Chris Beckett heeft onder de titel The turing test 14 korte verhalen opgenomen, die lijken te gaan over robots, buitenaardse planeten, genetische manipulatie en virtual reality, maar eigenlijk gaan ze over mensen en (juist niet) over technologie. De verhalen gaan over individuele mensen en hoe zij omgaan met liefde, eenzaamheid, authenticiteit, illusie(s) en wat het werkelijk betekent om mens te zijn. 

Het titelverhaal staat te lezen op de website van Chris Beckett:

The turing test

I can well remember the day I first encountered Ellie because it was a particularly awful one. I run a London gallery specialising in contemporary art, which means of course that I deal largely in human body parts, and it was the day we conceded a court case – and a very large sum of money – in connection with a piece entitled ‘Soul Sister’. 

 

You may have heard about it. We’d taken the piece from the up and coming ‘wild man of British art’, George Linderman. It was very well reviewed and we looked like making a good sale until it came out that George had obtained the piece’s main component – the severed head of an old woman – by bribing a technician at a medical school. Someone had recognised the head in the papers and, claiming to be related to its former owner, had demanded that the head be returned to them for burial. 

Lees verder in: The turing test