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Shall we examine the VK machine?

 
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Noeland
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Joined: 24 Oct 2006
Posts: 1328

PostPosted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 1:26 pm    Post subject: Shall we examine the VK machine? Reply with quote

I know we all spend a lot of time breaking down and thinking about the Blaster. At least I do. It's one of my favorite subjects, has been since I was a kid and saw the movie for the first time. I kept asking my older brother Harry (who was a Marine at the time) "What kind of GUN was that?" and he kept saying "I have no idea, never seen one like that before!". He was a patient man. I did the same thing after "Aliens"!!



We spend a lot of time discussing the wallet, and the badges, and the ID's. I think the VK machine needs some love folks. I really do. Now I don't know if Nick Daring has ever launched a full investigation into what the VK might have been of, don't know if spinner 44 is making any progress on his build, I don't know if the one fan made VK machine sold on ebay years ago lies in the hands of anyone on this board. I do know you can see it at morpheus13.com though!

I don't even know who ended up with the production made VK booklet full of questions that sold at auction a year ago or so. Wish I did, I'd LOVE to see inside that sucker.

But I do know this. It's one of the coolest props in movie history and we hardly ever break it down or discuss the "tech" of the VK machine the way we do other props from BR.

So, here we go then. The VK definition from the press kit (according to scribble.com)

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.

So, lets talk tech.

Likely battery powered.

Likely it's sensitive to the individual behind it to some degree. How many Blade Runners ever used it on themselves, do we wonder?

How old is the machine? Do we figure it was developed for military application, or medical application, or for something else non-police related and then adopted to police work later on?

In the context of the story, who created it, and what company manufactures it? Is VK a brand name, or a model name?

And in closing (Yeah, this was longer than I thought it would be) When do we wonder was the first time the VK was used, and who by, and to what effect. Did it work? Did it end in tragedy as it did with Holden?

Thanks for indulging me.

Noeland-----------------
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steevy
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Joined: 25 Jul 2007
Posts: 389

PostPosted: Sun Aug 12, 2007 8:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

DADOES includes information on the test .I'll dig up some quotes for you...."I remember thye howls of pain when the Sudermann people showed their old T-14 back in '18(DADOES takes place in 2021).Every police agancyin the western hemisphere clamored that no test would detect it's presence,in an instance of illegal entry here.As a matter of fact,for awhile they were right.Over fifty of the T-14 android as he recalled had made their way by one means or another to earth,and had not been detected for some cases for a period up to a year.But than the Voight Empathy Test had been developed by the Pavlov Institute working in the Soviet Union(the implication in DADOES is that the Soviets won World War Terminus or at least it was a stalemate).And no T-14 android-insofar,at least ,as was known-had managed to pass that particular test.""Dve used the Voigt-Kampff Altered Scale in testing out the individuals he suspected.You realize-you ought to,anyhow-that this test isn't specific for the new brain units.NO test is,the Voight scale altered three years ago by Kamfpff is all we have.Dave considered it accurate .Maybe it is.But I would suggest this,before you take off after these six.Fly to Seattle and talk to the Rosen people.Hve them supply you a representative sampling of types employing the new Nexus-6 unit.(The Rosens try to bribe Deckard with an owl(owls are extinct.they than try to make him think Rachael is human but strange because she grew up on a star ship.They want to invalidate the test so that retiring androids will be impossible.Deckard spots her with difficulty almost buying their trick.)DADOES also includes a plotline with a parallel police organization to Deckard's and the two are unknown to each other.The other organization uses a different test ,Bonellie Reflex-Arc Test."Ours is probably simpler",Resch said."The reflex-arc response taking place in the upper ganglia of the spinal column requires several microseconds more in the humanoid robot than a human nervous system."We use an audio flash signal or a light flash.The subject presses a button and the elapsed time is measured.We try it a number of times ,of course.Elapsed time varies in both andy and human.But by the time ten reactions have been measured we believe we have a reliable clue".Resch mentions he thinks eveyone in the plice force should be tested his boss(who happens to be later revealed as an android says it is not done on the grounds of morale)After the andy is retired bone marrow tests confirm the deed,supposedly no mistakes havce been made ,yet.The Rosen Corp(Tyrell is the film name) tryed to invalidate the test as we saw earlier.Later Rachael sleeps with Deckard and reveals that that also was to stop him from hunting androids,she brags she has only failed with one bounty hunter Resch.Deckard thought Resch was an Andy but tested him and confirmed he was human,Deckard admires Resch's ability to be cold blooded.PKD stories kind of meander and aren't always internally consistent but what Dick appears to have been driving at(and apparently he disagreed with Ridley on the subject)was that the androids were totally lacking in empathy and therefore no more than machines.Rachael goes so far as to kill Deckard's goat(bought with all his bounty money and unthinkable to human to kill a living thing)as revenge.Deckard comes to reallize that the androids would take over if the bounty hunters developed empathy for them(as he almost does with female androids due to Rachael)and that he must do the job to protect humanity.I suggest everyone read it again and make up their own mind...
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