Observational Absurdism: What It Means to Be Human in the Age of the Machine
Forthcoming from Wipf and Stock Publishers
He spent his career teaching machines to follow rules. Now he asks what they can never acquire.
Machines can now write a love letter, describe courage, and argue for and against God. So what remains distinctly human? Youssef Haddad spent thirty-seven years in computing, from Cray supercomputers and NASA Ames to IBM and the State of Minnesota, before returning to the philosophy he first studied at the Sorbonne. In this book he takes an inventory of what a human being is, and of what the machine does not acquire.
His answer is a way of thinking he calls Observational Absurdism: facing what appears absurd, standing honestly inside uncertainty without turning away, and finding meaning in a larger, more integrated context. Like Sisyphus returning to his stone, we keep pushing, and the question is what it means that we do.
What the book explores
- Who am I, and can I truly choose? Descartes, Kant, Sartre, and Turing
- The positive role of doubt, from Pyrrho to Doubting Thomas
- Good and evil, faith, and whether there is an Architect
- Love, courage, morality, and purpose
- Legacy, death, time, and eternity
Praise for In Search of Self
Haddad has written a provocative philosophical exploration of what it means to be human. He uses his deep knowledge of technology to compare this experience to “the machine” in a creative way to make one contemplate life and the explosion of technology capability.
Paul Karos, author of The Ultimate Building Project (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press)
This book grounds philosophy in a scientific approach and then asks the big questions about what lies behind the reality we observe and how we can pursue truth, beauty, and goodness. I highly recommend the first part for third- or fourth-year college courses in epistemology, and the remainder for a more integrated application of philosophy to life.
Gordon L. Anderson, Ph.D., author of Integral Economy: Reforming Economic Institutions to Serve Society
Talks
- What the Machine Does Not Acquire. AI can imitate our words. Can it choose, believe, love, or be brave?
- The Architecture of Doubt. A machine can say “I am not certain.” Only a person can truly doubt.
- From Supercomputers to Sisyphus. What four decades among machines taught an engineer about being human.
Invite Youssef to speak
Youssef speaks to universities, libraries, lifelong-learning programs, technology groups, and churches, and welcomes podcast and radio interviews. Talks run 45 to 60 minutes with open questions.
Email: yhaddad01@gmail.com
Phone: 612-791-5544
