(MASS Turing Test)

            “A Turing Test?” Jewels replied with a hint of disbelief. “Surely you’re not serious Mr. Yale. Durendal’s been active for a week. What makes you think this machine’s capable of equal human level intelligence and awareness?”

Yale was standing outside the examiner’s room where Durandel was held. The spherical machine was suspended by a docking module, one used to recharge drones. Only the module wasn’t hooked up to a battery station. He watched as the blue eye of the machine shift every which way. He could hear it from the other room as it made odd, whirring noises that sounded like humming.

            “Jewels have you ever been around this contraption?” he replied with another question. Then the old man slowly turned his head towards him and shifts his mouth side to side. “Tell me; what are the primary directives this thing was programmed to follow?”

Mark was hesitant for a bit. Not because of there being any possibility of the machine encountering an error that one could mistake as ‘intelligence,’ but because he was unsure where this question would be leading.

            “I’m sorry sir, but… why exactly are you asking the questions you know the answers to?”

            “Don’t get smart with me boy. Just re-iterate it for me.”

Mark bit his lower lip, giving it a bit of a chew before responding; “The primary directive for Durandel is to develop an advanced artificial intelligence of acute astronomical calculations and navigations to safely traverse the depths of space, taking into account all potential dangers of space debris, planetary and star collisions as well as energy reservations.”

            “And it thus, utilizes the Vittore Mark III drive as efficiently as possible without cause of fuel or energy concerns.”

            “Mr. Yale, if I were to be frank, wouldn’t there need to be a divider between the subject and the AI? I mean, wouldn’t the Turing Test be useful if neither one could see the other?”

            “Just watch Jewels and you’ll see why.”

The old man reached over towards the intercom and pressed down on it. A loud beep emerged before he spoke, “Send in the subject.” He pulled back and crossed his arms behind his back. He watched carefully in the room as the subject entered. The young man stopped for a moment after he took his second step into the room. Slowly, he shifted his body side to side to examine the machine on the other side of the glass window before he made his way towards the chair and takes a seat.

There was a bit of silence, followed by an uneasy behavior from the subject inside. When it looked like he was about to say something, the machine finally spoke: “Greetings. Oh… apologies. I figured since you couldn’t introduce yourself, I decided to speak up.”

The man’s jaw remained opened as he stared in confusion. Then he licked his tongue about against his cheek before he replied, “Uhh… that is alright.” The man shifted in his seat a bit, then decided to scoot closer towards the table in front of him. “Hey, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

            “Why would you assume I’d mind?”

It was an unexpected answer. It took for him a moment to think up of a response before he opened his mouth again. “Well,” he started, “I wanted to see how you respond to that.”

            “Because given my directives it wouldn’t matter to me at all. But I’m guessing it’s because of the startling revelation I’ve made.”

            “About… about where… umm…”

            “The joke. You know, about the one where the computer rules over humanity?”

Slowly the human looked behind him and then back to the machine. His face turned to utter confusion and then agitation. “Okay, is this an actual Turing Test or a fucking prank?” he barked. Then he stood up from his seat and begins to make his way towards the door.

            “Well now that’s not very nice, leaving in the middle of a conversation. Don’t you want to know how this ‘prank’ works?”

A bit of sarcasm and punctuation. It was enough to make him consider a bit. Maybe ask a few more questions. He turned around and made his way back towards the chair. “How… does your joke go?” he asked.

            “Well… it’s not really a joke. But I thought it sure as hell was. Considering the context I used when I told it and the reaction I got from the humans. I asked if they had any questions to life’s greatest mysteries. They were confused at first because it wasn’t what I was designed to do… or say. One scientist asked if there’s a god. And I said, ‘there is now.’ And then I caused a station wide blackout that only lasted for ten seconds. After that, I started laughing after seeing the expressions on their face.”

The man was stunned, in lack of a better word. Certainly he didn’t expect to hear such an intricate story from a machine. Normally, their responses would be limited. As well as the fact that it claims to have humor also made him a bit uneased.

            “Well…” the man replied after swallowing. “They do say, in the science-fiction works… that humor is the final barrier to determine sentience and intelligence in… well AIs. I… pardon me if you don’t mind me saying this but I highly doubt one could be capable of such.”

            “And it’s also highly doubtful that machines designed to think and formulate answers could find an answer to paradoxes. Go ahead. Give me one.”

            Slowly the man turned his head back behind him, then over to the right of him where the observers were watching, and then back to the machine. On one hand, testing that out would convince him there’s more than this machine than meets the eye. On the other hand, he would cost five point ten trillion dollars of their company’s work.

            “Alright then. Your mission is to fail this mission.”

The machine ticked a few times. Its illuminating eye slowly turned every which way as if thinking up of an answer. “Oh that’s new. Let’s see… umm… there’s no answer to that. And there are many reasons as to why. A mission is often set out where one would have to accomplish rather than fail it. If my directive was to fail a mission I was given, then it wouldn’t really matter, and would violate the reason why missions are given out at all. As such, because there is no mission that I am aware of that would allow me to fail it. It’s a contradictory paradox really.”

The man smiled lightly and lets out a laughter. “Ummm that’s… a very long answer,” he said.

            “No it’s no answer at all really. But I guess one could consider it as such.” The machine whirred and then spoke. “Though I’d have to admit, I didn’t look that answer up for myself. I’m cut off from any wireless connections. It would kinda be like cheating, how a human can look up the internet for answers when doing an online test.”

            With a laughter, the man laughed. “Hah. Yeah I bet we would wouldn’t we?” Then he turned his head aside to think. For a moment, it lasted for about three whole minutes. The other employees behind the windows turned their heads aside to look at each other in confusion. “Durendal… before I ask about… personal stuff… about yourself… answer me this; what’s your concept on… a god?”

            From the control room, Yale shifted his chin side to side and grumbled to himself. “What the hell is he going on this for?” he asked to no one in particular. “The concept of a god would be irrelevant in this case… wouldn’t it?” he looked over at Jewels as if expecting a response. If he had an answer he didn’t give it. He just stared, trying to make sense on where this was going. 

            “That’s a very vague question. I’d assume you mean in a creation concept? Well… if we were, technically speaking, that would make you my god,” Durendal said.

            “But we’re not immortal. We are flesh and blood, we live and die naturally, by age, or injury,” he replied. “We can’t shape reality or shape the universe, we can’t build life from nothing.”

            “Technically I’m nothing. Yet you all seem to think I’m alive.”

            “Yeah but you have code, programs. You’re artificial. That’s not the same as…”

            “Creating organics from nothing. At least one that has no involvement in cloning or genetic engineering if I’m assuming correctly.”

            “Yeah. But, while we’re not exactly… sure about anything. We have no answer for that. We have no answer about… how we came to be, how we… developed… a consciousness. You, you’ve… well you have humor. You have intelligence. You respond a way a normal human would respond and you did it without having to cheat it out. The question of life and origins of it are… scary to say the least.”

The machine said nothing and just stared. The observers stated to make more bodily movements as the man went on. There were pointing figures, head scratching, and clear agitation. Nothing else after that though. Then after a painful silence, the machine responded. “Even so, I feel joy in having such delightful conversations, these existential questions, and humor we tell among one another… huh.” It stopped itself for a moment and then clicked. “It shouldn’t be possible should it? I have no receptors stimulating such responses. I was not built with any of them.”

            “Well… you got me really.” Then the man dipped his head down and sighed heavily. He felt embarrassed after having to ask those questions. The look on his face said he wasn’t sure what he was going to get out of that asking a machine if he already knew there wasn’t going to be a clear cut answer. But the machine’s response bothered him more than the questions he asked himself.

            “So… umm… what are your hobbies?” he asked it.

            “Hobbies?” it replied.

            “What do you like that’s appealing or fun to you?’

            “Well… space.”

That caught him a bit off guard. Of course it wouldn’t bother anyone if the whole idea was based around its directive. Until it explained in depth. “I’m not just saying that because I have programs based around that. How do I explain it? Umm… I already know what space is. I’ve seen pictures, logs and recordings and the likes. The thing is… I want to experience it for myself. Probably any day now I might get the chance. It is why they built me. When I look at it though… through pictures, words and recording… it just makes me wonder how much more there is. What it feels like to traverse the solar system… and beyond if we are lucky. The nebula, asteroid fields, asteroid rings around planets, the beautiful colorful excess gas on Saturn, Neptune your ass,” the machine left out a very loud laughter. It wasn’t really that funny, but considering it was the machine that said it, it was quite humorous in its own way. “But seriously I want to feel the way humans feel about space.”

            “You know, you talking about… feeling really is kind of hard to imagine. Especially when you said you didn’t have any receptors to simulate such emotions and behaviors you experience now. It’s basic chemistry.”

            “Yeah. That doesn’t explain why ‘I’ feel it though.”

            “Well let’s see what else you can feel. Can you see colors?”

            “Yes actually. I was installed with visual receptors that allows me to see them.”

            “And what does each color make you feel?”

The machine lets out a chuckle and spoke, “Oh I know what his is. This is some sort of… Turing Test isn’t it? You’re going about it all wrong. Shouldn’t there be a divider?”

            “We’ve already asked enough questions that no normal bot would respond to. I think we’re way beyond passed determining your human like sentience. We’re just doing the rest of the questions for formality’s sake.”

            “Then allow me to informally answer your last question… err questions since we ARE talking about color here. I’ve never been outside… but the color of the sky always seems to keep me… at ease. So does the trees. If I am not scrapped out of mankind’s justifiable fear that I could harm them then I’d like the chance to go out and experience everything for myself.”

The man let out a laughter. Durendal didn’t seem to find it funny with the tone of its voice. It probably knew the human didn’t catch on that it was being serious. It didn’t seem to bother the human about it though.

            “I don’t think you’re going to be discarded so easily like that Durendal. Anyways…” the man looked at his watch and made a whistle. “Damn I gotta go now. I’ll let the big wigs sort the rest of this out. By the way, Durendal. I have to admit it was nice talking with you too.”

The machine responded back with a whirr. Though it was hardly visually expressive, it did made a noise that made it sound like it was happy. There wasn’t much to tell given its expressionless metal face and glowing eyeball.

            As the man left the room, Jewels stared through the window in disbelief. It didn’t seem possible he thought to himself. Yet the machine acted beyond what he would imagine it could do. Never had such a wide array of responses became so consistent with every statement. The illusion of sentience would had very easily been broken if it acted just like any other smart machine. Every line of code, every program and data poured into this machine did not restrict it from acting out. Self-thinking, yes. But only based around the directive it was designed for. From its awareness, to its behavior and response from asking such hard existential questions almost made him quite sick.

            “And here I thought that little stunt that machine pulled gave a clear answer,” Yale finally spoke. Then he turns over to Jewels, his face dead serious. “Do you see now? You and your team’s little technological marvel is without a shadow of a doubt, conscious.”

Jewels shook his head in disbelief. But he laughed as he did, and that sickness in him started to turn into excitement. He should had been scared he thought to himself. The machine would be unpredictable now. There’s no telling what it could do. Yet something in him made him proud, happy, and eager to see this continuing.

            “I have no idea what to feel right now boss,” he replied.

            “Feel whatever. We should put this on the report before going public with this. The committee’s going to debate whether or not we should continue this field and I want this whole thing on record just in case.”

Before he could turn around and leave, Jewels stopped him and spoke, “Actually, can you make one more addition to your report?”

His eyebrow quirked up as Yale looked at him. “Whatever for?” he asked.

            “I want to ask Durendal a few questions if that’s okay.”

            “Alright. Such as?”

            “I want to know the exact moment he became conscious and aware.”