In the Star Trek episode where Data is (a) on trial, and (b) to be disassembled, Picard asks the expert on the other side if Data is sentient and thus entitled to various rights; the reply is that, no, Data is not sentient; Picard asks what’s required for sentience, and gets told “intelligence, self-awareness, consciousness.”
Picard then elicits answers to a bunch of questions to make the case that “he’s met two of your three criteria for sentience, so what if he meets the third? Consciousness in even the smallest degree?”
And then Picard — uh, stops, pretty much; he notes that one criterion remains, and that he’d presumably win if that one gets met too, and — that’s it. And the other side would presumably win if it goes unmet, but — doesn’t address that third prong either.
Am I missing something? It’s like a murder trial where the attorney says look, my client had the right to so use lethal force in self-defense if this occurred in his home after sunset, and, hey, what if he WAS at home? You ever think about THAT? We agree that it was after sunset, and that he was defending himself; and, well, I’m done talking, and so is the prosecution!
I could guess at reasons why the characters drop the whole thing after covering two out of three, but that’s all I’d be doing…
All he had to do was raise a bit of doubt, in both the other side and the judge, that Data was property. He raised enough doubt and thus Data was ruled to be sentient. I don’t think Maddox even objected – so if Maddox was convinced (or at least was no longer confident that Data wasn’t sentient), then the case was over, since Maddox was the only one pushing the issue.
It’s a decent argument, but (a) if Maddox really were no longer pushing the issue at that point, then it seems like the judge would’ve ruled on those grounds instead of seemingly making a big show of ruling on the merits; and (b) after laying out the case for intelligence and self-awareness, Picard asks Maddox: what is he? And, well, Maddox still just says “a machine,” and Picard says “is he? Are you sure?” — and Maddox says “yes,” and that’s the last thing he says before the ruling (and, again, he’d already said that Data isn’t sentient, and he doesn’t actually take it back in advance of the ruling).
I thought it was because consciousness, depending on how you define it, was either a gimme or impossible to really know for sure without being Data yourself. Could you prove that your dog has consciousness?
The part that intrigues me is, like iiandyiiii was saying, Maddox seems to commit himself to a “gimme” — but Maddox doesn’t seem to realize it, and Picard either doesn’t realize it or doesn’t point it out, and Louvois then either doesn’t realize it or doesn’t point it out.
Which is to say: Maddox apparently can’t dispute Picard’s two-out-of-three talk when it comes to intelligence and self-awareness — but when Maddox gets put on the spot, he defines self-awareness as being “conscious of your existence and actions. You are aware of yourself and your own ego.” And, to me, that looks like Maddox is defining the second criterion (which he apparently grants) in terms of the third (which he apparently doesn’t): that Data, like Picard, is, y’know, conscious of his existence and actions.
But afterwards, Maddox didn’t seem too upset, from my memory. And he’s referenced in later episodes as having a sort of pen pal friendship with Data. So I think he was swayed by Picard’s arguments.
Yes. Maddox wasn’t a trial lawyer, apparently had an underlying affection for Data, and seemed by the end to have been convinced by Picard’s spirited defense.
His ongoing correspondence with the android is mentioned in “Data’s Day” (one of my favorite episodes), in which Data’s voiceover narration is his “letter” to Maddox at the Daystrom Institute.
Well, look, it’s admittedly a small thing that I’m harping on, but: I can imagine a version of this episode where Maddox gets convinced before Louvois rules, dropping the case upon having just now become convinced.
But, as written, he doesn’t actually seem to do that; before the verdict gets delivered, he’s apparently still waiting to hear what she’ll say (sure as she doesn’t seem to think it’s an easy call). It’s almost as if what Picard said got him a lot of the way there, and then what Louvois said in her impartial-jurist capacity then got him to accept it (and, again, she doesn’t sound especially convinced).
Picard has established the things that are externally testable - intelligence (Data can respond appropriately to questions and create original answers to problems) and self-awareness (he would certainly pass the Mirror Test (Mirror test - Wikipedia)). To prove he’s not sentient, Riker/Maddox would have to prove that Data is not conscious to any degree at all - and how can you prove that? I don’t think that Picard had the burden of proof to show that Data had all three elements of sentience - Riker/Maddox had to prove that Data did not have all three, and it was obvious that he had at least two.
But if that’s so — if it actually was Riker/Maddox who had that burden of proof — then hadn’t Picard already won before he started in with the impassioned speechifying? Couldn’t he have just said, hey, on sentience, I don’t have the burden of proof; they have the burden of proof; and they talked about how strong he is and whether his hand is detachable, but they never said anything about whether he’s sentient — so if I likewise clam up, then can’t you rule against them as soon as I finish this sentence?
(I’d change my analogy from before: Picard is like a defense attorney in a first-degree murder trial who can honestly say, “Your Honor, the prosecution established how tall my client is, and whether he owns a gun — but they never mentioned whether anyone, y’know, died. I don’t have the burden of proof; they have the burden of proof; and, since they’re not presenting any evidence about somebody getting killed, I’ll follow suit, if you’ll please rule in my client’s favor right now.”)
Given that, my only complaint is this should have been a flashback episode. The fact that Data is a (LT) Commander means the issue is settled. The ship’s computer can’t be put in command, but Data can.
I’ve always just taken it as arguing that consciousness, unlike the other two, cannot be proven. Or, at least, the writers couldn’t come up with a proof that would work on the show. Thus Picard didn’t have a proof, and had to appeal to the possibility, and the great moral wrong if Data was also conscious.
Personally, I think the fact that Data had communicated a desire not to go with Maddox or be disassembled should have been sufficient. But admitting that would have prevented the trial from even happening, I think. .
The episode is quite unclear about who has the burden of proof - but surely, it can’t be that anyone in Starfleet can be accused of being unsentient and face the burden of proving it.
P.S. In an effort to revive a Spock/McCoy banter thing, TNG introduced Pulaski, but I never found her treatment of Data to be particularly amusing, particularly since it apparently wasn’t based on suspicions that Data wasn’t sentient - Pulaski treated the Moriarty simulation as sentient, and surely his basis for being sentient is less than Data’s (if only because Data has demonstrated capabilities for decades, and is not based on a fictional pattern).
Wouldn’t an android with a professed, and oft repeated, desire to be ‘more’ or ‘human’ enough to qualify itself as sentient and fully aware of what it was?
Because he clearly can’t prove in a courtroom whether Data has consciousness (or that he himself does for that matter) so he asks the question rhetorically to leave it up to the Judge and it worked.
The gag, though (and, again, I apologize for driving this into the ground, but it just jumps out at me) is that, when Picard puts Maddox on the spot about the self-awareness criterion — by asking “self-awareness: what does that mean? Why am I self-aware?” — the first thing the writers have Maddox say is “you are conscious of your existence and actions” (and they don’t then have Maddox dispute Picard about whether “he’s met two of your three criteria for sentience,” which apparently means the hostile expert witness granted right there in the courtroom that Data is, well, conscious of that stuff).
And, man, if the other side is going to helpfully define the second criterion in terms of the third, that’s like saying you can only buy a beer if you have a valid ID, and you’re at least twenty-one years old, and you’re at least twenty years old…
While lofty, and if i recall the best TNG ep up to that point…the entire premise is flawed. Data is a Lt. Commander in Starfleet. Now while it could be argued that Data isn’t a Federation citizen, he is a member of Starfleet and HAS to have basic rights.
Is Data a member of Starfleet? Yes. Do Starfleet members have a right to resign? I presume. That didn’t seem to be an issue. Case closed. It doesn’t matter whether you think he’s property or sentient. Once he was admitted to Starfleet, that door is closed.
Hey Starfleet…maybe stop using human neural nets on your computers (The Ultimate Computer…all the stuff involving holograms.) if you arn’t prepared to open a huge mess.