Crystal and I recently started watching through Star Trek: The Next Generation (STNG) with our 9-year-old son Justin. This series play during the late 80s and early 90s, and ironically it is now several generations back in the Star Trek universe.
One of the central characters is an android named “Data”. I continue to be impressed with how well the writers did with him. This will be a running post, where I comment on various episodes as we get to them. To avoid being tedious, I will only comment on episodes that bring up an interesting point or go in a new direction.
General
Data repeatedly asserts that he feels no emotions, yet he acts in ways that must be driven by emotion. The characters around him doubt his assertion. The writers obviously did not know how to make an emotionless android, because they only had humans as reference.
It is impossible to act rationally without emotion. You may know what the right action is, but simply not care enough to do it. Emotion is our internal measure of the value of actions. Unfortunately, our emotions can also lead to irrational and hurtful behavior. The goal should not be to eliminate them (like Spock) but to channel them in a positive direction.
Data has a “positronic brain” a la Asimov. OTOH, he does not appear to be a 3-laws robot.
He asserts he is an “android” not a “robot”. This is an artificial distinction. “Android” simply means in the form of a man. “Robot” means worker. In the strictest sense, Data could claim not to be anyone’s slave, and therefore not a robot. However, most of us would call any sophisticated mechanical device a robot. As such, android is a subcategory of robot. Note that “gynoid” is the feminine form. It is sexist language to call a female robot “android” (especially if she is capable of sex, which of course they all are …)
The Naked Now
The writers are still introducing characters, and they haven’t yet figured out Data. The key mistake here, never repeated, is to make him nearly biological, such that he can get drunk like everyone else. OTOH he gets his girlfriend Tasha.
Datalore
A little backstory on how Data was made. We learn that his is an old-fashioned machine that can be separated into clunky mannequin-like parts. The oddest thing was the notion that Data is invisible as a life-form when he is turned off. The writers seem to conflate the notion of alive (and a tasty morsel for the Crystalline Entity) with conscious or sentient.
Elementary, Dear Data
It is only worth mentioning that in Season 2, Dr. Pulaski is constantly questioning Data’s nature. She makes a good foil to develop his character. Usually he proves her wrong in some subtle way.
The Measure of a Man
Challenges our notions about human attributes and whether machines can have them. This is a wonderfully structured episode. The courtroom setting, with Data’s very life and freedom at risk, is a great way to keep us interested while they work through some of the most difficult arguments in AI and the philosophy of mind. In the end we learn that Data is a new life-form, worthy of full protection under the law.
The Offspring
My absolute favorite so far! There are a number of parallels between Data’s “child” Lal and Susan. Specifically:
- Black hair in a stark mushroom cut. Quorra from TRON is the same way. This must be the universal hairstyle for gynoids!
- She is created by copying the structures of one “brain” to another. Lal gets a download of Data’s structures. Susan is built by replicating human brain structures from our genetic code.
- She goes through a series of updates before she is complete.
- She has a parent-child relationship with her creator.
- She struggles with the disconnect between her body and her mental age.
- Others want to take and use her.
- She experiences the full power of emotion.
- She dies of a system crash in the arms of someone who loves her dearly.
The notion that Data downloads Lal’s memories into himself is kind of creepy. Does he merely provide storage space for her, or does he become Lal in part? This may be similar to the chapter “Susan Too”, where she branches into two beings that have separate experiences for a while, then gets rejoined into a single person.
Unlike Data or Lal, Susan is not on a quest to become human. Being human is where her journey begins.
The Most Toys
It seems pretty clear that Data decides to kill the bad guy at the last moment. The surprising thing is he denies it. Then he denies gloating when the bad guy finally gets caught and loses everything, which invites us to think that maybe Data does feel something.
Brothers
We meet Dr. Soong, and learn that Data can finally have the one thing he lacks: emotions. All he needs to do is shove a little chip in his head. The Pinocchio cycle is complete. Sort of.
Soong has a few conversations with Data about the relationship of the creator to his creature. These are not as compelling as the tension between Soong and Lore. It is like the tension between Dr. Frankenstein and his creature, except Soong shows a much greater sense of responsibility and guilt, wishing he had time to make things better.
Why does Data do dastardly bad things to divert the ship? He clearly exercises his unique knowledge to do it, so his ethics should also remain intact. This is merely a writing device to drag out the story. The original series episode Amok Time handles this somewhat better.