Picard never actually proved Data is sentient.

Picard never actually proved Data is sentient.

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  1. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    He didn't have to. He just pointed out that treating Data as sentient has far less potential to incur indescribable suffering and horror on the world than the alternative. Essentially: "We don't know, so it's best to play it safe until we do know". Which seems a pretty prudent course of action to me.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      yeah, kinda this. They are making the leap of faith with Data and just act like he's sentient

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      What if someone mass-produces Data clones. Should they all have equal rights to human citizens of the Federation, including voting rights?

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        Yes, but they should be judged to have equivalent intelligence and general knowledge to a fully grown adult and no pre-programmed political opinions.

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        They can't mass-produce Data clones, isn't that the entire point of the episode, that Data is unique and that the guy wants to cut him open to find out how to make more?

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          >They can't mass-produce Data clones
          They can't yet. It's just a matter of time until they can.
          That's why the outcome of the Data trial matters at all. It sets a precedent.

          • 2 weeks ago
            Anonymous

            They can't mass-produce Data clones, isn't that the entire point of the episode, that Data is unique and that the guy wants to cut him open to find out how to make more?

            Human cloning already exists through the transporter if nowhere else. It's reliable and safe, and Will Riker is treated as a unique human in his own right. Showing Data as sentient would make the mass-production of him illegal just as intentional human cloning is illegal already.

            • 2 weeks ago
              Anonymous

              If human cloning was cheap and easy then people would definitely be doing it.
              You could try to outlaw it but people would do it anyway. It's just too convenient.

              • 2 weeks ago
                Anonymous

                I don't know what to tell you. It's canon in Star Trek that human cloning is possible and illegal. It's mentioned several times in several different series that transporter clones aren't that rare. Any legal precedent setting Data as a human would apply those laws to mass-producing him as well. You see the opposite thing happen in Voyager with The Doctor holograms getting used as mining slaves because they were ruled non-sentient.

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          Use the transporter for some easy copy+paste

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        We mass produce humans too

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        what if 85-iq people could mass produce just by fricking? imagine the dystopia if all of them had "rights"!

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          Those are harmless though. They don't bother to vote, work manual labor, are easily influenced by the media and fill up prisons.
          If 15% of the population (or more, why stop?) was highly intelligent androids with a similar moral compass then that would actually move the needle.

          • 2 weeks ago
            Anonymous

            >They don't bother to vote
            wrong

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      >"We don't know, so it's best to play it safe until we do know"

      That's not scientific, that's progressive idealism

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        we know for a fact transgenderism is a delusion though. we also know trannies are all autistic.

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          troonyism is the crack epidemic of the autists

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        The question was one that cannot be resolved with science, since it was about semantics and how society ought to be structured.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      By Star Fleet's admission of Data through the academy, they presumed him to have the rights and responsibilities of any sentient individual within Star Fleet.

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        Acknowledging that Data went through the academy completely kneecaps the entire episode though.

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          It's not the best legal episode. I personally would rather it were reframed it in a different context.

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          By Star Fleet's admission of Data through the academy, they presumed him to have the rights and responsibilities of any sentient individual within Star Fleet.

          I disagree with that conclusion. If an uncontacted, advanced alien race sent a non-sentient robot through the academy as a diplomatic act (Say, for example, to prove that Starfleet is a scientific and not military organization firsthand) Starfleet could easily be convinced to allow it despite the robot being just a non-sentient recording device. His sentience or lack thereof would still need to be proven outside of that.

          • 2 weeks ago
            Anonymous

            While they might allow a non-sentient robot through the academy, the question of sentience would still inevitably pop up and would have been resolved then and there. It requires a massive suspension of disbelief to believe that Data attended the academy for several years and nobody in charge thought to ask if he's a person or an object. We even know that there are people who are prejudiced against machines in the Starfleet due to Pulanski. It also makes the Starfleet look hilariously incompetent where they just allow beings that they know so little about that they don't even know if it's a person to attend the academy.

            • 2 weeks ago
              Anonymous

              You could easily explain that shit away. It doesn't matter if Data is a person - either you bullied him or vandalized him and you should be punished either way. And was Soong still around while Data was in the academy? I forget. But you could easily say that they didn't want to offend him if they ruled on it. Every classroom probably had an argument on it that came to a different conclusion, but since nothing was riding on it, the academy never made an official, precedent-setting ruling on Data. There are a billion explanations. You could certainly use it as evidence, but his simple admittance and graduation is not a definitive answer either way.

              >It also makes the Starfleet look hilariously incompetent where they just allow beings that they know so little about that they don't even know if it's a person to attend the academy.
              They do that all the time with aliens. I guarantee you that if Seven-of-nine asked, she would have been allowed into the academy after a few speeches. They don't give every race they meet a sapience test.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      What's event the point of making robots with sentience? I get creating something like Data as a scientific curiosity, but what good would mass producing him do, other than create ethical problems? If you can produce something like Data you should be able to produce robots for pure utility, without need to complicate things.

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        Most stories with a bent on the morality of sentient AI tend to ignore simpler robots because most of the time robots already do what sentient AI would be made to do with no moral issues attached.
        it's rule of drama.

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        got anymore Star Trek frogs?

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous
        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous
        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous
  2. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    Prove that you're sentient

  3. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    Sentience is a spook

  4. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    It was propaganda for the wrongs of slavery.

    Bad, bad white people.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      >propaganda for the wrongs of slavery.
      >Bad, bad white people.
      Are you denying slavery is bad?

  5. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    Data proved he was sentient by taking a shit on Holodeck 4, an act so devoid of logic only a creative sapient being could undertake it.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      All he had to do was say that if any attempt at his disassembly was made (so as to better understand his positronic brain) that he would prove Maddox was a cuck and that he had sapient agency at the same time by simply disintegrating himself with a phaser so Maddox would get nothing. Bonus points if he called Riker a Black person before he ended it all.

  6. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    morons like OP don't have to prove they are sentient either. Society grands you rights and protection on the off-change that you are.

  7. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    sex with Gomez

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      She used to have three breasts.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      where did she go? did picard have her thrown out an airlock for spilling cocoa on him?

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        Kilt by the borg

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        Don’t quote me but I think they rejected her as a regular because she was too short, like they rejected Selar because she was too tall

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          According to Naff, "I was supposed to be there for three episodes, because they were trying to find a reason [Geordi] would take his visor off, to justify a reason he would undergo a dangerous surgery to risk his life so he could see again, and the reason was supposed to be because he's in love. They wanted to have us fall in love so deeply that in the next season, he would say, "I have to do this so I can see my beauty." But they also wrote Sonya Gomez as comic relief, as a bumbling ensign with bright eyes who wants to save the world but ends up spilling hot chocolate on Picard, and the feedback they got was that there was no way Geordi would fall in love with someone like me. And I didn't know what they were going for, because we weren't told to play it like it was romantic. I didn't get that clue until later. So we did it more like a little sister/big brother relationship." [2]

          Regarding her proposed third appearance, Naff said, "We also had a major hair crisis. I did two episodes, and I was supposed to come back and do a third, but I wanted to cut my hair. My agent asked if it would be okay, and since I wasn't under contract, they said, "Okay, we're releasing her." So I cut it shaggy, but above the shoulder. I get a call the next week, and they want to redo a hallway scene, and I go back, and they lose their tiny little minds. They were so angry. Everyone was grumbling at me, and making me feel not so great, but LeVar [Burton] was so sweet. He said, "Don't worry. This gives us a chance to do the scene even better." He was so supportive and encouraging, and the scene did come out better. So if you look really closely, you can see the hair extensions." [3]

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      Cutie.

  8. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    Well, they don't prove that warp fields exist either, but the viewer accepts that they do.

  9. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    How do you prove other people are not p-zombies?

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      You don't, but you presume it, because you're a human being and you know you are sentient, therefore it is a reasonable presumption that other human beings are sentient

      Data is not a human being so he doesn't benefit from this presumption

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        Is it really reasonable if you base it on a sample size of one?

  10. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    Data has his own personal motivations for joining Starfleet. The fact he was admitted and completed training is sufficient proof in my mind he is sapient.

  11. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    why didn't picard hire a lawyer

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      It's a dead profession. There is no money anymore, so the psychopaths all moved on to being Starfleet Admirals

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        I can't imagine lawyers would ever stop existing. You get to argue and debate other people for your career, and you get to feel like you're making the world a better place without it literally being life and death like a doctor or soldier.

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          >I can't imagine lawyers would ever stop existing
          We came close in the 40s.

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          >without it literally being life and death like a doctor or soldier
          And kitchen worker

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      Because they needed to keep the costs of the episode as low as possible and came up with a situation where
      >entire episode either takes place on the Enterprise or the makeshift court room
      >there's three guest stars max, two of whom are the scientist who wants to cut Data open and the presiding judge/admiral, and the third of which appears in only a couple of scenes
      >Picard is the defence and Riker is the prosecution, further ensuring the guest stars have as little to do as possible

  12. 2 weeks ago
    Am still on 4chan

    Does he has to?

    Data is right there

  13. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    The whole point of the trial was to determine if Data should be treated as a person or as property. The idea was that a being that could think, reason, learn, and grow being treated no better than a piece of hardware would have been tantamount to slavery.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      This. Data had distinguished himself as a Starfleet officer, and could function very well among living creatures. He was also committed to becoming more human through careful thought and learning. It is impossible to prove a negative. That is to say, we cannot either prove or disprove that anything possesses sentience. Data walked like a human, spoke like a human, and by all accounts acted like a human. He also did not wish to be taken apart. Everything about him demonstrated awareness.

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        yeah, if only Janeway had been in charge of that decision

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          >that episode where she mercilessly kills tuvix

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          Janeway recognized that Tuvix was the product of a classic Trek transporter accident. Even though he was happy being a combination of two people, the individuals also deserved to live exclusively because the accident wasn't their choice... And Janeway just wanted her frickin' coffee.

  14. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    >data

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      It's data, not data

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        Actually, it's Dah-ta.

  15. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    His relationship with Yar proved it.

    He fricks, therefore he is

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      >He fricks, therefore he is
      That's not cool.

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        >miles the race mixing traitor that has mutt kids

        t.pol was here

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          Honorary Aryan.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      If I load a turkey baster with semen and tape a phone with an AI chatbot to it, does that make it human?

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        sounds no different to talking to someone like steven hawking

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        ask your mother

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        It's life, Jim, but not as we know it.

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          Okay, but consider this. If I set up a device such that, in ten minutes' time, a man's sperm will inseminate a woman's egg in an artificial womb that is fed with enough nutrients so the child will be born properly. Is stopping such a device before the insemination considered abortion?

  16. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    Just create a test for sentience and test him
    Obviously other beings who we presume qualify would also pass this test

    Rocks and ants and women would fail

  17. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    >they give data rights as a sentient being, but its still fine to shit on sentient holograms and enslave them or brainfrick them with reprograming

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      They were just jealous that he got to frick Fluttershy.

  18. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    You can't prove the sentience of anyone. You can't even prove that you are sentient to someone else. You just know that you are sentient and even that is just an assumption.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      Only because we don't know how consciousness works in the brain. You'd think people a few hundred years in the future would have figured that one out.

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        >You'd think people a few hundred years in the future would have figured that one out.
        They were saying the same thing a few hundred years ago.

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          No they weren't

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't.

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          woah

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          Wow evolution is amazing. Can't believe science did that.

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          >hurr durr what is abstraction

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        Cant figure out something you cant even define.
        We are still shaky on what exactly life truly should be classified as, let alone what life is conscious.
        Under current definition, viruses are not living beings. And yet they are quite clearly "alive" things that can be "killed".
        I never thought much if animals until I got two dogs, and now I am fully convinced they are just as aware and conscious as I am, even if their intelligence is focused into their sense of smell over generic IQ.

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          The word you are looking for is sapient, not conscious.

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          It's good you point out their nose, because it highlights the limitations of the mirror test. It presumes that other animals value their sight over other senses, like humans, when it's safe to say they don't. Many animals wouldn't even perceive the test going on because they'd immediately clock that there is no scent, thus no being.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      Frick off construct.

  19. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    how do you prove once sentience?

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      >I cannot allow this to continue *begins to summarily execute a murderer*
      >*smirks when he realizes that he has fooled Picard and the rest of the crew with his second conspiracy with the xenophobic aliens*

      Data was more human that many humans are for real.

  20. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    Data proved he was sentient and had emotions somehow all by himself regardless.

  21. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    1) You don't actually have to prove anything at all in a courtroom setting, not to a certainty. All you have to do is persuade some people that something is (most likely) the case, within certain parameters.

    2) The point of the scene is not to illustrate logical demonstration. The point of the scene is for Picard to give an emotional (if intellectually unsatisfying) performance and defense on Data's behalf.

  22. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    Star Trek should be for everyone.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      that's how you end up with nutrek

  23. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous
    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      No one's ever gonna address the fact that Spot was at least two different breed of cats.

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        Love the feline that is Spot.

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          Bro paws.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      i miss practical effects

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous
        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          >physical models for what's in the foreground (defiant, enterprise, borg ship)
          >cg models for what's in the background (the fleet whizzing around)
          was this the ideal?

          • 2 weeks ago
            Anonymous

            >was this the ideal?

            using the correct tool for the job at hand? yes, that is ideal.

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          Love the Enterprise E, and no one can stop me.

          • 2 weeks ago
            Anonymous
            • 2 weeks ago
              Anonymous

              yes, everyone has to copy israeliteisraelite abrams now

              • 2 weeks ago
                Anonymous

                A sad state of affairs.

  24. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous
    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      Whenever the rest of the crew weren't looking I'd randomly finger podge her beefy flaps through that gap. She'd fake that she didn't like it and tell me to stop but like all women, I know she'd secretly love it.

  25. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    in a similar vein, Starfleet couldn't even stop the EMHs from being used as miners (who strangely enough employ 19th century mining techniques)

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      >(who strangely enough employ 19th century mining techniques)
      There's a guy that owns a candy store down in Florida that makes candy using victorian techniques. I can imagine this sort of behavior would exist even in the future.

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        the notion that someone would make holograms mine dilithium the exact same way as a man from the 1800's would mine coal as some kind of "love of the craft" endeavor raises more questions than it answers

        • 2 weeks ago
          Anonymous

          He was an enthusiast that couldn't find enough people to staff his mine with who share his love, so he made do.

  26. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    What was his problem?

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      The pursuit of truth.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      He was arrogant and ambitious. That's a bad mix.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      He needed to learn from it.

  27. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    Prove that you are sentient.

  28. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    My favourite.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      kino acting.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      Fire.

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        Great scene.

  29. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous
  30. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous
  31. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    I liked it.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      Are Tpols breast implants logical?

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        If breast implants increase her chances of getting bred then yes. This is her primary purpose in life and a woman's highest aspiration. The only question is do a majority of men prefer disgusting bolt-on breasts?

      • 2 weeks ago
        Anonymous

        Yes.

  32. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous
    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      >I was on board the Saratoga at
      >WOLF
      >THREE
      >FIVE
      >NINE

  33. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    Jim 🙂

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      Passengers are great.

  34. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    >You realize of course if we give him the formula, we're altering the future.
    >Why? How do we know he didn't invent the thing?
    >Yeah.
    I always love this scene as a character moment for Scotty and McCoy. It's three lines of dialogue to establish that neither of them really care all that much about Star Fleet's rules and dogmas.

  35. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

    Data proved it himself.

    • 2 weeks ago
      Anonymous

      Proved himself be gay

  36. 2 weeks ago
    Anonymous

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