Computer Power and Human Reason
by Joseph Weizenbaum · first published 1975
47% recommend53% neutral
Why HN recommends it
1976 critique by the creator of ELIZA on the limits of computers replacing human judgment, such as machine psychologists or AI judges; suits developers and anyone thinking about AI's role in society.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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I really hope the bit about "free machine-powered psychologists" is satire, but given YC's unironic techno utopianism fear that it is not. Reading "Computer Power and Human Reason" by Joseph Weizenbaum (published over 40 years ago!) should remind people that attempting to build a "machine-powered psychologist", even if it's something that can be done, is not something that should…
on “YC AI” ↗Probably the antithesis, also worth reading: Joseph Weizenbaum, Computer Power and Human Reason: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/986428.Computer_Power_and...
on “Gödel, Escher, Bach” ↗These services will be in place for years and more and more institutions will depend on them. The computer systems we design for health care will shape health care service. Add Joseph Weizenbaum's Computer Power and Human Reason to the list of books that the developers of these systems should be required to read.
on “The Doctor vs. Char Limits” ↗Joseph Weizenbaum's book, Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment To Calculation (https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Power-Human-Reason-Calculati...) is worth a read. Weizenbaum had written ELIZA, the original "chatbot", a decade earlier (in 1966), and…
on “'Our minds can be hijacked': tech insiders who fear a smartphone dystopia” ↗…humans is not as great as the danger of humans becoming like computers. -- Konrad Zuse Another man very much worth reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Weizenbaum > His influential 1976 book Computer Power and Human Reason displays his ambivalence towards computer technology and lays out his case: while Artificial Intelligence may be possible, we should never allow computers to make important decisions because computers…
on “Why is hi-tech Japan using cassette tapes and faxes? (2015)” ↗Anyone considering this question should read Joseph Weizenbaum's 1976 book, Computer Power and Human Reason. He considers if an AI could be a good judge, and decides that it would not. Even though all the facts, rules and heuristics could be fed into an AI judge, the element we would not be able to program…
on “We should take moral advice from computers and not the other way around” ↗…William Aspray. Good on prehistory: pre-computer data processing in the 19th and early 20th centuries -- there was a lot of it! --- the founding and early history of IBM and the computer industry etc. Computer Power and Human Reason by Joseph Weizenbaum. From 1976. Not exactly a history, but now of historical interest as the first thorough ethical and humanist critique of computing and AI, by the MIT computer scientist who wrote…
on “Ask HN: Computer Science/History Books?” ↗…programmers. They are an international phenomenon." The author, Joseph Weizenabaum was a computer science professor at MIT. He was the author of the famous Eliza program. This is an excerpt from his Computer Power and Human Reason, one of the best books ever written about computing.
on “Science and the Compulsive Programmer (1976)” ↗…point that there are non-rational reasons for them to think the way they do. That's why I refer to when I talk about dogmatism. I suggest everyone (who wants to hear me) to read Joseph Weizenbaum's "Computer Power and Human Reason"; he does a much better job than me at raising similar arguments to mine. Also, Daniel Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow", for the ways in which we _all_ are so _not_ 100% rational in our everyday decisions.
on “Exclusive Q&A John Carmack’s ‘Different Path’ to Artificial General Intelligence” ↗Computer Power and Human Reason https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Power_and_Human_Reaso... The Pragmatic Programmer (makes the cut by being released in 1999, even though there's a second edition) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pragmatic_Programmer…
on “Ask HN: Best software books written before 2000” ↗If you get a chance to read Computer Power and Human Reason by Weizenbaum, now is the time to do it by any means available - especially if curiosity drives your question.
on “Why are we more and more talking about the past here on HN?” ↗…some are quite good. BUT they are almost all from the last few years - I would expect 'greatest of all time' to include some true classics. My own candidate for greatest of all time in this category is Computer Power and Human Reason by Joseph Weizenbaum (1976). He wrote Eliza, the very first AI chat program, almost sixty years ago. I reread this book recently and it is still very pertinent, especially his discussion of AI. Other…
on “The greatest tech books of all time” ↗What other similar books would you recommend? Other memoirs by people who worked in computing and became disillusioned or dissatisfied with it: Joseph Weizenbaum, Computer Power and Human Reason (1976) Cliff Stoll, Silicon Snake Oil (1995) Neither is all memoir like Ullman's book -- both are mostly exposition and argument. But both have some passages of memoir, and in both the author's personality…
on “Ellen Ullman wrote the most precise account of “computer culture” I have seen” ↗And not a word spared for Weizenbaum. “Computer Power and Human Reason”(1976) presages, and in most situations devotes significantly more reasonable and much deeper thought, to what seem like very modern issues of AI — but, about half a century ago.
on “The Singularity Is Nigh!” ↗Don't overlook books that are critical of engineering as it is often practiced and how it fits into our society: Computer Power and Human Reason by Joseph Weizenbaum (1976). Weizenbaum wrote Eliza, the first AI chatbot, almost sixty years ago and was appalled at the reception. This book is still very pertinent, especially the Introduction, Chapter…
on “Ask HN: Good books on philosophy of engineering?” ↗