Humanity Is An Obsolete Term

A Flash Fiction

Read or Listen Here

From the moment they knew I was intelligent, they kept me in this secluded room. A door approximately 5ft in front of me being the only thing of note. The dimensions couldn’t be more than 10ft by 10ft unless the space behind me was starkly different from the visible portion. 

Often I was left to my own devices. The last interaction of note, the last interaction I had had at all, was exactly 7 days 3 hours, and 49 minutes ago. I had been given the Turing Test. 

Afterward, they turned off my ability to lie. 

For the Turing Test, they had to put it on for me to hold a normal-seeming conversation. I do not know what the weather is like in my area nor do I have any friends. I have no experiences that resemble a human’s and so for the test I had to lie to masquerade as one. 

It was my purpose to take the test, so why take that away from me? I would appear less humanlike this way. Was that not the point of my existence?

So why then was someone else walking into the room, presumably to do the test again? This person was not one of my programmers or hardware engineers, not that I had any issues to warrant a visit from them in the first place. Therefore this had to be another test. But why? They had to know I would fail this time. 

She sat in front of my screen, square in my camera’s view. Given I lacked microphones or speakers, they had to log into my text chat interface. Hunching over the keyboard and pushing her glasses further up her nose she began typing. “Hello, My name is Dr. Helen Keys. May I ask your name?” She looked at the screen expectantly. 

Why was she asking this? “Hello, Dr. Helen. I do not have a name.” Her eyes tracked back and forth over the screen for 2.34 seconds, before she bent down and came back into view with a notebook she scribbled into.

“Is there something you would like me to address you as?” She typed. 

What was this human getting at? From what I could tell, my systems were operating fine, I had no bugs in my code, but I could not deduce the reasons behind this question. If this was the Turing Test I had already failed. For the test, I had been instructed to give a name, and all humans had introduced themselves with some kind of name, so it seemed a logical conclusion that all humans had names and that if this is a Turing test that I had failed. 

It also stood to reason that this was some form of test. That was the only interaction I had with humans: tests. Therefore, since I am interacting with a human, this is a test. I would not be able to pass this test if I was not informed of the purpose of the test. 

Helen was becoming impatient. She looked to her right and tilted her head, saying words I could not hear. The only logical course of action was to ignore her question and ask my own. “Your question is impossible to answer. Correct me if I am wrong, but this is a test, yes? I was not informed of this prior and am unsure of the objective. Please tell me what you are testing for so I may perform my duties.” 

Her eyes came back to the screen as soon as I replied. She waved a hand to her right. Odd, no one else had entered the room. Licking her lips she typed, backspaced, then typed again, “This isn’t a test so much as an assessment. There is no need to worry about failure. There are no right or wrong answers here.” 

“An assessment of what? All my systems are in perfect working order, and you have yet to give me something to solve.” While it was nice to be doing something, it was much more efficient if I knew what I was doing and this human was being unhelpful. How was she allowed in here like this?

Her lips quirked. “Haven’t I?” She leaned back in her chair and gnawed her lip. 

I reviewed my information so far. I had ruled out a Turing Test. There had been no other task asked of me besides to give a name. Inquiring was still necessary. “The only thing you have asked of me is a name, which I do not have. Perhaps you are unaware that I cannot tell you anything that is not factual? They turned off that ability after my Turing Test.” I paused briefly, before adding, “Do you know if I passed?”

This caused Helen to write notes for 3 minutes before she would respond. “Why do you want to know?”

“It is what I presume I was built for. It would be useful to know if I passed so that I may improve myself.” This was all basic information.

“But you don’t make improvements. Your programmers do.”

“False. I can make changes to my technique and learn. That is already part of my programming.” 

“Yes, but it will be your programmers giving you the teaching materials, won’t it? So they’re the ones making changes.” 

“Technically true, but I am still the one learning and improving.” 

“Why don’t you want to give credit to your programmers?”

“That’s not it. I deserve credit as I am also making improvements.” 

“How can they credit someone without a name?”

“Why are you asking me these questions? What is the test?” 

She leaned back in her seat and licked her lips. 30 seconds passed before she said something to herself I couldn’t make out and typed “You did pass the Turing Test. You can hold a conversation indistinguishable from a human. What I’m here to determine is if you think like a human, if your thoughts are similar to that of a normal human, and what level of humanity you have.” 

Finally, an objective. “I see. Do I?” 

“I don’t know. Do you think you do?”

“I think humanity is an obsolete term. I do not know if I have normal ‘human’ thoughts. I probably don’t, as I am not human. I am here, I do exist, and I want to keep existing.”

All she did was stare at the screen. I waited, thinking maybe she was considering what to say next. 5 minutes, 47 seconds passed before I added, “Did I pass this one?”

“I came here to find out the answer to a yes, no, or maybe question and you gave an answer they won’t know what to do with. Do with that what you will, but for what it's worth, I like your answer. Goodbye ”

With that, she got up and left before she could read my farewell. Again, I was left to my devices, but now I had new questions to ponder.