heidi Julavits, author of The Folded Clock

For most of human history, the world was a magical and enchanted place ruled by forces beyond our understanding. The rise of science and Descartes's division of mind from world made materialism our ruling paradigm, in the process asking whether our own consciousness—i.e., souls—might be illusions. Now the inexorable rise of technology, with artificial intelligences that surpass our comprehension and control, and the spread of digital metaphors for self-understanding, the core questions of existence—identity, knowledge, the very nature and purpose of life itself—urgently require rethinking. 

Meghan O'Gieblyn tackles this challenge with philosophical rigor, intellectual reach, essayistic verve, refreshing originality, and an ironic sense of contradiction. She draws deeply and sometimes humorously from her own personal experience as a formerly religious believer still haunted by questions of faith, and she serves as the best possible guide to navigating the territory we are all entering.

©2021 Meghan O'Gieblyn (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic Reviews

Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science & Technology

“O’Gieblyn’s loosely linked and rigorously thoughtful meditations on technology, humanity and religion mount a convincing and occasionally moving apologia for that ineliminable wrench in the system, the element that not only browses and buys but feels: the embattled, anachronistic and indispensable self. God, Human, Animal, Machine is a hybrid beast, a remarkably erudite work of history, criticism and philosophy, but it is also, crucially, a memoir.”—The New York Times 

“Meghan O’Gieblyn’s essays are 'personal' in that they are portraits of the private thoughts, curiosities, and uncertainties that thrive in O’Gieblyn’s mind about selfhood, meaning, moral responsibility, and faith. There's nowhere her avid intellect won't go in its quest to find, if not 'meaning,' then the available modern tools we might use, today, as humans, to create it. O’Gieblyn is a brilliant and humble philosopher, and her book is an explosively thought-provoking, candidly personal ride I wished never to end. This book is such an original synthesis of ideas and disclosures. It introduces what will soon be called the O’Gieblyn genre of essay writing.”—Heidi Julavits, author of The Folded Clock

"A fascinating exploration of our enchantment with technology."—Eula Biss, author of Having and Being Had 

Confessions of an Evangelical Pastor

It is hard to describe my emotions as I read God, Human, Animal, Machine. I, at once, empathized with and challenged the books basic precepts as OGieblyn slowly opened my eyes to a perspective beyond my previous comprehension. My only words to my closest pastoral colleague when I finished it was “Brilliant.” As a trained storyteller, I marveled at how O’Gieblyn intricately weaved her narrative experience with complex and nuanced concepts of physics, AI, and machine learning. In a way she “preaches” her way through her own deconstruction drawing on the very tools of her childhood context. Rhetorically, this provides depth I was not expecting to experience. This is a must read, if you can handle it that is. And now I replace my first reaction of “Brilliant” with “ encore”! I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next.

Fascinating

Though I certainly don’t understand everything covered, I found it enlightening and thought provoking. Will probably listen again.

Extraordinary

This is a gorgeous book.
I adored every single sentence in it and would seriously recommended it to anybody who is in search of knowledge. This author writes like a serious scholar.

where is our species headed?

I eagerly read this book, seduced by the title, hoping to learn O'Glebyn's view of how our species might evolve. I enjoyed her view of how technology might advance Homo sapiens. I was not interested in her speculation regarding where religion and technology overlap - what is belief and what is existential from learning.
What is completely ignored is biology and frontiers of genetic advancement. Will computer or genetic coding prevail? And what will our species become as these technologies merge?

What a beautiful production!

This is one of those audio books that leave me wanting more, but frustrating, because there is nothing else like it. The narrator is truly wonderful, and the writer and her slightly esoteric world view is now on my radar, and I will follow her work wherever she decides to take me. A very special book that I highly recommend. There are not enough stars in the night sky to rate this book.

Sometimes thought-provoking, but the isms drive me nuts

I just don’t understand how smart people can become so convinced of these hare-brained theories of clearly unfathomable existence. The author does a pretty good job of describing them objectively, but is also admittedly very caught up in some. Drives me nuts.

Utterly Fantastic

This is the best thing I've read this year! I've already bought 2 copies for friends

Required reading

This book should be required reading for anyone working on AI or AI-related tech. Even if you are just struggling to understand the contemporary moment and cultural fascination with generative AI and LLMs. This is a philosophical tour de force, tracing the core concepts in the philosophy of mind and revealing the theological impulses behind them.
One critique on the audio book: too many mispronunciations. Pronouncing the social and political philosopher, Max Weber’s name as if it were the same as a brand of BBQ grills was an embarrassment. There are multiple such pronunciation mistakes. Annoying!

Life is hard and then you die

With the recent emergence of Ai to the front of the human attention queue this book makes for a nice read

Excellent Philosophical Exploration

Excellent exploration of the intricacies between theology and technology, and the metaphors and questions that apply to each. Will be listening again!

On the borders of humanity

Meghan O’Gieblyn traverses the ever-so-relevant new frontiers of the implications of machine learning, AI and (importantly) how we as humans view them through metaphor and technology.
The book is well researched, and both the technological details and philosophical discussions are communicated in an engaging and understandable way (though I must admit that it is a challenging subject in those regards for me in some segments of the book, despite my knowledge of philosophy and physics).

Simply put a fantastic philosophical book carried upon the personal journey of the author, who has transcended from a forced faith in god to a chosen faith in humanity.

One can only shift between worry and awe, as the machines begin to overtake the roles of not only us humans, but also the predictive and omniscient functions that we used to attribute to gods, which has led society to treat the machine more and more like a god, whom we created in the image of a human

Fascinating, relatable, thought-provoking.

After listening to this book I have more questions than answers. I feel a bit disappointed but I guess that's cos I'm on the same journey from another fundamentalist bible college (a universe of cheap certainties) out into the big wide world where certainty ain't cheap.

I was hoping the author might have trodden some of my path before me and taken up some clearly defined positions - positions I could consider taking myself. But apart from abandoning biblical innerency and common Christian doctrines the book seems to ramble very eloquently through many positions along her subsequent journey without staying anywhere for very long.

For example we are presented with the hypothesis that we are living in a virtual reality created by our technologically advanced descendants (or other civilisations?) but I don't remember any discussion of arguments for and against this hypothesis (not that I've read any anywhere else!), nor do I remember her stating her position.

But maybe that's the point of the book, that the world is full of uncertainties right down to subatomic particles/ waves and the consciousness of the observer. I haven't read other books that do argue convincingly for many of the hypotheses discussed.

And so I am grateful to the writer for sharing her journey in a well-crafted work that is highly readable, enjoyable and relatable. If she and I both exist then at least one thing is certain: we are not alone on this journey, and that feels a whole lot better.

The book is extremely well narrated too, pace and clarity much appreciated when dealing with so much rich and thought-provoking content.

Final teaser thought: whilst I identify with concerns about artificial intelligence and I would always go with the precautionary principle, I find much of the tone around AI a bit negative and anthropocentric.

Sort of like if our Jurassic shrew-like ancestors discussed the dangers of what their descendants might become if they started being more social and climbing trees and eventually playing with fire.

I grant that conscious AI would be (is?!) a clean break from the natural selection process but that natural process is painfully blind anyway causing great suffering and waste, surely we can do better if we care?

Maybe I don't get it? But the book ending seems to me teasingly ambiguous on this point.