A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins
For decades scientists have been trying to beat the Turing test – proving human-like intelligence in computers. Judges have to determine if a human or a computer is answering questions based only on transcripts, if 30% of the judges think the computer is human, we have a winner! This test has not yet been beaten.
A start-up company in San Francisco thinks they have the answer to make computers more human, the diaries of Neill’s deceased father Dr. Bassett. Dr. Bassett liked to write about his life: mundane things, observations about life, everything. There is so much material here that the computer starts to sound just like Neill’s father. Neill starts to talk to the computer as if it’s his father. But there is one thing that Neill wants to know about, and the computer can never find out about, because no one knows how it will affect the mind that is forming there: why did Dr. Bassett commit suicide?
This is the story of a man coming to terms with his own life, getting to know himself, and getting to know his father. A man he feels like he’s only getting to understand now that he’s dead and sort of living as a computer. Only one thing is missing to make the computer Dr. Bassett real: a working theory of love. An interesting look at what makes us human.
