Voight-Kampff machine

Originating in Philip K Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the Voight-Kampff (spelt Voigt-Kampff in the book) machine or device also appeared in the book's screen adaptation - the 1982 science fiction film Blade Runner.

The Voight-Kampff is a polygraph machine used by the LAPD's Blade Runner units to assist in the testing of an individual to see if they are a replicant (android) or not. It measures bodily functions such as respiration, heart rate and eye movement in response to emotionally provocative questions. In the film only two "people" take the test - Leon (played by Brion James) and Rachel played by Sean Young. In Blade Runner Deckard states when asked by Tyrell that it usually takes 20 to 30 cross-referenced questions to distinguish a replicant. With Rachel (who is supposed to be one) it takes more than a hundred.

Description from the original 1982 Blade Runner presskit:
A very advanced form of lie detector that measures contractions of the iris muscle and the presence of invisible airborne particles emitted from the body. The bellows were designed for the latter function and give the machine the menacing air of a sinister insect. The VK is used primarily by Blade Runners to determine if a suspect is truly human by measuring the degree of his empathic response through carefully worded questions and statements.

The Voight-Kampff machine is perhaps analogous to if not partly inspired by Alan Turing's work which propounded an A.I test - to see if a computer could convince a human (by answering set questions etc) that it was another human. The term Turing test was popularised by science fiction but was not used until years after Turing's death.

See also

Android, sentience, machine intelligence, lie detector, Alan Turing, dystopia

References

• Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner by Paul Sammon (Orion, 2004) ISBN 0752807404
• Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" and Philip K. Dick's "Do Android's Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Judith Kerman (Popular Press, 2003) ISBN 0879725109

Links

• Voight-Kampff entry - Official Blade Runner online magazine
• Excerpt describing the machine from "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"