Picard, realising Data ought to be treated with the same rights as any other member of his crew looks for ways to stop Data being transferred and being forced to subject himself to the experiments. His commanding officer, Captain Picard tries to convince data of the potential benefits of the experiments to their organisation – Data counters with the argument that it is because he is a machine (i.e. Initially Data is intrigued by the notion, but on inquiry he comes to the view that Maddox lacks the necessary expertise to study him and in fact Maddox’ experiments could cause him irreparable harm. A scientist Dr Maddox has been studying Data with the view to reverse engineering the technology that enables his ‘positronic’ brain to function in order to create many hundreds or thousands of replicas that can perform dangerous tasks in the place of humans. Plotĭata has served aboard the starship Enterprise and has, we are told an exemplary record of service.
STAR TREK TNG MEASURE OF A MAN ANDROID
The story centres on the character ‘Data’ who is an android (an automaton made to resemble a human) and whether he is the property of the organisation ‘Star Fleet’ in which he serves as a crew member. Kicking off the search for an answer to the question of whether there are truths we can learn from Science Fiction in the development of technology, I turn to one of my favourite episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) – “The Measure of a Man” which was first aired on February 13th 1989.
Lt Commander Data on trial in the episode “The Measure of a Man” from Star Trek: The Next Generation (S02E09) image copyright Paramount Pictures