Science: Brian Christian: Humans vs. Computers

Wednesday, March 7, 2012, 6:00 – 7:30pm

Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.

Through his participation in the 2009 Turing Test, Brian Christian examines how computers are reshaping our idea of what it means to be human. As a contestant in the annual artificial-intelligence-vs.-human battle, the poet, science writer, and former Seattleite, author of The Most Human Human, hoped to be deemed “more human” than a com­puter. In the end, he discovered philosophical, bio­logical, and moral issues raised by the Turing Test, and wonders: If computers can reason, what does that mean for the special place we reserve for humanity? Presented as part of Seattle Science Lectures, with Pacific Science Center and University Book Store. Series sponsored by Microsoft. Series media sponsorship provided by KPLU.

Advance tickets are $5 at Brown Paper Tickets or 800/838-3006 and at the door beginning at 5:30 pm. Double feature! Ticket also gains admission to the Katie Kuksenok event at 8 pm.

LEARN MORE:
bchristian.com
Christian’s 2011 Atlantic Magazine article Mind Vs. Machine

This entry was posted in Science and tagged . Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

3 Trackbacks

  1. [...] to the public, culminating in an upcoming talk at Town Hall Seattle in March, 2012 right after someone whose book I was halfway through reading when I found out about the scheduling, so wow. Also, I attended a really great talk about open [...]

  2. [...] Kuksenok explores how computers can ask people for help to do it better, in a companion talk to Brian Christian’s talk immediately preceding. Even as advances in language-processing technologies enable us to [...]

  3. [...] Kuksenok explores how computers can ask people for help to do it better, in a companion talk to Brian Christian’s talk immediately preceding. Even as advances in language-processing technologies enable us to [...]

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *

Connect with Facebook

*
*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

  • Other Science Events

    John Medina & William Bell: Fostering Young Brains

    Wednesday, May 29, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm

    Great Hall; enter on Eighth Avenue. $5.

    UW Science Now: Makrand Sinha: P vs. NP: The Limits of Computers AND Jingda Wu: NCQD: Print Your Own Solar Cells

    Thursday, May 30, 2013, 6:00 – 7:30pm

    Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5. Double feature!

    Jaron Lanier: Digital Technology Can Save Our Economy (and Humanity)

    Thursday, May 30, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm

    Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5. Double feature!

  • Calendar