The Human Test: A Philosophy of Machine Death, Predictability, and the Quantum Mind

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 is a professor of physics specializing in quantum mechanics at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where he is head of the Atom Chip Lab and the founder and first director of both the Center for Quantum Science and Technology and the Nano-Fabrication Center. He received his PhD from the Weizmann Institute of Science and CERN, conducted post-doctoral research in Innsbruck, and worked as a European Marie-Curie fellow at the University of Heidelberg. He has been awarded the Lamb Medal for Quantum Optics, a Miller Visiting Professor fellowship from the Miller institute at the University of California Berkeley, and the Falling Walls Award for Breakthroughs in Physical Sciences. He has authored or co-authored over 250 papers, his writing has appeared in such journals as Physics Today and AVS Quantum Physics, and his work has been featured in Scientific American, Physics World, and Physics Today, among others.