The Most Human Human

Name: The Most Human Human
ISBN: 0307476707

by Brian Christian · first published 2011

8mentions

4recommended by

7HN commenters

2012–2026first – last mentioned

57% recommend43% neutral

Philosophy

"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."

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What Hacker News says

benjaminashley · Jun 22, 2012 · Recommends

I really enjoyed The Most Human Human by Brian Christian. It's about Turing tests and The Loebner Prize.
on “Ask HN: Summer reading” ↗
topaz0 · Apr 9, 2015 · Recommends

"The Moon is Down" by John Steinbeck, and "A Discipline of Programming" by Edsger Dijkstra. Before that, "The Most Human Human", by Brian Christian. "The Most Human Human" was particularly interesting, about what we can learn about being human by looking at machines.
on “Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?” ↗
postexitus · Jan 7, 2026 · Recommends

Tangentially related, but I enjoyed reading "The Most Human Human" by Brian Christian - granted it's written in a pre-LLM world, it's still very much relevant. The book is following the annual Turing Test competition, in which, humans are chatting with AIs or real…
on “LLM Problems Observed in Humans” ↗
jazzdev · Jan 2, 2012 · Recommends

I got "The Most Human Human: What Talking with Computers Teaches Us About What It Means to Be Alive" for Christmas and it's just fascinating. Interesting history on the Turing test and AI and philosophy and very well written. I…
on “Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011” ↗
cdbattags · Jan 23, 2019 · Mentions

…phone interview. I did not assist in the research; only an effort to publicize. I whole-heartedly believe this is our best bet at combatting "fake news" online for the moment. Taking the lessons of "The Most Human Human: What Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us About Being Alive" [2], we might tease out credibility instead of fact or fiction to help guide our biased/opinionated labels. From the abstract: "In other words,…
on “Ontology Is Overrated: Categories, Links, and Tags (2005)” ↗
schoen · Jun 15, 2016 · Mentions

This is discussed in Brian Christian's The Most Human Human (a book about participating in a Turing test contest); there was a chatbot that claimed to be a young person from another country and made a lot of mistakes. People found it pretty convincing and forgave…
on “Why Do Nigerian Scammers Say They Are from Nigeria? (2012)” ↗
schoen · Jul 1, 2014 · Mentions

Currently reading Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages by Mark Abley and The Most Human Human: What Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us About Being Alive by Brian Christian. Just finished No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald, My Real Children by Jo Walton, The Martian by Andy Weir, and Toki Pona:…
on “Ask HN: What Books Are You Reading?” ↗
elil17 · May 5, 2020 · Mentions

I can't believe how bad I am with this! It reminds me of the book "The Most Human Human." Every year, at the competition for the Loebner Prize (a five minute chatbot Turing test), an award is given not only to the AI which convinces the most humans that it is a human (The Most Human Machine),…
on “Show HN: I trained GPT-2 to write like Goop” ↗