Final: The Most Human Human

          Brian Christian in his book "The Most Human Human," discusses computers, humans, and overall what it means to be human. What started his personal journey to seek out what makes humans humans was that he was asked to participate in the renowned Turing test competition. He would be taking part in it as one of the human participants to see if he could win the Most Human Human award. This puzzling name of the award makes him think what exactly does that award entail. So he spends time before the contest doing research and asking several professionals in different fields of human relationships to understand. He went to psychologists, lawyers, philosophers, and others to get the full spectrum in a sense. And the end result of his findings during this book was this book "The Most Human Human." He describes this book as a book that is about "living life," and hopes to show what the "Turing test can teach us about ourselves (14,15)."
          Christian boils down the Turing test to being about communication in its basest sense. The results that come about from these tests can be profound and can beg many different questions about people and machines as well as great philosophical ideas. One of these being that if machines ever do prevail consistently and with ease in the Turing test, Christian writes that it is not because of great advancement of the machines, but in fact the devolvement of human beings' ability to be human. That people have become so stock, and act more and more programmed as time goes on. It is as if that the more we plug into technology, the more programmed we become. He uses the predictive keyboard that smart phones have as proof of this. All smart phones now can predict what word you are going to type next and have an option displayed to choose that word. The phone performing this little action counts as a small Turing test even. Our conversations today can be so scripted and base. For example, think about how many times per day you are asked how you are.

"Hey! How are you doing?"
"I'm good! How about you?"
"Oh I'm great! Well it was nice to see you!"
"Yep! Catch you later!"

If we had a dollar for every time we  had these type of conversations we would all be rich.
          In the age of texting and digital talk, people are losing the ability to effectively communicate. Especially now with the use of GIFS and emojis as forms of communication, the use of words in their fullest effect is being lost. We can now get through entire days with dealing with people with some key phrases and nodding our heads. Christian talks about one of his experiences as a tourist in France where he felt like a robot. He just said some key phrases, changed his facial expression, and nodded until it ended. He did not fully comprehend the entirety of what people were saying, just the gist of it. Christian states he would try to avoid interactions that required in depth listening and two-way conversations. He compares this to a Turing test by saying that he would say whatever needed to get by and put on a face, but was not focused on the actual conversation being had. This specific example applies to many of us, because in today's world many people just say whatever needs to be said to get through the conversation as opposed employing intentional listening. You see more and more people are scared to talk to others because they are not used to human interaction.
          This can be seen in movies, as well, such as I, Robot. The robots in that movie have become so advanced that they have become a large part of society. Even to the point of becoming a very large crutch to people. They cook, clean, transport, and overall play a large role in people's lives. So when the new model came out everyone jumped at the chance to get it. But all the while people were devolving because everything was being done for them. Robots have become so prevalent that you almost see more robots walking about in public than actual people. This applies to todays world in the sense of human interaction. Our communication skills are being degraded due to most of our interactions occurring over the phone or by email. It is not the fact that we cannot have conversations. There is no problem with our ability to respond, but there is a problem of the meaning behind our responses. Communication technology, just like the robots, is evolving but the inverse of that is that something devolves simultaneously and in this case it is our lack of meaningful conversations.
          One reason that humans are becoming more and more plugged in can be seen in the movie The Matrix. It is perfectly believable to see why some people chose to go into the Matrix. Life in there is so much easier, and they did not have to deal with the harsh realities of the real world. I mean I can not honestly say I would have chosen any different considering the state that the real world was in. in today's society it is so much simpler to live via social media and communicate through texting and Snapchat. You do not have to do anything or see anything if you do not want to. You can literally control what you see and who you talk to (which can be a blessing sometimes), something you can not get out in the real world. But there is a tradeoff in that you are living in a lie in a sense, as well as the fact that you are losing the thing that can unify complete strangers: empathy. This single concept is what can make conversations so worthwhile. The idea that there is someone who knows what you are talking about and completely understands can give us a feeling like no other. Empathy and understanding are what make conversations as important as they are and when we have most of our daily interactions on the internet we lose that connection we have with the person we have that conversation with. Now this is not to say we cannot have meaningful conversations online, but the majority that we do have are not and feel scripted. Because one thing that we cannot get with online conversations is facial expressions or touch, two things that are almost as important as the words themselves. The visual cues that someone is paying attention and understanding are just as vital as the verbal ones.
          Christian's view that if computers completely surpass the Turing test, that it is because of humans becoming more machinelike than computers becoming more human is completely correct. We can even see examples of it today with the majority of our interactions being online. Our feeling of unity with other people is being lost slowly, but on the bright side, it is something that is not lost forever. Being human is not static and the definition evolves as much as we do. Just because the day may come where computers finally beat the Turing test, according to Christian, the story does not end there. He believes it would be a wakeup call for us and make us want to be more human. This breakdown of human interaction and our flocking towards computers is what is making everything sounds so robotic and scripted. But if we come together, make each other feel like we are important, and bring empathy and understanding important again there is no way an A.I. can pass the Turing test.