The human test : how predictability, creativity, and the quantum mind will redefine life in the age of AI / Ron Folman.
| Author/creator | Folman, Ron, 1963- author. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | Essex, Connecticut : Prometheus Books, [2025] |
| Copyright Date | ©2025 |
| Description | xviii, 267 pages ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | PART I: THE PREDICTABILITY EXPERIMENT. Chapter 1: The Near Future Will Change Everything -- PART II: IS DETERMINISM IN THE BRAIN REALLY POSSIBLE? Chapter 2: Common Arguments against the Possibility of Predictability -- PART III: RETHINKING THE OBVIOUS IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR. Chapter 3: The Hard Road to a New Understanding -- Chapter 4: Enabling Our Mind to Make a Leap of Thought -- PART IV: A NEW LIFE REQUIRES A NEW DEATH. Chapter 5: Going Down the Rabbit Hole -- Chapter 6: Predictability and a New Definition for Human Life and Death -- PART V: THE FUTURE OF PREDICTABILITY. Chapter 7: Can We Undo Predictability? -- Chapter 8: The Bottom Line of Predictability -- PART VI: CONSEQUENCES AND POSSIBLE PATHWAYS TO TRANSCENDENCE. Chapter 9: The Pill -- Epilogue -- Appendix A: The Brain -- Appendix B: Attempts to Quantify Consciousness and Self-Awareness -- Appendix C: Research Dealing with Prediction of Human Behavior -- Appendix D: Kitsch and the Human Satisfaction Resonance. |
| Abstract | "As data harvesting continues its exponential growth and computing power increases beyond what we can even imagine, AI and Big Data will be able to predict what we want for breakfast, what shoes we will buy, which political party we will vote for, and who we will fancy in a bar. Indeed, these deep-learning machines will know us better than we know ourselves. The day awaits when academia and big business will be able to quantify just how predictable each of us are. If indeed we are predictable like machines, to what extent are we alive, and under what definition? In The Human Test, quantum physicist Ron Folman unites findings from cognitive science, quantum physics, philosophy, and technology to offer a prescient look into this startling new era of human existence. If we are indeed found to be predictable, it will change everything we thought we knew about human nature. The Human Test strives for a new paradigm, and this new paradigm is found in human predictability. Existing monitors of general brain activity measure only very rudimentary aspects of the human experience, or what may be called human life; could the advent of a disruptive new technology bring about a much more insightful measure of who we are? While The Human Test describes a new and profound near-future impact of AI, it is rooted in a topic of paramount importance to humans: the enigma of consciousness and how it defines human life-or, what differentiates humans from all other life forms. Ultimately, The Human Test addresses some of the most fundamental questions about our species, starting with the most crucial: do we have free will, or are we merely machines? Fortunately, there is an antidote to predictability: creativity, that wondrous state of being original and inherently not predictable. Ultimately, Folman argues that if we can understand predictability, we can learn how to distance ourselves from it, and transcend to a purer idea of what human life should look like"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Issued in other form | Online version: Folman, Ron, 1963- Human test Essex, Connecticut : Prometheus, [2025] 9781493089215 |
| LCCN | 2024040524 |
| ISBN | 9781493089208 hardcover |
| ISBN | 149308920X hardcover |
| ISBN | electronic publication |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joyner | General Stacks | Q334.7 .F65 2025 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |