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The Most Human Human

Christian Robert
Published online: 06 Feb 2014.

To cite this article: Christian Robert (2014) The Most Human Human, CHANCE, 27:1, 57-58

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 [Book Reviews]
Christian Robert
Column Editor
Downloaded by [SUNY State Univ of New York Geneseo] at 11:27 30 October 2014

T
he reviews of Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data, The Cartoon Introduction to Statistics, and
The Most Human Human: What Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us About Being Alive are by Christian Robert.
The review of Introduction to Probability with Texas Hold Em Examples is by Julien Sohier.

The Most Human Human What I had not realized earlier is that there is a
competition every year running this test between a few
Brian Christian AIs and a small group of humans, the judges (blindly)
giving votes for each entity and selecting as a result the
Hardcover: 320 pages most human computer. And also the most human
Publisher: Doubleday human! This competition is called the Loebner Prize,
and it was taking place in Brighton, this most English
Language: English of English seaside towns, in 2008 when Brian Christian
ISBN-13: 978-0385533065 took part in it (as a human, obviously).
Though both [sides] have made progress, the
algorithmic side of the field [of computer science]
has, from Turing on, completely dominated the
more statistical side. That is, until recently.
(p.65)
I enjoyed the book much more for the questions it
brought out than for the answers it proposed, as the
No typo in the title. This is truly how this book by
latter sounded unnecessarily argumentative to me (i.e.,
Brian Christian is called. It was kindly sent to me
adopting an us against them posture and whining
by my friends from Brigham Young University and I
about humanity not fighting hard enough to keep
realized I could still write with my right hand when
ahead of AIs). I dislike this idea of the AIs being the
cFommenting on the margin. (I also found the most
enemy and of humanity lost the year AIs would fool
marvelous proof to a major theorem, but the margin
the judges. While I enjoy science fiction literature where
was just too small ) The Most Human Human: What
this antagonism is exacerbated, from Blade Runner to
Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us About Being Alive is
Hyperion to Neuromancer, I do not extrapolate those fan-
about the Turing test, designed to test whether an
tasized settings to the real world. For one thing, AIs are
unknown interlocutor is a human or a machine. And
designed by humans, so having them winning this test
eventually doomed to fail.
(or winning against chess grandmasters) is a celebration
The final test, for me, was to give the most uniquely of the human spirit, not a defeat! For another thing, we
human performance I could in Brighton, to attempt are talking about a fairly limited aspect of humanity,
a successful defense against the machines. (p.15) namely the ability to sustain a limited discussion with
a set of judges on a restricted number of topics. I would

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57
 be more worried if a humanoid robot managed to fool While the author produces an interesting range of
me by chatting with me for an entire transatlantic arguments about language, intelligence, and human-
flight. For yet another thing, I do not see how this could ity, he missed a part about the statistical modeling
reflect on the human race as a whole and indicate it of languages apart from a very brief mention of a
is regressing in any way. At most, it shows the judges Markov dependence, which would have related to the
were not trying hard enough (The questions reported in AIs perspective. The overall flow is nice, but somehow
The Most Human Human were not that exciting!), and meandering and lacking in substance. Especially in the
maybe the human competitors had not intended to be last chapters. On a minor level, I also find there are too
perceived as humans. many quotes from Hofstadter, Gdel, Escher, and Bach,
as well as references to pop culture. I was surprised to
Does this suggest, I wonder, that entropy may be find Thomas Bayes mentioned in the above quote, as it
fractal? (p.239) did not appear earlier except in a back note.
Another issue that irked me in the authors per- As a side note to Andrew Gelman, there was no
spective is that he trained and elaborated a complex mention made of Alan Turings chess rules in the
Downloaded by [SUNY State Univ of New York Geneseo] at 11:27 30 October 2014

strategy to win the prize (sorry for the mini-spoiler: book, even though both Turing and chess were central
in case you did not know, Brian did finish as the most themes. I actually wondered if a Turing test could apply
human human). I do not know if this worry to appear to AIs playing Turings chess. They would have to be
less human than an AI was genuine or if it provided carried by a small enough computer so the robot could
a convenient canvas for writing the book around the run around the house in a reasonable time. (I do not
philosophical question of what makes us human(s). think chess boxing should be considered in this case!)
But it mostly highlights the artificial nature of the test,
namely that one has to think in advance on the way
conversations will be conducted, rather than engage in
a genuine conversation with a stranger. This deserves
the least human human label, in retrospect!
Naked Statistics:
So even if youve never heard of [Shanon entropy]
Stripping the Dread
before, something in your head intuits [it] every from the Data
time you open your mouth. (p.232)
Charles Wheelan
The book spends a large amount of text/time on the
victory of Deep Blue over Gary Kasparov (or, rather, on Hardcover: 302 pages
the defeat of Kasparov against Deep Blue), bemoan-
ing the fact as the end of a golden age. I do not see the Publisher: W. W. Norton &
problem (and prefer the approach of Nate Silver). The Company
design of the Deep Blue software was a monument to ISBN-13: 978-0393071955
the human mind; the victory did not diminish Kasparov,
who remains one of the greatest chess players ever, and
I am not aware it changed chess playing (except when
some players started cheating with the help of hidden
computers). The fact that players started learning more
chess openings was a trend much before this competi-
tion. As noted in The Most Human Human, checkers
had to change its rules once a complete analysis of the
game led to a status quo in the games. And this was Over breakfast last Sunday, I went through Naked
before the computer era. In Glasgow, Scotland, in 1863. Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data. The first
Just to draw another comparison, I like playing two pages managed to put me in a prejudiced mood
Sudoku, and the fact that I designed a poor R code for the rest of the book. And ruin my favorite meal of
to solve Sudokus does not prevent me from playing, the week.
while my playing sometimes leads to improving the R To wit: The author starts with some math bashing
code. The game of Go could have been mentioned as (like no one ever bothers to tell us about the uses of
well, since it proves harder to solve by AIs. But there is high-school calculus), either because he really feels that
no reason this should not happen in the more or less way or because it pays with the intended audience. He
near future then shows how he outsmarted his high-school math
teacher by spotting that the exam was not possibly
We are ordering appetizers and saying some- designed for his class and outsmarted another math
thing about Wikipedia, something about Thomas teacher by just re-inventing the steps leading to
Bayes, something about vegetarian dining Zenos paradox (said Zeno of Elea not appearing in the
(p.266)

VOL. 27.1, 2014

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