I chose to make my second project something a little more interactive than the others I'd done for the ACTLab. I've always been a fan of Blade Runner and Philip K. Dick, and I think that trying to define what really makes a human being versus a machine is very interesting. Given that the class was all about discussing the strange things we do in science, I thought this would be a particularly germane subject for a project.
The project itself came in two parts, carried out on two class sessions. On the first week, I passed out a copy of the Voight-Kampff test(or at least, the five questions from the Voight-Kampff test that anybody knows) and had my classmates answer them in writing. The Voight-Kampff test was an examination used in the movie Blade Runner as well as the story it's based on, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. In the book and film, the test works like a lie-detector test, with questions asked and answered verbally. I felt that giving one-on-one tests like this would probably not be practical given the time limits of the course and the number of students, and I really wanted to be sure to include everyone. So, I created the written version.
For the second week, I looked over all of the students' responses to the test and categorized them as either Human or Replicant. Then, I selected three examples of each and included them in a Powerpoint presentation which explained the purpose of the test for those who weren't already familiar with it. My process for determining whether someone was a human or not was really pretty arbitrary - for the presentation, I was really more interested in being entertaining and timely - trying to start a lengthy class debate on the nature of humanity seemed like an unfair use of time when other students had their own projects to present.
The written version of the test - MS Word format
The logo I placed at the top:
Which was shamelessly stolen and modified from this image:
I removed the "biotechnologies" part because I didn't want any hints as to the test's actual purpose on the first week, in case there was anyone in the class that wasn't already familiar with it.
And finally, the image I used from the background, a still shot from Blade Runner:
