History Main / AlternativeTuringTest

This is a subtrope of the TuringTest trope, which covers methods of determing the sapience of artificial intelligence in general.

* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'': In issue #95 of ''Legion Of Super-Heroes'', during the "[[ContinuityReboot postboot]]" Legion's [[TrappedInThePast extended stay in the 20th Century]], the Legion crosses over with the ''ComicBook/MetalMen'' -- by [[LetsYouAndHimFight attacking them out of the blue]] to steal the [[HeartDrive responsometers]] that grant them sentience. Brainiac 5, who needs advanced technology to build a computer to control a TimeMachine, continues to remind his teammates to ignore the objections of the Metal Men as just programming. However, when Platinum and [[SixthRanger Veridium]] ([[TeamDad Dr. Magnus]], who had undergone an EmergencyTransformation at the time, along with a RelationshipUpgrade with Platinum) sympathize with Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl's mid-battle relationship issues, Brainy ''immediately'' orders the Legionnaires to stand down. As he explains to both teams, Brainiac 5 recognized that the two Metal Men had both identified themselves with, and empathized with, the other couple -- meaning that they were "living, feeling creatures" that "only a barbarian" would experiment on. (Not only do the Metal Men forgive him, [[SweetAndSourGrapes Veridium actually volunteers for Brainy's experiment]].)

* ''Film/ExMachina'': Normally, a Turing test would be done blind with the tester interacting with both an artificial intelligence and a human, and the AI fails the test if the tester can tell which is which. In ''Ex Machina'', the robot's creator asserts that his robot Ava is beyond this test and could pass it easily. Instead, he wants Ava to convince the tester that she is "human" even though he knows she's a robot.
* ''Film/IRobot'': Sonny is interrogated and his sentience is assumed nonexistent, but, through a complex rescue plot, Sonny demonstrates his sentience via art and complex emotional communication and understanding.
* ''Film/BladeRunner'': Robots (and one female robot in particular) have their sentience questioned by the film's main character, and the other Blade Runners hunting them, using the "Voight-Kampff" test. This test requires the suspect to answer a series of emotionally provocative questions and scenarios while monitoring their involuntary responses. Ultimately, the movie's central struggle and reveal confirms the sentience of the robots once thought only partly human.
-->'''Holden:''' Describe in single words only the good things that come into your mind about... your mother.\\

'''Leon:''' [[IWillShowYouX Let me tell you about my mother]]. ([[ScrewThisImOutOfHere Pulls out gun and shoots Holden]].)
* ''Film/BladeRunner2049'' features an updated version of the previous test, where Replicants are continuously berated with even more emotionally manipulative questions by an unseen interrogator in another room. In an odd inversion of the first movie's VK test, where it was used to determine whether humans were acting too robotic (and thus Replicants in disguise), the Baseline Test is used to determine whether Replicants are becoming too humanly empathetic or emotional (and thus unreliable).
-->'''Interviewer:''' [[YouAreNumberSix Officer K-D-6-dash-3-dot-7]], let's begin. (...) Recite your baseline.\\

'''Interviewer''': Have you ever been in an institution? Cells. ('''K:''' Cells.) Do they keep you in a cell? Cells. ('''K:''' Cells.) When you're not performing your duties do they keep you in a little box? Cells. ('''K:''' Cells.)
* In the first ''Film/ShortCircuit'' movie, Johnny 5's sentience (versus his non-struck-by-lightning brethren) is hotly debated, with the military who created him hell-bent on getting its "property" back and the heroes trying desperately to prove that he is "alive". Ultimately he is able to prove his sentience through an inkblot test (during which he not only identifies the chemical makeup of the blotting material but is able to recognize the blot's resemblance to other things) and displaying a sense of humor (telling a joke, in response to which he laughs once he gets the punchline).

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'':
** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E9TheQualityOfLife The Quality of Life]]", a test is created for the exocomps to determine their sentience as follows: 1. Send an exocomp to complete a repair. 2. Simulate a systems failure that would result in damage to the exocomp if it was real. 3. If the exocomp ignores it and fulfills their programming, it's just a machine. If it abandons the job to save itself, it's alive. 4. Recall the exocomp and evaluate the results. The experiment fails (i.e. the exocomp keeps working and is "destroyed"), and is repeated 34 more times just in case. Then a distraction causes Step 4 to be delayed. This time the exocomp wasn't ordered to return, revealing the truth. The exocomp knew the failure was an illusion, so it finished the job and then turned off the alarm caused by the "failure." The exocomp is alive.
** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E9TheMeasureOfAMan The Measure Of A Man]]", Data is placed on trial by Starfleet to prove that he's a life form in order to avoid being reassigned to destructive reverse-engineering. Picard manages to win the case by arguing that Data is sentient by the prosecution's own standards, and that the end result of the research, the de facto enslavement of the Data-type androids that would be built without rights, would contradict the Federation's fundamental ideals.

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* ''VideoGame/TheTalosPrinciple'': Early on, the player character must take a questionnaire to prove he's "really human" in order to get full access on a computer system. This is just a feint, though, as the administration program is a CommanderContrarian that undercuts every argument with slightly circuitous logic, and ultimately suspends the qualifying criteria of being human in order to make a point about the pointlessness of the distinction. The player gradually becomes aware that the character is not a human, but an AI designed to become human-like through directed MechanicalEvolution. It eventually becomes apparent that the entire game world is one vast test to ensure the completion of this goal: the player character solves puzzles in order to prove logic and abstract thinking, but can only escape the simulation by willingly defying a direct command from an established authority, something a mere robot could never do.
* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'': The flavor text for the Robotics: Citizen Right law states that all robotics who prove to be self aware are to be treated as living beings, hinting on the existence of such a test.
* ''VideoGame/TheTuringTest'': The ExcusePlot for the game is that the crew left on the Europa base wanted to keep the AI TOM from gaining entrance using a series of puzzle rooms [[OnlySmartPeopleMayPass requiring lateral thinking]] to complete. [[spoiler:Since the player is acting as TOM, instead of the human protagonist, the puzzles are ultimately ineffective.]]

* ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob:'' When Princess Voluptua meets Roofus the Robot, she asks him if he's conscious. He says he doesn't know, and she takes this as proof that he is conscious, because a non-conscious machine designed to feign consciousness would just lie and say yes.
** Whereas, if a robot [[https://bobadventures.thecomicseries.com/comics/1088 starts parroting your extreme political views and tries to collect your personal data,]] it's JustAMachine and fair game to smash up.

!! Examples:

This trope is an often complex puzzle, trap, or maze that a robot, android, or similarly synthetic but sentient or near-sentient being must navigate in order to be deemed "conscious" or self-aware.

The original TuringTest thought experiment was initially devised to see if a robot or similar non-human could pass as a person by its ability to, essentially, carry on a text chat conversation.

However, both ubiquitous advanced AI chatbot technology and some varieties of the InternetJerk have recently caused anxiety about the classic Turing Test's inadequacy for determining true consciousness. In the light of this, there has been a proliferation of storylines where engineers attempt to test their life-like creations for signs of real sapience -- whatever that might be -- with complex psychological games.

[[folder:Television]]

[[/folder]]

* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'': In issue #95 of ''Legion Of Super-Heroes'', during the "[[ContinuityReboot postboot]]" Legion's [[TrappedInThePast extended stay in the 20th Century]], the Legion crosses over with the ''ComicBook/MetalMen'' -- by [[LetsYouAndHimFight attacking them out of the blue]] to steal the [[HeartDrive responsometers]] that grant them sentience. Brainiac 5, who needs advanced technology to build a computer to control a TimeMachine, continues to remind his teammates to ignore the objections of the Metal Men as just programming. However, when [[TheChick Platinum]] and [[SixthRanger Veridium]] ([[TeamDad Dr. Magnus]], who had undergone an EmergencyTransformation at the time, along with a RelationshipUpgrade with Platinum) sympathize with Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl's mid-battle relationship issues, Brainy ''immediately'' orders the Legionnaires to stand down. As he explains to both teams, Brainiac 5 recognized that the two Metal Men had both identified themselves with, and empathized with, the other couple -- meaning that they were "living, feeling creatures" that "only a barbarian" would experiment on. (Not only do the Metal Men forgive him, [[SweetAndSourGrapes Veridium actually volunteers for Brainy's experiment]].)

* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'': In issue #95 of ''Legion Of Super-Heroes'', during the "[[ContinuityReboot postboot]]" Legion's [[TrappedInThePast extended stay in the 20th Century]], the Legion crosses over with the ''ComicBook/MetalMen'' -- by [[LetsYouAndHimFight attacking them out of the blue]] to steal the [[HeartDrive responsometers]] that grant them sentience. Brainiac 5, who needs advanced technology to build a computer to control a TimeMachine, continues to remind his teammates to ignore the objections of the Metal Men as just programming. However, when [[TheChick Platinum]] and [[SixthRanger Veridium]] ([[TeamDad Dr. Magnus]], who had undergone an EmergencyTransformation at the time, along with a RelationshipUpgrade with Platinum -- [[DorkAge we don't speak of it]]) sympathize with Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl's mid-battle relationship issues, Brainy ''immediately'' orders the Legionnaires to stand down. As he explains to both teams, Brainiac 5 recognized that the two Metal Men had both identified themselves with, and empathized with, the other couple -- meaning that they were "living, feeling creatures" that "only a barbarian" would experiment on. (Not only do the Metal Men forgive him, [[SweetAndSourGrapes Veridium actually volunteers for Brainy's experiment]].)

This is a subtrope of the Turing Test trope, which covers methods of determing the sapience of artificial intelligence in general.

This is a subtrope of the TuringTest trope, which covers methods of determing the sapience of artificial intelligence in general.

* ''Film/BladeRunner2049'' features an updated version of the previous test, where Replicants are continuously berated with even more emotionally manipulative questions by an unseen interrogator in another room. In an odd inversion of the first movie's VK test, where it was used to determine whether humans were acting too robotic (and thus Replicants in disguise), the Baseline Test is used to determine whether Replicants are becoming too humanly empathetic or emotional.

* ''ComicBook/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}}'': In issue #95 of ''Legion Of Super-Heroes'', during the "[[ContinuityReboot postboot]]" Legion's [[TrappedInThePast extended stay in the 20th Century]], the Legion crosses over with the ''ComicBook/MetalMen'' -- by [[LetsYouAndHimFight attacking them out of the blue]] to steal the [[HeartDrive responsometers]] that grant them sentience. Brainiac 5, who needs advanced technology to build a computer to control a TimeMachine, continues to remind his teammates to ignore the objections of the Metal Men as just programming. However, when [[TheChick Platinum]] and [[SixthRanger Veridium]] ([[TeamDad Dr. Magnus]], who had undergone an EmergencyTransformation at the time, along with a RelationshipUpgrade with Platinum -- [[DorkAge we don't speak of it]]) sympathize with Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl's mid-battle relationship issues, Brainy ''immediately'' orders the Legionnaires to stand down. As he explains to both teams, Brainiac 5 recognized that the two Metal Men had both identified themselves with, and empathized with, the other couple -- meaning that they were "living, feeling creatures" that "only a barbarian" would experiment on. (Not only do the Metal Men forgive him, [[SweetAndSourGrapes Veridium actually volunteers for Brainy's experiment]].)

The original TuringTest thought experiment was initially devised to see if a robot or similar non-human could pass as a person by its ability to, essentially, carry on a text chat conversation. However, recent anxiety about the Turing Test's inadequacy for determining true consciousness has resulted in the proliferation of storylines whereby engineers attempt to test their life-like creations for signs of real sapience--whatever that might be--with complex psychological games.

* ''ComicBook/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}}'': In issue #95 of ''Legion Of Super-Heroes'', during the "[[ContinuityReboot postboot]]" Legion's [[TrappedInThePast extended stay in the 20th Century]], the Legion crosses over with the ''ComicBook/MetalMen'' -- by [[LetsYouAndHimFight attacking them out of the blue]] to steal the [[HeartDrive responsometers]] that grant them sentience. Brainiac 5, who needs advanced technology to build a computer to control a TimeMachine, continues to remind his teammates to ignore the objections of the Metal Men as just programming. However, when [[TheChick Platinum]] and [[SixthRanger Veridium]] ([[TeamDad Dr. Magnus]], who had undergone an EmergencyTransformation at the time, along with a RelationshipUpgrade with Platinum -- [[DorkAge we don't speak of it]]) sympathize with Ultra Boy and Phantom Girl's mid-battle relationship issues, Brainy ''immediately'' orders the Legionnaires to stand down. As he explains to both teams, Brainiac 5 recognized that the two Metal Men had both identified and empathized with the other couple -- meaning that they were "living, feeling creatures" that "only a barbarian" would experiment on. (Not only do the Metal Men forgive him, [[SweetAndSourGrapes Veridian actually volunteers for Brainy's experiment]].)

* ''Film/BladeRunner2049'' features an updated version of the previous test, where Replicants are continuously berated with even more emotionally manipulative questions by an unseen interrogator in another room. In an odd inversion of the first movie's VK test, where it was used to determine whether humans were acting too robotic (and thus Replicants in disguise), the Baseline Test is used to determine whether Replicants are becoming too humanly empathetic.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In "The Quality of Life" a test is created for the exocomps to determine their sentience as follows: 1. Send an exocomp to complete a repair. 2. Simulate a systems failure that would result in damage to the exocomp if it was real. 3. If the exocomp ignores it and fulfills their programming, it's just a machine. If it abandons the job to save itself, it's alive. 4. Recall the exocomp and evaluate the results. The experiment fails (i.e. the exocomp keeps working and is "destroyed"), and is repeated 34 more times just in case. Then a distraction causes Step 4 to be delayed. This time the exocomp wasn't ordered to return, revealing the truth. The exocomp knew the failure was an illusion, so it finished the job and then turned off the alarm caused by the "failure." The exocomp is alive.
%%** This trope is also prevalent in Star Trek Ep. "Measure of a Man." (ZCE)

* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'': In Stellaris the flavor text for the Robotics: Citizen Right law states that all robotics who prove to be self aware are to be treated as living beings, hinting on the existence of such a test.

* One issue of ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'' brings up the Ambus Test, a questionnaire for detecting sentience in robots used by the Transformers, a species of sentient robots. Which fails to recognize sentience in some of their own members, if interpreted strictly. Cybertron has an unpleasant history of FantasticRacism and RobotsEnslavingRobots, so this is, unfortunately, not surprising.