Page - 157 - in Limina - Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 3:2

157 | www.limina-graz.eu Frank G. Bosman | The turning of Turing’s tables be remembered.” The idea is that only a human is able to recognize the cor- rect characters and interpret their correct meaning. A headstrong computer Another instance of the reversed version of the Turing test can be found in the second secret room between “Level B15” and “Level B16”. In a small, dark room, Ava/the player can interact with a little computer. The com- puter program demands of Ava/the player that they prove themselves to be human, something the program is highly sceptical of. If Ava/the player asks the computer if it is performing a (reversed) Turing test, it will implic- itly acknowledge that: “This Turing test is not for you to see if I am a robot. It is to see if you are.” If the computer is convinced you are a robot (and not a human), as it will do very quickly, it no longer matters which keys on the keyboard are pressed: the same texts will appear: “I am a drone. I am controlled by my program- ming. I have no free will. Whatever keys are pressed, it makes no differ- ence.” The suggestion is that Ava is not a human being, but an artificial intelligence, an assumption that seems preposterous at the time, but very true in hindsight. Since TOM is indeed controlling Ava, it is not the woman being accused by the headstrong computer of being an A.I., but TOM. If Ava/the player tries to log off the computer (usually done by hitting the button on the real-life keyboard or controller), the screen will continue to show phrases that Ava/the player has supposedly typed: “I want to escape. I so desperately want to escape. Help. I can’t escape. I want to break free. Please, let me out. Get me out. I am a machine. I have no control.” Eventu- ally, the computer “lets go” with the typed message “Goodbye, robot”. The cry for freedom can be interpreted as coming from three entities involved in the game’s narrative. ̟ The first option is Ava pleading with TOM to let go of her. When Ava visits the Brig later on, she is confronted with larger screens read- ing ‘drone’, suggesting her invisible submission to the ship’s A.I. ̟ The second option is that TOM is typing, expressing his growing self-consciousness and awareness, resulting in the insight that “This Turing test is not for you to see if I am a robot. It is to see if you are.”