I was walking with my brother and we were talking about TNG and having just watched the episode were the crew thinks Picard is dead but is really spying on another ship (I don't remember the name sorry) when data here's that Picard is dead he just brushes it off what do you all think of how data is programed to deal with loss??
He is probably able to avoid dealing with the loss until he has free time (compartmentalizing the information for later).
I think this exchange from Legacy spells it out pretty well. ISHARA But you don't have feelings, do you? DATA Not as such. However, perhaps even among humans, friendship is sometimes less an emotional response, and more a sense of familiarity. ISHARA (understanding) You can become used to someone. DATA Exactly. As I experience certain sensory input patterns, my mental pathways become accustomed to them. The inputs eventually are anticipated. And even "missed" when absent. When something once expected is no longer there. As far as Data 'brushing it off' in regards to Picard, I believe he was simply setting it aside until they got to the bottom of things. Data has show a 'duty first' tendency in the past. Take Redemption part II when he is in command of the Sutherland. Only when he succeeds in outing the Romulans does he then order the phasers to be taken off line and the radiaton clean up to begin. He fully understood what the priorities were.
Data processes emotions the same way that everyone else does. He just doesn't know it. More interesting than the exchange quoted above from "Legacy" is the last two scenes of that episode - the conversation with Riker, and standing alone in the corridor - for all that Data doesn't say.
He just processes it differently Like in the final scene of "Skin of Evil" Lt. Cmdr. Data: Sir - the purpose of this gathering... confuses me. Capt. Picard: Oh? How so? Lt. Cmdr. Data: My thoughts are not for Tasha, but for myself. I keep thinking how empty it will be without her presence. Did I miss the point? Capt. Picard: No, you didn't, Data. You got it.