Turing Test Mk II

[Shelco]

Turing Test Mk II

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Planet Manhattan, 27th of August, 826 A.S.

It was about 12 o'clock. 4 young men are standing next to each other on a stage at an event called "The Turing Test Mark 2". James is standing at a podium a few meters to the left of the ongoing event, he turns to the audience.

"Now, you may or may not believe it, but one of these men is not a human."

The audience starts to whisper among themselves, unconvinced glances scan over each of the people on the stage.

"I know, it sounds unbelievable but that is why one of you is going to get a chance at finding out who it is. I'll need a volunteer from the audience, anyone willing to participate?"

The audience remains quiet for a few seconds, still unconvinced by the words of the strange man at the podium. Suddenly, a hand raises far in the background.

"Ah, the lady in the back, one brave volunteer, applause for the young lady."

The audience starts to applaud mildly, one could tell none of them was convinced yet. The young woman steps onto the stage and shakes James' hand, he leads her towards the men and continues speaking.

"So, we're going to give you and one of my assistants here two seats so you can have a conversation, as soon as you have a conclusion about whether you are speaking to machine or not, you tell me and the next one will come in, 4 small interviews, are you ready?"

"Uhm, yeah, I think so." The woman says a little timid.

The interviews go on, only one assistant of James is left and the woman has not yet made a decision about who the machine is, the audience becomes more and more bound to the activities on the stage, quiet discussing can be heard coming from the front rows of the audience. The last man is coming in, James' eyes sharpen a little as he sees him taking place.

"So." The woman starts. "I have talked to the other 3 men and I didn't think either of them were a machine, so I guess it has to be you then." She smiles a little embarrassed. The man laughs a little in response.

"Well, either that or one of us has you fooled, don't we?" He asks, smiling continuously.

"Okay, so why wouldn't you be the robot then?" The woman returns to her normal tone that became more serious and less anxious as time went on. The man makes a questioning move with this hands.

"Well, because I'm not, obviously, as you can see, I'm a human."

"Right..." The woman says, a little confused.

"Do you believe in god?" She asks, as she has done with the other men before.

"No, I don't." - "Why not?" - "I don't think that something as complex as us humans was created by a deity, with everything that comes with humanity, be it what we do, create, think and so on, I just cannot imagine someone having that all figured out. I mean, doesn't that seem highly unlikely to you?" The man says, getting more comfortable in his seat.

"Well, isn't this complexity of us exactly what makes you think either? I mean how can nature do it then? Everything you said can be applied to nature as well, can't it?" A little smirk appears on the woman's face.

"Absolutely, however, hasn't nature done it before? Animals, planets? Of course, we're not getting anywhere if I say there is no god for the very same reason you say that there is one, that's why call it believing, right? Because we're not sure. But science tends to lean towards our side, as we can explain the origin of humanity and most animals perfectly.

"What if a god initiated this process? You know, evolution and all that?"

"Could be, very much, could be but this is arguing beyond what we can support with facts, I mean one can easily claim that every process that made nature become what it is today was a deity, much long before any species has gained consciousness. There is no way to disprove such a fact."

The woman swiftly looked past the man in the chair and glanced towards James for a second before continuing.

"If the sky is the sea, what does that make the birds?"

"I would say the fish." The woman nods slowly and continues.

"What do you think love is? The man laughs for a moment.

"Well, that's honestly hard to say, of course, love is, from a neutral point, a wide range of strong positive emotional mental states towards another person, right? For every person love is individual, some would say it is a form dependency towards the other person, others would interpret it differently.

The conversation goes on for 5 more minutes before the woman thinks for a moment, the audience has erupted in heated whispering discussions about who could be the machine. James leaves his podium and stands in the middle of the stage.

"And? Who do you think is the machine?" James slightly taps with his right foot in a nervous way, considering what was standing by this experiment. The audience suddenly goes quiet, their eyes chained to what the woman would conclude.

"Well, either you're messing with me and none of these is a robot, or they all could be one, I mean, it's hard to decide-" The other participants are coming back on the stage as the woman speaks. "-because they all had smart answers to my questions, so none really stands out too much, but..."

"But...?" James curiously raises his eyebrows.

"I'll go with number two." In this moment a smile appeared on his face.

"Number two, please come here." The man she talked with secondly stands next to them both, James turns towards him.

"Tell us, are you the machine?" The man chuckles and turns towards the woman.

"I'm not." The audience erupts in whisper again, the woman looks slightly shocked. A man from the back of the audience yells "Who is it then?"

"TP-100, deactivate your skin." James says towards the row of men. The last participant raises his head a little and his skin disappears, revealing a white robot head.

"Thank you, ma'am, thanks to your help, we officially passed an improved version of the Turing test, Ladies and Gentlemen, a huge round of applause for our volunteer."

The crowd applauds stormingly, the woman, still shocked from what she heard and sees, stands in front of the android who just talked to her.

"How is that possible?" She asks dissolved.

"Hello." The android says. "The conversation was really interesting and I appreciate it. The android smiles.

"Okay, thank you so much, again, you may take your seat again, miss." The woman walks back to her place, still startled.

"With the development of androids that are not only far more intelligent than we are but also exactly look like us, we will create a future in which humans can use androids to improve everything we do and assist us in every way, this experiment allows me the start of my long-planned company, Future Technologies and Innovations. This model right here is specifically developed to assist our companies in doing their work without being less than just a silent program doing its work, it acts as a real component to human working teams and will improve our performance. I apologize for having to trick all of you but this step was necessary to prove a point, in the future you will see how much the versatility of our machines can go and I hope you are ready to allow this new step of technology to enter your lives, as it will make it easier. Thank you very much."

With these very last words, James walks off the stage, and the audience claps loudly once again. The participants follow him, except for the android, which makes its way to the front of the stage and glances over the rows of people for a few seconds before silently following its creator.

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