Standard Sapience Test

The Standard Sapience Test is a complex series of assessments used to determine whether a life form is capable of intelligent communication with humans. It was created as a means of analyzing the ethics of interactions with virtual life forms and other non-human entities. Entities that pass the Standard Sapience Test are usually granted the rights of an individual and are entitled to owning personal property. Coloquially, the test is described as determining whether or not a being has a soul.

As communication across the wider galaxy has been established, a variety of non-human entities have been found to pass the test. Even animals that were once previously considered non-sentient will pass the test such as cetaceans, primates and even certain species of birds. Naturally, these species now carry the same rights as other humans. However, some beings like the Mogus will not pass the test despite being able to perform complex tasks just as well as or even better than humans. Whether this is a cultural or biological factor is not known, and the Standard Sapience Test does not sufficiently shed light on a possible answer.

Detractors of the test sometimes accuse it of being culturally biased towards humans. This is counteracted usually by the claim that having some sort of baseline is useful in serving as a guide to forming diplomatic relations and understanding the universe. Regardless of the accuracy of the test, it cannot be denied that it has been a major factor in advocating various civil rights movements involving non-humans, particularly synthetic beings.