A couple of days ago my husband and I went to see the film "Ex Machina". It was very thought provoking, especially through the lens of right speech. A man has invented a robot that he wants to test for sentience. He has his gifted employee flown in to his retreat to conduct the "Turning Test". In the past this has been run while the questioner and possible candidate are unable to see each other. But in this film, the questioner can see emphatically that the robot is a robot. So the imagination seems clipped from the beginning. In the movie, the audience slowly is convinced that the robot is a sentient being. This leap is startling, and shakes up our preconceptions about what is human. Can speech be that persuasive? Can it counter our own eyes?
I think we know this to be true. There is a gentle young man who is revealed to be a serial killer. His neighbors say he is so nice. There is the woman who is deeply concerned about the health of her child, until it is discovered she has Baron Munchausen syndrome. People are not how they appear to be, and may harbor other sides not apparent to others. There is the fact that people attribute better intelligence, grace and kindness to those with more pleasing faces. We get caught up in either looks or talk which may not represent the true or complete picture of an individual.
One trick the robot displays is she turns the questioner into the questioned. People do this who do not wish to be examined too closely. With the myriad of complexities about the intention of speech, who among us can sort out curiousity from manipulation? Who can determine character from speech? In the end, as in the movie, it is the action of the speaker that ultimately tells us intention. Getting caught up in the net of speech can lead us further and further from truth. No verbal test can determine humanity, caring and feeling levels. Actions speak louder than words.
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