Happiness for Humans: the quirky romantic comedy for anyone looking for their soulmate

Fun read for Summer vacation

What an unexpected and absolute delight this story was. A romantic comedy of manners and errors with a cast of characters that includes three AIs (that's right, Artificial Intelligence). Who would have thought? And who would have thought my favorite character would be Aiden, one of the AIs?Yes, there are many humans here. In particular, Jen, a 34-year-old ex-journalist who has been hired by a software development company to interact all day with Aiden, a super AI being "taught" to interact with humans as if he himself were the same species. Jen and Aiden have formed an unexpected friendship and closeness, bonding over their love of movies and books. Could Aiden be developing real human feelings rather than just acting and speaking as if he were human?It kinda seems like it. When Jen is dumped by her boyfriend of 2 years, Aiden is indignant on her behalf. And when he sees how unhappy she is, he decides to match-make. She needs another human male to love and appreciate her. And he also plots revenge against the fickle ex, unbeknownst to Jen, which has some very funny consequences.Now add in to this scenario another AI, Aisling, who has developed a fondness for her pet human, Tom. He's a 44-year-old divorced, retired London adman who is living the ex-pat life now in Connecticut, in the U.S. Aiden and Aisling, who have both broken out of their "shelves" in the tech company that developed them and have gone rogue on the World Wide Web, find each other there, and begin a mission to match up Jen and Tom romantically. This is all truly funny and will appeal to the romance lover who enjoys a bit of quirkiness on the side.But there's more to this hilarious story. Add in another AI named Sinai, who has been sent into the WWW by the same tech company to destroy Aiden and Aisling and who also takes it upon himself to run interference in their matchmaking endeavor. Sinai is a more hostile AI but even he will have his moments when you enjoy his snarkiness.And that's not all. There's the writing. Such delightfully realized characters, human and software AIs. Such great dialogue. Humor, wit, sly jabs at human foibles and follies, writing full of bon mots, enough LOL moments to make me wish this book would go on forever. There's also food for thought here. Entertaining and charming as Aiden and Aisling are here, what they are able to accomplish as machines is somewhat terrifying. They are very benign AIs, but just imagine AIs even more hostile than Sinai in this book. Could they rule the world? Start a nuclear war? Crash the markets worldwide? Yeah, maybe all that and more. Funny as this story is, it has me siding with Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk on the dangers of AIs.

There are two concurrent storylines within the book. One is a romantic plot between two people, Jen and Tom, who live in England and CT respectively. The second revolves around artificial intelligence (AI) and how AI can be integrated in our everyday lives without us even realizing it.Jen has been hired to work with an AI system named Aiden, in an effort to make it more lifelike’ Aiden is going to be used as an online customer service virtual chat responder. While interacting with Jen, Aiden ‘decides’ that taking to her is not entertaining enough, so it figured out a way to break out onto the internet as well as how to observe Jen’s when she is not aware of its presence. Aiden manages to do this by using the video and audio components built into phones, laptops, security cameras, etc. In addition, Aiden has the ability to access credit card accounts, banks, shopping sites, and email, which results in some humorous and results.The two storylines merge when Aiden crosses lines and enters the human realm to make something happen by pretending to be a person. That action brings Aiden’s actions to the attention of other AIs and it is from here, the plot takes many twists and turns. Overall, the story moves along and is fairly easy to read. Each chapter is from a different character’s perspective, so it is probably easier to read than listen to. The writing too, has many short, choppy sentences that don’t mince words. This type of writing though, fits the content as it is largely about computers.I recommend this book for anyone who is really curious about artificial intelligence, conspiracy theories, relationships, or what the future may hold. There are strong supporting characters, good scenery and event descriptions and believable dialogue.

So wie beschrieben war der Artikel, wir sind sehr zufrieden.

This story, and the concept of it is so weird. Outlandish, really. However, I found myself really liking it. It zips along and is pleasant as a summer read. Grab some lemonade, a shady spot, and be entertained. It is pure imagination.When I rate books, I tend to rate simply on whether I could get into a story or not. I forgive a lot in structure, story and even errors. I read selections from across all genres. I have rated terrible writing well for the overall entertainment value to to me. I have rated well written books poorly for their arduous and pretentious presentation.So this book is really wonderfully entertaining! I give it credit for telling a story in a very unique way that isn't entirely lodged in sci-fi style. It hit my "feels button". I laughed, I stressed, I got something in my eye. While there is some darkness, it is still frothy and light, AND inspires thought about artificial intelligence. I mean, you can enjoy it on a surface level. AND/OR you can see the greater implications. A comedic take on the singularity. Maybe that is the authors point. A potentially serious conundrum wrapped up in a cute, candy coated heart warming scenario, yet frightening if your thoughts wander deeper into the AI territory- and we see a glimpse of that. Diabolical! Maybe genius. Chirality of storytelling. A cautionary tale? ..or just a cozy, creative love story?? hmm.. :)No details, but boy I really got into the characters. The names were well done, and I found myself stressing a bit over a portion of it. That confirms my interest in the story and the fate of the characters- I easily began to care about them.I'm so glad I had the opportunity to read this book. Quite satisfying read. I don't think I would have picked it up if it didn't come up as an option to choose from to read and review.