About the Author

At 26 years old, Brian Christian is not only a universally lauded author, but has lectured at the LSE, Royal Academy, Microsoft and Google, been interviewed on The Daily Show, BBC and Paris Review, profiled in the Guardian Magazine, New York Times, the New Yorker, and on the front cover of Atlantic, and has made countless appearances at universities and in online videos, speaking on his subject. He holds a dual degree from Brown University in computer science and philosophy, and an MFA in poetry. Unsurprisingly, this is his first book, but the first of many...

Reviews

Tremendously entertaining ****
*Metro*

Excellent ... a fascinating explanation of what it means to be human
*Financial Times*

Remarkable. A philosophical joyride. The day that a machine creates work of such wit and originality, we should all be very worried
*The Times*

An epic tour of philosophical, linguistic and scientific discovery. We stop off in places as far-flung as existential anxiety, predictive text and Gary Kasparov's defeat by Deep Blue. A lively, personable read and an overpowering affirmation of our species ****
*Time Out*

Lively, thought-stirring, entertaining, invaluable ... compelling insights
*New Statesman*

Dense with ideas, terrific. One of the rare successful literary offspring of Gödel, Escher, Bach, where art and science meet an engaged mind and the friction produces real fire
*New Yorker*

Fast-paced, witty, and thoroughly winning ... investigates the nature of human interactions, the meaning of language, and the essence of what sets us apart from machines ... fabulous
*Publishers Weekly*

An irreverent picaresque ... What Christian learns along the way is that if machines win the imitation game as often as they do, it's not because they're getting better at acting human; it's because we're getting worse ... An authentic son of Frost, he learns by going where he has to go, and in doing so proves that both he and his book deserve their title
*The New York Times*

Immensely ambitious and bold, intellectually provocative, while at the same time entertaining and witty - a delightful book about how to live a meaningful, thriving life
*Alan Lightman, author of Einstein's Dreams*

Such an important book ... Brian Christian takes on this very weighty task, and somehow makes it fun
*Brian Shenk, author of The Genius in all of Us*