Talk:Duck test

American Vandalism

Just as Americans refer to the pinnacle of their national game as the World Series, in this article, quality international research is deleted in favour of references to American entertainment and history. This seems to be a trend in parts of Wikipedia where the quality is deleted, leaving a bland residue of little value to anyone.

Logical fallacies are used in politics, law and popular culture, and the duck test is one of the more egregious. By deleting the historical reference to France in the 18th century, an important reference that will be used by serious users of Wikipedia is lost. We are left with Dirk Gently, Monty Python and the Marx Brothers.

And what is the elephant test doing here? CDT1997 (talk) 08:21, 8 April 2024 (UTC)

The purported 18th century automaton origin is from a British tabloid newspaper itself only saying that the story is a "legend", in a humorous article about Vaucanson's automaton:

Although the first printed example is thought to be from an American poet in the 19th century, legend has it that people were saying this long before, in the 18th century, about a certain mechanical duck.

[...]

Not surprising then that the phrase entered common parlance.

The "looks like a duck" phrase (or Duck Test as some call it) is now thought of as a mildly amusing philosophical argument but back in the 18th century would certainly have been more akin to the way the Turing Test challenges artificial intelligence systems to fool the assessor into believing the system is a real human and not a computer.

"Yes. It does look like a duck - albeit a gilded copper one. And yes, it does quack, and yes it flaps it's wings, drinks water and eats food too. And yes! Foul smelling effluent does pour forth from it's metal cloaca. Heavens! I declare it must be a duck by crikey!"

This isn't enough of a source for us to write that Vaucanson "created" the phrase a century prior to Riley.

I can find a few more reliable sources mentioning the automaton in relation to the phrase, to illustrate some other point, but none claiming that the phrase originates from it. Belbury (talk) 19:14, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

You are welcome to add it back. Dirk Gently and Monty Python are English, not American ~2026-22295-81 (talk) 01:36, 11 April 2026 (UTC)

Humor, intentional or unintentional

I love coming back to this article and chuckling at the audio file basically labeled, "A [duck], quacking like a duck." My only request: never get rid of that part of the article, and if it's ever removed, restore it. That's all I have to say. 140.185.96.57 (talk) 15:20, 13 May 2025 (UTC)

The duck test is a frequently cited colloquial example of abDUCKtive reasoning. ~2026-18881-6 (talk) 00:52, 10 January 2026 (UTC)

Department of Defense? ~2026-18975-9 (talk) 01:24, 10 January 2026 (UTC)