Discover how artificial intelligence will challenge everything we believe about consciousness, free will, creativity, and what makes us truly human.
In an era when AI will soon predict our breakfast choices, shopping habits, and romantic attractions with uncanny accuracy, quantum physicist Ron Folman poses a provocative question: If we’re this predictable, are we truly conscious beings with free will or simply sophisticated machines?
Drawing from quantum physics, cognitive science, philosophy, and rising technologies, The Human Test explores how the rise of AI and Big Data is forcing us to confront uncomfortable truths about human nature. As technology evolves to predict our behavior with increasing precision, Folman challenges us to reconsider what it means to be truly alive and conscious. Specifically, he shows by way of a breathtaking narrative that already in the very near future, nonconscious AI will give rise to the most profound experiment ever performed on humans, providing us for the first time with quantitative answers to these core human enigmas.
But within this seemingly dystopian future lies an unexpected source of hope: our capacity for creativity. Folman reveals how this uniquely human trait might be the key to maintaining our humanity in an age of algorithmic predictability. Moreover, as he journeys to the nucleus of creativity, he suggests effective ways to enhance and empower its horizon.
The Human Test isn’t just another book about AI—it’s a profound investigation into what makes us human and how we can remain so in a world that increasingly treats us as data points to be predicted and controlled.
"Ron Folman’s very substantial new book The Human Test has a very timely significance for a world where AI is beginning to play an increasing importance in society. From a broad background of experience, he presents an intriguing concept of a 50/50 balance between randomness and predictability that provides a novel angle on the study of human behaviour."
“In the cacophony of voices, books, and articles on the topic of AI, The Human Test clearly stands out. Intertwining alluring storytelling with a myriad of scientific and technological facts and conjectures, from philosophy through biology and quantum physics, Ron Folman hypothesizes that AI will be able to provide us with deep insight to questions of consciousness, creativity, the quantum mind, and free will. As a computer scientist who devoted his career to Big Data and AI, and their alignment with human values, I find this book to be captivating and, more importantly, of paramount importance to our future.”
