A Question on Shapeshifting and Beastiality

[insertnamehere]

Hmm, I wonder if you pass the Turing test then does that mean that you fail the Harkness? ie. the Robot is sufficiently alive as defined by Turing, that the Harkness test is needed if you want to use it? If it fails the Turing then its not alive so it doesnt need to bother about Harkness and is the equivalent of a fleshlight.

The Turing test wouldn't be applicable. If an entity passes the Turing test, then it is behaviorally indistinguishable from a human, so it must be able to communicate like one, and is in practice as intelligent as one. Therefore, anything that passes the Turing test passes those parts of the Harkness test (there is still the matter of sexual maturity).

 

[catfish27]

It had however occurred to me to do a Torchwood Fan-fic, where the irrepressible, futuristic but incredibly ancient Captain Jack Harkness goes through an era where he has a regular hobby of fucking every human (and sufficiently similar humanoid, alien and robot creature) he can get his hands on, on their 18th birthday. Jumping out of cakes etc - just to push the limits of his self-imposed rule.

Heh, this is reminiscent of the immortal alien from one of the "Hitchhiker's Guide" books who is spending its life insulting every intelligent being in the universe in alphabetical order.

 

[gene.sis]

For a character (or perhaps "thing" is a better term) to count as a robot, I imagine they should be depicted as such, not merely stated.

Simply stating that a creature passes the Harkness test is not enough as well. They must be depicted accordingly.

Then being the naughty boy I am, I say that, the gorillas found within the Institute have their AIs changed so that they can pass the Harkness test and the ability to consent to sexual encounters. But since they are also synthetic/robotic, so do they need to pass the Harkness test to begin with?

A creature that has synthetic/robotic parts is still a creature.
As soon as there is genetic material of a creature, it is basically a living being.