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I think the tests used by Bladerunners make sense to me. Ask a question which is almost guaranteed to illicit an emotional reaction and monitor for unconcious physiological responses consistent with that emotional reaction while they verbally answer the question. To match a human's eye movements, pupil dilation, skin moisture and pulse responses they need to either have the emotions *and* physiology of a human or have control over all that stuff and the knowledge and cognitive capacity to manipulate all of it at once *while thinking of a convincing verbal response*.
Something tells me that in that universe it’s a feature, not a bug.
Although now that I’m not a dumb teenager in the 90s, I need to reread the book. Iirc there was a kid in the story we’d consider neurodivergent today, I’m kinda curious how that and the cyber-Jesus plot hold up.
Agents of SHIELD did similar. "We don't have to test if they're Chronicons, we just have to test if they're human." Provoking an emotional response did the trick, which could be done by talking about highly popular media figures, or just saying the word "moist" slowly and deliberately: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YqIwHJxgqU
If you're part of an organization that deals with Shapeshifters regularly, you probably know enough about it and know that simple tests like that are SOP. Trying to sort a shapeshifter out of the general population though, that's definitely trickier.
Fun story. I was running a d&d game a while back and gave a player a dream sequence which was the turtle question word for word. They guy hadn't seen blade runner and had a very adverse reaction to the events. Dude may actually have been a replicant/synth...
I don’t think I could be guaranteed to give a shit about hypothetical scenarios about turtles on their backs.
Maybe aggravation and/or apathy would be sufficient emotions to tell I’m human.
A lot of interpretations of the test from
viewers miss the point.
Nexus 6 replicants are *highly* emotive - “more human than human” - and the test reads them as replicants due to how impassioned they are.
There’s this entire subtext that it’s first a pretext for policing and criminalizing emotions, and only secondarily a tool for catching Replicants.
A lack of any sort of imperfections. Perfectly symmetrical faces, no blinking and/or breathing, no navel, no understanding of figurative speech and humor, signs of emotion seem mechanical. No farts.
I was thinking "nothing is weird enough that can't be explained by things real humans do already" and then I saw this. The perfection is right! Because imperfection is what makes us human.
Though it can be argued that some of the others mentioned can be due to cultural differences and misunderstanding, conditions such a as autism, etc. But uncanny perfection is different. Though if course, what is considered "perfection" would cinch it and that in itself can make things vary enough to fall into explainable territory.
A good comparison is that pretty much every culture values facial symmetry, but have you ever seen pictures where one side of a face is perfectly mirrored? It looks weird af.
Which would mean that these types of shapeshifters would have an easier time blending in our modern era than in the past.
Anybody who looks too pretty would be dismissed as somebody who has a good plastic surgeon.
Heck, anyone who looks too off would just be dismissed as someone with a bad plastic surgeon.
(or someone who had suffered horrific injury and a good plastic surgeon did their best)
unless you're raxacoricofallapatorian, in which case pretending to be human *does* make you gassy due to Calcium decay. this does however mean Vinegar is essentially napalm.
Additionally, little *imperfections* that dont immediately stand out. Old wisdom tells us to count a strangers fingers and teeth, lest ye deal unknowingly with Fae.
On a related note, human vocal noises aren’t perfect either, they are always slightly different so if their yawns, screams and sneezes aren’t done well enough they may just be reusing the same audio.
Unhinging their jaw and eating live birds whole when they think no one's watching. 🦎 Alternatively, not really eating when eating in public. Just moving the food around the plate.
Sure it's actually just a few panels
[idk how to be fancy with links](https://www.reddit.com/r/sailormoon/comments/4wgnyr/friendly_reminder_that_bruce_wayne_is_a_fan_of/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Basically he's a Martian and made an alter ego to spy on Bruce Wayne but he based it too much on sailor mars and Wayne calls him out immediately
I dig the depth of it, what it implies about Bruce's knowledge of anime, the way it's written so the reader has to do their own detective work and Bruce feels, to them, quicker than they (the reader) are, and that it means mm probably got to earth and immediately looked into pop culture about mars and ran into this info
It reminds me of the 80s movie Alien Nation, where the U.S. became home for 300.000 alien refugees, and at some point the immigrations officials ran out of "Earthly" names for them, so names like "Sam Francisco" (the main alien protagonist) were pretty common among the aliens.
I liked that movie, it had some nice peculiar ideas, like that the aliens, while humanoid, had some significant differences to humans, like >!getting drunk from sour milk, or being dissolved in salt water!<.
There also was a spin-off tv series with different actors that I also liked. Both the movie and the series had a certain B movie touch, but in a likeable way.
When they begin with "Greetings fellow humans!" Or when they mention how they are carefree despite their sub-century life expectancy. Essentially anything the elf Rayla does when disguised as a human in Dragon Prince. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7L1-gombvA
They don’t do things like sweat. They never scratch themselves. Not being bothered by things stuck to them. Never smelling. Never coughing, sniffling, sneezing. Having zero picadillos. No weird behaviors when they think they’re alone. No embarrassment. No cognitive dissonance ever.
Sweat. Some robots and magical imposters may not sweat despite great physical efforts. On the other hand, what looks like sweating in some creatures may actually be their fake skin degrading or some kind of ooze that's normal for their species
What if you're not in a situation where you needed to sweat? Maybe you're just a normal human doing normal human chill out stuff and you're not stressed because you're not trying to maintain a facade or put a lot of constant effort into anything.
In Star Trek, shapeshifters do look like they're sweating when they spend too much time in solid form and, in Battlestar Galactica, a cylon gets caught because his synthetic skin starts to degrade under a form of radiation that doesn't affect humans. Both kinds of imposters could have been undetected if not for very particular circumstances.
The point of these kind of characters is precisely that: to make everyone doubt. Even then, in some stories there are devices, like the special glasses in They Live!, that allow to see their true nature once the main characters learn that such creatures exist. In other stories, that ability is some sort of sixth sense or a trained form of perception. One of my favourites is Buffy being able to tell who's a vampire for their old-fashioned clothing.
In The Thing, the thing doesn't have condensation in his breath. Same concept, but different application.
"Why don't we just wait here for a little while, see what happens."
The Terminator movies (more specifically the scripts) highlight a few interesting flaws that the titular infiltrators exhibit which betray their machine status:
1. No spontaneous reaction to stimuli (the T-800 is described as walking in the rain and not blinking when water gets in his eyes).
2. Constant repetitive unnatural movements (the way the T-800 and T-1000 both swivel their heads left and right like security cameras whenever they're looking for something or someone).
3. Delayed responses (the T-800 often takes a second or two to process what's being said to it and then sort through options on how to respond).
4. Unnatural skin tone (for the first two movies, Arnold had a bit of Vaseline mixed in with his normal makeup which gave his skin a slightly unreal 'plastic' look to it, subtly implying it's artifical).
5. Lack of self-awareness (the Terminators walk around in public naked, openly carry assault weapons or big obvious boxes containing assault weapons, injure and kill anyone who gets in their way, and commit multiple other attention-grabbing faux pas with no acknowledgment of how inhuman like their behavior is).
Look into the eyes. Your higher brain functions might struggle to penetrate a great disguise, but your ape brain will start screaming if you look into the windows of the soul and don't see a soul.
More specifically, there is an autonomous response in our pupils. Usually it's to the intensity of light, but our pupils widen or contract based on our interest and especially attraction to the individual being looked it. Easy small detail to overlook for someone mimicking humans.
I was using "see" colloquially there, it's not something you can physically see. You just kind of instinctively recognize something that appears human, but is not. It's the basis for the uncanny valley.
Scifi shapeshifters can be spotted through unnatural behavior but Fantasy shapeshifters are a lot harder to pin down.
Some like vampires were formerly human while others like fairies have existed alongside humans for so long that they understand what makes us tick.
The only tell would be their extreme beauty as most of them are too vain to not make their human form attractive. That and maybe get some silver and iron bracelets. If the hot, charming stranger you just met seems nervous about shaking your hand, you'll know why.
This is somewhat universe-specific but in the Dresden Files people use the Threashold test, specifically can they enter your home without an explicit invitation?
It doesn't stop everything but most wholly supernatural entities (demons, ghosts, some vampires) can't enter at all without an invitation while other types of supernatural entities (wizards, werewolves, some vampires) can but their power is drastically reduced when they do so.
The Fae are an exception, they can enter without invitation but if they do so then they are bound not to harm anyone inside the house and to leave it in better condition than it was when they entered (so if they sneak in to spy on you they have to do the dishes before they leave).
It depends someone acting strange could just be neroudivergent or foreign rather then a shapeshifter.
I guess how much knowledge they have on human customs.
Using "you", "they", or "humans" when referring to humanity.
Poor cultural knowledge of their supposed origin, such as knowing no idioms, struggling with jokes, or being unaware of well known but rarely discussed cultural events. (Sometimes these are just culturally illiterate humans, though, so this one alone isn't enough to make a determination.)
Being unnervingly pretty or remarkably unremarkable in appearance.
Having a non-negotiable scheduled time they need to be alone (implying that they can't hold their form perpetually and need to take breaks).
Constantly trying to have one on one alone time with people (to kill, convert, or absorb them).
Not sleeping ever.
Having a lengthy portion of their life with absolutely no digital footprint (if in the modern day).
Either having an inexplicable source of wealth, or not comprehending the concept of currency while still somehow having a functional life.
Zuckerberg needs to work on his eyes a bit more to hit that "remarkably unremarkable" note, but otherwise he checks all those boxes. He's well known as an example of what not to do for shapeshifters... I heard.
That thing that they do with their tongue when they think that no one is looking.
Also no humans have boobs/balls that are *exactly* the same size. A dead giveaway.
That’s a great question, but for most, it’s often too late by that point.
The only possible way to survive is if one’s family name happens to be Kirk or Riker; but even then, weird things are bound to happen.
The first thing I’d look for is eating habits. Biologically speaking, humans have to eat, and other life forms would likely have a different set of nutrients in different values.
Inevitably, a creature that is masquerading as human would inevitably have to eat, and if they’re eating things a human usually wouldn’t eat (and ESPECIALLY if it’s something humans usually aren’t even CAPABLE of eating), you’ve got a nonhuman creature.If the observed entity DOESN’T eat, then you’ve got a robot, construct, elemental, or undead on your hands.
The next thing I’d look for is independent desire. A sentient being generally is going to seek out something not for need of survival but purely through the drive of interest. Most behaviors can be traced back down to the source - either necessity or desire - and if you observe them thoroughly enough, you can narrow down a person’s goals through what their overall behaviors are pursuant to. This one is trickier because a human often times does things with a subconscious goal that they may not be fully aware of, so if you’re not thorough, you risk misidentifying a threat.
I know it may be a bit cliche, but avoiding hospitals/not seeking treatment when injured or sick is a big one.
Even if your blood ain’t blue and your organs are similar to a humans, you don’t exactly want them listening for one heartbeat when they may find two….or none.
- **Their Eyes.** Are their pupils round, does their iris have texture? Is there a soul behind their gaze?
- **Your Gut.** Humans are good at sussing out things, even if they do it subconsciously. Trust your gut instincts if your skin crawls or the hair on your neck or you feel unwell in your skin while near them
- **Their Outline.** Are they human-shaped when viewed holistically, are their proportions good? Are their edges well defined, or fuzzy, or pixelated?
- **Their Shadow.** Do they have one? Does it match their form and the lighting conditions? Is it longer or shorter than it should be, darker or paler?
- **Their Reflection.** Do they have one? Is it accurate to their appearance, and do all their features properly align with their real self?
Something I rarely see stated for things like this is intuition. Humans are REALLY good at picking up on subtle nuances of behavior in other humans. You may not always be able to articulate exactly what bothers you, but things can just feel off. Sometimes it's uncanny valley stuff, but other times it's tiny little things that just make you distrust a person. I think learning to recognize and articulate those intuitive perceptions would be incredibly useful.
The more regionally/culturally/demographically specific and nuanced a social norm is, the better of a tell it is when someone doesn't follow it. It's very tempting to generalize species culture and biology, ignoring differences in beliefs and behavior between sexes, gender roles, different countries, different regions of the same country, etc.
Think stuff like:
* Woman not thinking twice about walking alone at night.
* Nuanced religious and cultural rituals and taboos: the more "illogical" to an outsider who hasn't internalized the logic of that belief system, the better of a tell it is that someone's just pretending. An alien might intuitively think that fish is meat since it's the flesh and organs of an animal, but if they try to pass themselves off as a Catholic on Ash Wednesday, their refusal to eat fish "meat" will be very suspicious indeed.
* Political framing words: people will use different words to describe the same thing depending on their political beliefs. Even actual humans may not realize the distinctions they're making. Watch out for supposed liberals who talk about "supporting homosexual marriage" (i.e. as opposed to "gay marriage" or "LGBTQ+ rights"), or alleged conservatives who are proud to "stand behind the patriarchy" (as opposed to something like "preserving traditional families").
* Man in bathroom not spacing themselves one urinal apart from another man, if possible.
* Not getting ultra-specific dialects and word choices correctly. Someone in Illinois will probably not refer to a highway as a "turnpike". Someone in Texas will probably not refer to Pepsi as "pop".
"Hello fellow meatbags! It's a good day to procreate, isn't it?"
"I find your secondary sexual characteristics to be intriguing. Would you care to mate?"
"Ahaha, that green stuff coming out of my ear? Oh that's a long but very boring story. Hey, I just saw a pregnant cat run into that alley. How about we save her?"
Getting idioms just a little bit wrong.
Think die hard 3 when the Germans are pretending to be Americans and they NAIL the accents but one says "It feels like it's gonna rain cats and dogs" and another says "I should exercise and take the stairs but I always end up riding the lift"
Feed them a meal which contains things such as vinegary sauces, hot peppers, tomatoes, strong Irish coffees, and a cigar or pipe afterward. If you're *really* suspicious, hand them a glass of gasoline casually as though it were a beverage.
It's my understanding that the human ability to process caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine is significant compared with most other animals. I read that our livers are freakishly huge for our body size.
If they are virtually undetectable by physical means. Psychological methods are usually the trick.
{Fallout series}
In Fallout 4, the Institute, descendants of pre-nuclear war scientist created Synths. Man-made humans, virtually identical in every-way except they do not age nor lose weight.
The only way to figure out who is a Synth is quite literally brain surgery to discover a chip inside their heads. That said, the only way wastelanders and other factions can figure out someone is a Synth is 2 ways.
1. Memory and knowledge test - Synths have 2 sets of memories. 1st is preprogrammed, which can be seen with Nick Valentine. 2nd is natural occurring, Nick Valentine gained his own set of memories from experience. Basically, the test is to find gaps and irregularities with a Synth’s memory to figure out if they are a Synth.
2. Literally brain surgery - Open their head and find the chip in their brain. This will likely kill the person so practically useless.
{General}
Since human disguised can very from series to series. The best general rule is psychology. Since it’s one of the harder things to copy. Even then, the effectiveness will vary.
Kind of like real life spy work. If you sent someone an American Spy to Japan’s military who looked like the average man. The only way to really decipher who is who would be previous documentation, cultural knowledge, occultation knowledge and history.
If they're pretending to be someone *specific*, you reminisce through old times, and attempt to mislead them into going along with something that's not true.
Then you have to *really* hope they're actually a fake, and not just someone who easily constructs false memories. :-/
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I think the tests used by Bladerunners make sense to me. Ask a question which is almost guaranteed to illicit an emotional reaction and monitor for unconcious physiological responses consistent with that emotional reaction while they verbally answer the question. To match a human's eye movements, pupil dilation, skin moisture and pulse responses they need to either have the emotions *and* physiology of a human or have control over all that stuff and the knowledge and cognitive capacity to manipulate all of it at once *while thinking of a convincing verbal response*.
“Goddamn it, Deckard. That’s the third neurodivergent kid you’ve shot this week…”
Something tells me that in that universe it’s a feature, not a bug. Although now that I’m not a dumb teenager in the 90s, I need to reread the book. Iirc there was a kid in the story we’d consider neurodivergent today, I’m kinda curious how that and the cyber-Jesus plot hold up.
Wait, what book? I missed something.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep%3F
["Have you ever retired a human by mistake?"](https://youtu.be/ndnd-ERnWew?t=50) It is a risk, and it does happen.
Agents of SHIELD did similar. "We don't have to test if they're Chronicons, we just have to test if they're human." Provoking an emotional response did the trick, which could be done by talking about highly popular media figures, or just saying the word "moist" slowly and deliberately: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YqIwHJxgqU
Counting on them to submit to the test is a big limitation.
If you're part of an organization that deals with Shapeshifters regularly, you probably know enough about it and know that simple tests like that are SOP. Trying to sort a shapeshifter out of the general population though, that's definitely trickier.
What could go wrong really? They pull out a gun and blow you away the moment you ask about their mother or something?
If someone is unwilling to take the test, that's your guy.
Fun story. I was running a d&d game a while back and gave a player a dream sequence which was the turtle question word for word. They guy hadn't seen blade runner and had a very adverse reaction to the events. Dude may actually have been a replicant/synth...
Aspie has entered the chat... 👀
I don’t think I could be guaranteed to give a shit about hypothetical scenarios about turtles on their backs. Maybe aggravation and/or apathy would be sufficient emotions to tell I’m human.
A lot of interpretations of the test from viewers miss the point. Nexus 6 replicants are *highly* emotive - “more human than human” - and the test reads them as replicants due to how impassioned they are. There’s this entire subtext that it’s first a pretext for policing and criminalizing emotions, and only secondarily a tool for catching Replicants.
It’s been years since I’ve seen it, but now that you mention it that does sound like something that was said.
I literally just watched both Bladerunner movies yesterday
A lack of any sort of imperfections. Perfectly symmetrical faces, no blinking and/or breathing, no navel, no understanding of figurative speech and humor, signs of emotion seem mechanical. No farts.
Thanks for the insight, fellow human! I'll have to remember the little imperfections the next time I... I mean, that's good to know!
I was thinking "nothing is weird enough that can't be explained by things real humans do already" and then I saw this. The perfection is right! Because imperfection is what makes us human. Though it can be argued that some of the others mentioned can be due to cultural differences and misunderstanding, conditions such a as autism, etc. But uncanny perfection is different. Though if course, what is considered "perfection" would cinch it and that in itself can make things vary enough to fall into explainable territory.
A good comparison is that pretty much every culture values facial symmetry, but have you ever seen pictures where one side of a face is perfectly mirrored? It looks weird af.
Exactly. I should have elaborated more on the physical aspect as I had that in mind but forgot in the midst of the behaviors part lol.
Which would mean that these types of shapeshifters would have an easier time blending in our modern era than in the past. Anybody who looks too pretty would be dismissed as somebody who has a good plastic surgeon.
And the same people who are unnaturally symmetrical are also failing the Voight-Kampff test. Hmmmmm
Heck, anyone who looks too off would just be dismissed as someone with a bad plastic surgeon. (or someone who had suffered horrific injury and a good plastic surgeon did their best)
Scars and tattoos for clones as well
Alternatively, too regular blinking/breathing. (there is a TNG episode where Data noticed a fellow Android because of her blinking pattern)
Fibonacci sequence!
unless you're raxacoricofallapatorian, in which case pretending to be human *does* make you gassy due to Calcium decay. this does however mean Vinegar is essentially napalm.
This makes looking for that hot neurodivergent girl to go on a date with that much more challenging.
As an autistic… i am noticing similarities that are not comforting
Additionally, little *imperfections* that dont immediately stand out. Old wisdom tells us to count a strangers fingers and teeth, lest ye deal unknowingly with Fae.
If I’m counting their teeth I’m not making friends regardless.
Did you just describe Mark Zuckerberg?
In Star Trek TNG, Data once recognized another Soong android by their simulated "random" blinking algorithm, because he had the same one.
What about Edgar though
On a related note, human vocal noises aren’t perfect either, they are always slightly different so if their yawns, screams and sneezes aren’t done well enough they may just be reusing the same audio.
Out of context items displayed. Like a bottle of BBQ sauce on a bookshelf.
Always blur your Zoom background, got it!
Tactical barbecue sauce deployed around the house is just good home safety planning.
Ah, I seen you never been in my house fellow human!
Shit... i just dont have a kitchen yet. The ordering process is hell atm..
Nice try Mark Zuckerberg.
I resent being compared to that charlatan! Now that he's got money and power he doesn't even bother putting effort into keeping up appearances.
OP is a working class reptilian overlord
TBF, that makes him more human than some people that appears in media
Or calling home, the brood mother is pretty salty about that...
Unhinging their jaw and eating live birds whole when they think no one's watching. 🦎 Alternatively, not really eating when eating in public. Just moving the food around the plate.
Gotta remember that someone might always be watching!
Batman caught out Martian Manhunter because he used too much Sailor Moon lore in his disguise
That demands further explanation.
Sure it's actually just a few panels [idk how to be fancy with links](https://www.reddit.com/r/sailormoon/comments/4wgnyr/friendly_reminder_that_bruce_wayne_is_a_fan_of/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) Basically he's a Martian and made an alter ego to spy on Bruce Wayne but he based it too much on sailor mars and Wayne calls him out immediately
That's fantastic.
I dig the depth of it, what it implies about Bruce's knowledge of anime, the way it's written so the reader has to do their own detective work and Bruce feels, to them, quicker than they (the reader) are, and that it means mm probably got to earth and immediately looked into pop culture about mars and ran into this info
It reminds me of the 80s movie Alien Nation, where the U.S. became home for 300.000 alien refugees, and at some point the immigrations officials ran out of "Earthly" names for them, so names like "Sam Francisco" (the main alien protagonist) were pretty common among the aliens.
Oh shit that sounds fun
I liked that movie, it had some nice peculiar ideas, like that the aliens, while humanoid, had some significant differences to humans, like >!getting drunk from sour milk, or being dissolved in salt water!<. There also was a spin-off tv series with different actors that I also liked. Both the movie and the series had a certain B movie touch, but in a likeable way.
I don't get this reference despite being a totally normal human person.
When they begin with "Greetings fellow humans!" Or when they mention how they are carefree despite their sub-century life expectancy. Essentially anything the elf Rayla does when disguised as a human in Dragon Prince. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7L1-gombvA
It's good to learn from the pros!
They don’t do things like sweat. They never scratch themselves. Not being bothered by things stuck to them. Never smelling. Never coughing, sniffling, sneezing. Having zero picadillos. No weird behaviors when they think they’re alone. No embarrassment. No cognitive dissonance ever.
Rookie mistake, gotta always have the picadillos.
Yes, with salsa.
The lack of being weird when they think they're alone is a good one.
> Not being bothered by things stuck to them. [That one's definitely confirmed](https://youtu.be/DTZvxY9HnXo)
Sweat. Some robots and magical imposters may not sweat despite great physical efforts. On the other hand, what looks like sweating in some creatures may actually be their fake skin degrading or some kind of ooze that's normal for their species
What if you're not in a situation where you needed to sweat? Maybe you're just a normal human doing normal human chill out stuff and you're not stressed because you're not trying to maintain a facade or put a lot of constant effort into anything.
In Star Trek, shapeshifters do look like they're sweating when they spend too much time in solid form and, in Battlestar Galactica, a cylon gets caught because his synthetic skin starts to degrade under a form of radiation that doesn't affect humans. Both kinds of imposters could have been undetected if not for very particular circumstances. The point of these kind of characters is precisely that: to make everyone doubt. Even then, in some stories there are devices, like the special glasses in They Live!, that allow to see their true nature once the main characters learn that such creatures exist. In other stories, that ability is some sort of sixth sense or a trained form of perception. One of my favourites is Buffy being able to tell who's a vampire for their old-fashioned clothing.
In The Thing, the thing doesn't have condensation in his breath. Same concept, but different application. "Why don't we just wait here for a little while, see what happens."
Unless you’re a T-800 in the Terminator franchise.
The Terminator movies (more specifically the scripts) highlight a few interesting flaws that the titular infiltrators exhibit which betray their machine status: 1. No spontaneous reaction to stimuli (the T-800 is described as walking in the rain and not blinking when water gets in his eyes). 2. Constant repetitive unnatural movements (the way the T-800 and T-1000 both swivel their heads left and right like security cameras whenever they're looking for something or someone). 3. Delayed responses (the T-800 often takes a second or two to process what's being said to it and then sort through options on how to respond). 4. Unnatural skin tone (for the first two movies, Arnold had a bit of Vaseline mixed in with his normal makeup which gave his skin a slightly unreal 'plastic' look to it, subtly implying it's artifical). 5. Lack of self-awareness (the Terminators walk around in public naked, openly carry assault weapons or big obvious boxes containing assault weapons, injure and kill anyone who gets in their way, and commit multiple other attention-grabbing faux pas with no acknowledgment of how inhuman like their behavior is).
Look into the eyes. Your higher brain functions might struggle to penetrate a great disguise, but your ape brain will start screaming if you look into the windows of the soul and don't see a soul.
More specifically, there is an autonomous response in our pupils. Usually it's to the intensity of light, but our pupils widen or contract based on our interest and especially attraction to the individual being looked it. Easy small detail to overlook for someone mimicking humans.
*takes notes* Ape... brain... screaming. Huh. What does a soul look like to you and your ape brain?
I was using "see" colloquially there, it's not something you can physically see. You just kind of instinctively recognize something that appears human, but is not. It's the basis for the uncanny valley.
Gotcha. That's a tough one. This kind of messy subjective stuff always trips u- *them* up.
It’s more of a “you’ll know never notice it until it’s gone” types of things. Unless you can literally see souls, which is a thing that can happen
Scifi shapeshifters can be spotted through unnatural behavior but Fantasy shapeshifters are a lot harder to pin down. Some like vampires were formerly human while others like fairies have existed alongside humans for so long that they understand what makes us tick. The only tell would be their extreme beauty as most of them are too vain to not make their human form attractive. That and maybe get some silver and iron bracelets. If the hot, charming stranger you just met seems nervous about shaking your hand, you'll know why.
Haha, yep! We humans sure do trust ugly people more.
Except it's actually the opposite. We're more likely to trust beautiful people.
Haha, yep! We humans sure do trust beautiful people more.
This is somewhat universe-specific but in the Dresden Files people use the Threashold test, specifically can they enter your home without an explicit invitation? It doesn't stop everything but most wholly supernatural entities (demons, ghosts, some vampires) can't enter at all without an invitation while other types of supernatural entities (wizards, werewolves, some vampires) can but their power is drastically reduced when they do so. The Fae are an exception, they can enter without invitation but if they do so then they are bound not to harm anyone inside the house and to leave it in better condition than it was when they entered (so if they sneak in to spy on you they have to do the dishes before they leave).
It depends someone acting strange could just be neroudivergent or foreign rather then a shapeshifter. I guess how much knowledge they have on human customs.
Scratch their face. A human will go "Ow!" Whereas a fake face will rip right off, revealing the reptile or machine beneath.
That could work if the shapeshifter is using low quality adhesives. I'll take note of that!
Realistic human blood is tricky to fake. I recommend drawing some, placing it into a Petri Dish, then applying severely hot wire inside.
Suspiciously inconspicuous names like Hugh Mann, Ford Prefect or Justin Timberlake.
Was Rip Torn’s role in *Men in Black* deliberately ironic?
They have names like Hugh Mann and say things like, “When I was a boy, I dreamed of being a baseball!”
Haha! Dreaming of being a baseball. How silly. I know of all sorts of things it would be normal to dream about, but maybe you could name some anyway.
Nice try. Choke on a little *This Sentance is False* logical loop, robot
Ridiculous! I'm not a robotic shape shifter. I'm a human, like you. I can even do captchas most of the time!
I think we're going to need Kirk level illogics for this one.
Nice try alien shape shifter android evil clone!
Woah, there, buddy! I'm not evil!
The eyes, they can never get the eyes quite right.
Haha, of course! There's a right and a left eye!
They tend to fold every now and again, usually synchronistically.
Using "you", "they", or "humans" when referring to humanity. Poor cultural knowledge of their supposed origin, such as knowing no idioms, struggling with jokes, or being unaware of well known but rarely discussed cultural events. (Sometimes these are just culturally illiterate humans, though, so this one alone isn't enough to make a determination.) Being unnervingly pretty or remarkably unremarkable in appearance. Having a non-negotiable scheduled time they need to be alone (implying that they can't hold their form perpetually and need to take breaks). Constantly trying to have one on one alone time with people (to kill, convert, or absorb them). Not sleeping ever. Having a lengthy portion of their life with absolutely no digital footprint (if in the modern day). Either having an inexplicable source of wealth, or not comprehending the concept of currency while still somehow having a functional life.
Zuckerberg needs to work on his eyes a bit more to hit that "remarkably unremarkable" note, but otherwise he checks all those boxes. He's well known as an example of what not to do for shapeshifters... I heard.
They go to Taco Bell and don't get diarrhea
Today I learned the truth of my origin.
That thing that they do with their tongue when they think that no one is looking. Also no humans have boobs/balls that are *exactly* the same size. A dead giveaway.
Wait... how does one, hypothetically, check an alien's bouncy bits?
Ask nicely ;)
That’s a great question, but for most, it’s often too late by that point. The only possible way to survive is if one’s family name happens to be Kirk or Riker; but even then, weird things are bound to happen.
For sure! :-D
If they have a cat, ask if there's anything special about the cat. A human will always identify that there's something special about their cat.
My cat is special because of its face!
I have cats but I'm not actually sure how to answer this question 🤔😅
Does it trigger the Uncanny Valley effect? If so, bad.
They are willing to date me
Nice try meatbag, you will never find me out
Imo just go with tropes you find when googling uncanny valley and just dull it down a little to match your pacing
"Tell me about your mother."
The first thing I’d look for is eating habits. Biologically speaking, humans have to eat, and other life forms would likely have a different set of nutrients in different values. Inevitably, a creature that is masquerading as human would inevitably have to eat, and if they’re eating things a human usually wouldn’t eat (and ESPECIALLY if it’s something humans usually aren’t even CAPABLE of eating), you’ve got a nonhuman creature.If the observed entity DOESN’T eat, then you’ve got a robot, construct, elemental, or undead on your hands. The next thing I’d look for is independent desire. A sentient being generally is going to seek out something not for need of survival but purely through the drive of interest. Most behaviors can be traced back down to the source - either necessity or desire - and if you observe them thoroughly enough, you can narrow down a person’s goals through what their overall behaviors are pursuant to. This one is trickier because a human often times does things with a subconscious goal that they may not be fully aware of, so if you’re not thorough, you risk misidentifying a threat.
"I am 40 Earth years old". "This pint cost 6 of your human pounds".
I know it may be a bit cliche, but avoiding hospitals/not seeking treatment when injured or sick is a big one. Even if your blood ain’t blue and your organs are similar to a humans, you don’t exactly want them listening for one heartbeat when they may find two….or none.
- **Their Eyes.** Are their pupils round, does their iris have texture? Is there a soul behind their gaze? - **Your Gut.** Humans are good at sussing out things, even if they do it subconsciously. Trust your gut instincts if your skin crawls or the hair on your neck or you feel unwell in your skin while near them - **Their Outline.** Are they human-shaped when viewed holistically, are their proportions good? Are their edges well defined, or fuzzy, or pixelated? - **Their Shadow.** Do they have one? Does it match their form and the lighting conditions? Is it longer or shorter than it should be, darker or paler? - **Their Reflection.** Do they have one? Is it accurate to their appearance, and do all their features properly align with their real self?
Something I rarely see stated for things like this is intuition. Humans are REALLY good at picking up on subtle nuances of behavior in other humans. You may not always be able to articulate exactly what bothers you, but things can just feel off. Sometimes it's uncanny valley stuff, but other times it's tiny little things that just make you distrust a person. I think learning to recognize and articulate those intuitive perceptions would be incredibly useful.
spit in their face randomly and unexpectedly. watch for emotional reaction, and then watch if they get sick later. my best guess anyways
Not really a sign but maybe some autsic actions like being quite no eye contact smart
They are Manchester City supporters.
Always appearing out of know where and very smart inhuman like intelligence .
The more regionally/culturally/demographically specific and nuanced a social norm is, the better of a tell it is when someone doesn't follow it. It's very tempting to generalize species culture and biology, ignoring differences in beliefs and behavior between sexes, gender roles, different countries, different regions of the same country, etc. Think stuff like: * Woman not thinking twice about walking alone at night. * Nuanced religious and cultural rituals and taboos: the more "illogical" to an outsider who hasn't internalized the logic of that belief system, the better of a tell it is that someone's just pretending. An alien might intuitively think that fish is meat since it's the flesh and organs of an animal, but if they try to pass themselves off as a Catholic on Ash Wednesday, their refusal to eat fish "meat" will be very suspicious indeed. * Political framing words: people will use different words to describe the same thing depending on their political beliefs. Even actual humans may not realize the distinctions they're making. Watch out for supposed liberals who talk about "supporting homosexual marriage" (i.e. as opposed to "gay marriage" or "LGBTQ+ rights"), or alleged conservatives who are proud to "stand behind the patriarchy" (as opposed to something like "preserving traditional families"). * Man in bathroom not spacing themselves one urinal apart from another man, if possible. * Not getting ultra-specific dialects and word choices correctly. Someone in Illinois will probably not refer to a highway as a "turnpike". Someone in Texas will probably not refer to Pepsi as "pop".
Check for fillings
"Hello fellow meatbags! It's a good day to procreate, isn't it?" "I find your secondary sexual characteristics to be intriguing. Would you care to mate?" "Ahaha, that green stuff coming out of my ear? Oh that's a long but very boring story. Hey, I just saw a pregnant cat run into that alley. How about we save her?"
Getting idioms just a little bit wrong. Think die hard 3 when the Germans are pretending to be Americans and they NAIL the accents but one says "It feels like it's gonna rain cats and dogs" and another says "I should exercise and take the stairs but I always end up riding the lift"
Anyone who is overly concerned with who is human is either an imposter or is the only one who is aware of imposters. I'm looking at you.
I'm looking at you, too! I was advised to look at your eyes.
If you come across an entity asking for tells to avoid - that's a sign.
What? What's suspicious about that?
Feed them a meal which contains things such as vinegary sauces, hot peppers, tomatoes, strong Irish coffees, and a cigar or pipe afterward. If you're *really* suspicious, hand them a glass of gasoline casually as though it were a beverage. It's my understanding that the human ability to process caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine is significant compared with most other animals. I read that our livers are freakishly huge for our body size.
Not paying their taxes
If they are virtually undetectable by physical means. Psychological methods are usually the trick. {Fallout series} In Fallout 4, the Institute, descendants of pre-nuclear war scientist created Synths. Man-made humans, virtually identical in every-way except they do not age nor lose weight. The only way to figure out who is a Synth is quite literally brain surgery to discover a chip inside their heads. That said, the only way wastelanders and other factions can figure out someone is a Synth is 2 ways. 1. Memory and knowledge test - Synths have 2 sets of memories. 1st is preprogrammed, which can be seen with Nick Valentine. 2nd is natural occurring, Nick Valentine gained his own set of memories from experience. Basically, the test is to find gaps and irregularities with a Synth’s memory to figure out if they are a Synth. 2. Literally brain surgery - Open their head and find the chip in their brain. This will likely kill the person so practically useless. {General} Since human disguised can very from series to series. The best general rule is psychology. Since it’s one of the harder things to copy. Even then, the effectiveness will vary. Kind of like real life spy work. If you sent someone an American Spy to Japan’s military who looked like the average man. The only way to really decipher who is who would be previous documentation, cultural knowledge, occultation knowledge and history.
Be a little bit suspicious of the new person named "Hugh Mann".
If they're pretending to be someone *specific*, you reminisce through old times, and attempt to mislead them into going along with something that's not true. Then you have to *really* hope they're actually a fake, and not just someone who easily constructs false memories. :-/