Voight-Kampff machine
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The Voight-Kampff machine or device is a fictional tool originating in Philip K Dick's science fiction novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Spelled Voigt-Kampff in the book, it also appeared in the book's screen adaptation, the 1982 film Blade Runner.
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[edit] Operation
The Voight-Kampff is a polygraph-like machine used in the film by Blade Runner units to assist in the testing of an individual to see if he or she is a replicant. It measures bodily functions such as respiration, "blush response", heart rate and eye movement in response to emotionally provocative questions. It is related to flat affect in clinical psychiatry. In the film two replicants take the test: Leon (played by Brion James) and Rachael (played by Sean Young). In Blade Runner, Deckard tells Tyrell that it usually takes 20 to 30 cross-referenced questions to distinguish a replicant. With Rachael it takes more than one hundred. This should be contrasted to the book where it is stated it only takes "six or seven" questions to make a determination.
"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."
– Description from the original 1982 Blade Runner presskit
[edit] In popular culture
- In the second episode of the tenth season of Stargate SG-1, the character Vala Mal Doran takes a psychological profile test. Before the test she was practicing and came across the tortoise question ("You're in the desert, you see a tortoise lying on its back, struggling, and you're not helping -- why is that?") which is originally from the film's Voight-Kampff test given to Leon. Her answer to the question would have been "Because I am also a tortoise". In another episode (4x05, Divide and Conquer), the iris analysis while a series of questions are being asked was incorporated as a device to detect whether a person has been programmed with an assassination command. In the episode "Absolute power (4x17)," the zatarc detector used by the Tok'ra Aldwin resembles the Voight-Kampff machine.
- In the 2000 movie 6th Day, a holographic "virtual psychiatrist" starts to ask the main character some questions, one of which regards visualizing a turtle in the desert, a reference to the Voigt-Kampff test taken by the replicant Leon.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner by Paul Sammon (Orion, 2004) ISBN 0-7528-0740-4
- Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" and Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Judith Kerman (Popular Press, 2003) ISBN 0-87972-510-9
[edit] External links
- Voight-Kampff entry - Official Blade Runner online magazine
- Excerpt describing the machine from "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"
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