[[quoteright:175:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/turing_8884.jpg]]
->''I'm half a person, half a memory. And I am beginning to believe that I am something not quite human either. Look what they took away. First my life ... than my humanity.''

Co-authored by SF veteran Creator/HarryHarrison and AI specialist Marvin Minsky, ''The Turing Option'' mixes [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture near-future SF]] and classic thriller.

The main character, young anti-social math genius Brian Delaney, has just finished a project aiming to develop a true artificial intelligence. Then he's shot at the lab, suffering severe brain damage; the AI is stolen, and no one else at the company understands Brian's notes well enough to reconstruct it. A friend and associate, Dr Erin Snaresbrook, makes a risky attempt to save Brian's life by replacing destroyed neural connections with electronic ones. While the police and the military search for the people responsible, Brian works to reconstruct his memory and rediscover his breakthrough, eventually finding that he can communicate with the main processor inside his brain just by thinking about it.
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!! Contains examples of:

%%* ArtificialIntelligence
* BrainUploading: Made with the 'brain' of an AI.
* TheComputerIsYourFriend: Literally. The MI created by Brian becomes his good friend, helps him [[spoiler:to escape from military custody]], and stays by his side even when [[spoiler:he is betrayed by his girlfriend]].
* ComputerVoice: Subverted. Actually, [[spoiler:an AI intentionally simulates Computer Voice to save its creator's life]].
* TheCracker: And the computer at the same time!
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Though in a narrow sense, because in this book ReligionIsWrong.
* {{Cyborg}}: Brian Delaney.
* EasilyDetachableRobotParts: An MI that can be mistaken for human at a distance can be carried out of a building without raising suspicions.
* EmergentHuman: All the MI, but particularly Sven. Brian, on the other hand, can be called Emergent Machine.
* InsistentTerminology: MI rather than AI. "There is nothing artificial about my intelligence."
* MadMathematician: Brian borders on this.
* MamaBear: Dr Snaresbrook to Brian.
* NamesGivenToComputers: Robin, Dick Tracy and Sven, the last being a distorted form of 'Seven', as Sven was the seventh version developed by Brian (and had memories of all the previous ones).
* NeuralImplanting: The axis of the whole plot.
* ReligionIsWrong: Religion marks its presence in the novel only when Dolly Delaney, the stepmother of Brian, uses a 'playing God' argument to persuade her stepson to give up his research.
* SnarkyNonHumanSidekick: Sven. Actually, no one can be sure whether his snarkiness is intentional as he is a computer, but it seems that his emerging consciousness implies a slightly sarcastic sense of humour resembling Brian's.
* {{Transhumanism}}: Not surprising, considering that Marvin Minsky's name is on the cover.
* TuringTest: Not just in the title.
* ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: Shelly to Brian. [[spoiler:It doesn't end well]].
* WeCanRebuildHim: In a way, this is what Dr Snaresbrook does to Brian.
* WhatHaveIBecome: Brian. In the end he decides that machines are overall more trustworthy than humans. It doesn't help that [[spoiler:all the women with whom he had affairs deceived him, he was subject to a couple of assassination attempts, and spent a couple of months under constant surveillance meant to protect him from no-one-knows-whom]].
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