Janeway in the cases of Quinn and Tuvix

[Sindatur]

MatthiasRussell wrote:

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Sim was genetically identical to Trip and had his personality and memories. Once the creature was injected with Tripp's DNA it became an identical clone. My point was that Sim didn't want to die but was forced into it.

Big differences to me are that Sim was created with the sole intent of saving the life of his originator, Sim had only a few days to live anyways, and that Trip wasnt dead yet.

However, as a sentient being and someone who never swore an oath to Starfleet, Sim should have had the right to choose for himself. Also, Archer should never have authorized the procedure in my opinion.

Yea, operating under the belief that Sim would live it's entire lifetime, I have no problem with it being created to save Tucker's life. However, once created, it shouldn't have been prematurely killed in order to harvest from it's genetic materials.

[exodus]

DonIago wrote:

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I'm not sure we're in a position to judge whether a lifeform merits existence on the grounds that it's only "mimicing" a human.

Data and the EMH only mimic humans, but don't have a right to exist?

They're both machines
Machines don't have rights.
Even "Measure of Man" & "Author Author" ends with that decision left unanswered because mankind still can't determine that they qualify.

[Unicron]

MatthiasRussell wrote:

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But the Ballard case shows her to be inconsistent with her principle of the original life form taking precidence. Until you're familiar with that situation, you can't properly judge Janeway on this issue.

Inconsistent in what way? It was Ballard's choice to ultimately return with the Kobali, not Janeway's, and the captain accepted her right to do so, as did Kim and her fellow crewmates (even if none of them liked the idea). It's not the same as the case with Tuvix in my view, because there Janeway did make a choice for him that nobody else could make.

exodus wrote:

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They're both machines
Machines don't have rights.
Even "Measure of Man" & "Author Author" ends with that decision left unanswered because mankind still can't determine that they qualify.

Not sure I'd agree with you there. We know that Picard apparently played a significant role in defining rights for beings like Data in the Federation, and even Maddox seemed to quickly realize how difficult it would be to prove his original argument (Data didn't qualify for such rights because he wasn't sentient, but Picard demonstrated how hard it can be to define "sentience" for such a purpose).

"Author, Author" is a somewhat different case, in that holograms (who are usually designed to fulfill a specific utility or function) lack such rights under most circumstances, but I do think the Doctor would be a good case for potentially changing such laws. I'd consider him sentient by the time Voyager returned home, but he only gained that degree of development because of the Caretaker marooning the ship in the DQ, and only broke out of his "original" programming fairly slowly.

[Guy Gardener]

I've always assumed that the end of Virtuoso is just something Janeway programmed into the Doctors memories.

of course, is it something she programmed into the doctor to keep him or something she programmed into the EMH back Up so that he wouldn't leave too.

[exodus]

Unicron wrote:

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Inconsistent in what way? It was Ballard's choice to ultimately return with the Kobali, not Janeway's, and the captain accepted her right to do so, as did Kim and her fellow crewmates (even if none of them liked the idea). It's not the same as the case with Tuvix in my view, because there Janeway did make a choice for him that nobody else could make.

Not sure I'd agree with you there. We know that Picard apparently played a significant role in defining rights for beings like Data in the Federation, and even Maddox seemed to quickly realize how difficult it would be to prove his original argument (Data didn't qualify for such rights because he wasn't sentient, but Picard demonstrated how hard it can be to define "sentience" for such a purpose).

"Author, Author" is a somewhat different case, in that holograms (who are usually designed to fulfill a specific utility or function) lack such rights under most circumstances, but I do think the Doctor would be a good case for potentially changing such laws. I'd consider him sentient by the time Voyager returned home, but he only gained that degree of development because of the Caretaker marooning the ship in the DQ, and only broke out of his "original" programming fairly slowly.

What up, Uni.?
Long time, no see.

My issue with things such as Data and the EMH is, if we give everything man creates that behaves as we do equal rights, then where do we draw the line? When is a machine just a machine? How broad is the spectrum of what we consider "real" life? If we give Data and the EMH rights, then do ALL androids and Holograms get rights too? If so, then the holodeck can no longer be a place of entertainment, it now becomes a society and using them then becomes exploitation or denying rights of androids & holgrams then becomes discrimination, regardless if their abilities or awareness is limited. There has to be a defining line of what we see as life and what is a creation that is only meant to serve as a tool.

Are Data and the EMH property?
Are they owned by Starfleet?
I'm fairly sure the EMH is.
If he's considered property, then he has no entitlement to rights.
Data is a machine, is he property too?
These things are considered equal to those on the ships they serve on but how does society as a whole view them?
We see them as real thru the eyes of Picard and Janeway but what of those outside Starfleet? Would the regular person on the street view Data or the Doc. as life?
What of the races in the Federation that are religious?
Are Data and the EMH considered perversions if even considered given rights?

[MatthiasRussell]

Unicron wrote:

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Inconsistent in what way? It was Ballard's choice to ultimately return with the Kobali, not Janeway's, and the captain accepted her right to do so, as did Kim and her fellow crewmates (even if none of them liked the idea). It's not the same as the case with Tuvix in my view, because there Janeway did make a choice for him that nobody else could make.

If Janeway respects the right's of the body's original owner, then the being that now had Ballard's body was desicating it. It still held the memories and genetic material of Ballard. The being deciding to leave Voyager was NOT Lyndsay Ballard. Her deciding to take off with the body is no different than Tuvix deciding he wanted to continue living at the expense of the lives of Tuvok and Neelix. If Janeway respects the original body owner, then she should have held the alien creature and continued attempting to restore Ballard.

If the alien inhabiting Ballard's body had the right to choose to keep the body at Lyndsay's expense, then Tuvix had the right to do the same.

[Unicron]

We might have to agree to disagree on that, because I'm not clear why you think the person claiming to be Ballard is no longer her because she was given some alien biologies and cultural influences. The ep makes it pretty clear that most of her original human personality survived and that she still wanted to be on Voyager, but that her alterations also made that difficult. I don't think it's comparable to Tuvix at all. By your definition, Sisko wasn't human because the Prophets caused his birth and interacted with him on an exclusive level so he could be their emissary.

exodus wrote:

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My issue with things such as Data and the EMH is, if we give everything man creates that behaves as we do equal rights, then where do we draw the line? When is a machine just a machine? How broad is the spectrum of what we consider "real" life? If we give Data and the EMH rights, then do ALL androids and Holograms get rights too? If so, then the holodeck can no longer be a place of entertainment, it now becomes a society and using them then becomes exploitation or denying rights of androids & holgrams then becomes discrimination, regardless if their abilities or awareness is limited. There has to be a defining line of what we see as life and what is a creation that is only meant to serve as a tool.

Are Data and the EMH property?
Are they owned by Starfleet?
I'm fairly sure the EMH is.
If he's considered property, then he has no entitlement to rights.
Data is a machine, is he property too?
These things are considered equal to those on the ships they serve on but how does society as a whole view them?
We see them as real thru the eyes of Picard and Janeway but what of those outside Starfleet? Would the regular person on the street view Data or the Doc. as life?
What of the races in the Federation that are religious?
Are Data and the EMH considered perversions if even considered given rights?

It's a valid question, and my own feeling is this: Data and Lore were always intended to have the capacity for sentience that humans have, in the same way that a planet full of Soong-type androids could be expected to develop their own culture and traditions. The Doctor and other holograms have that same potential too, but because they are designed primarily as tools or companions they're less likely to take the initiative on their own. The EMH did because of Voyager's unique situation, and I don't mean to infer that he's less sentient than Data as a result.

We tend to develop our own definitions of determining life and sentience, but as Picard pointed out in "Measure of a Man," Data met all of the perceived qualities for sentience that would also apply to a human. It's hard to judge how society as a whole perceives them, because we just haven't been given much information either way. I don't think the Bolian published was necessarily biased against holograms (I'd have to go back and watch the ep again), but he didn't feel bound to honor Doc's request because the law says that holograms don't have the same rights as others.

[Guy Gardener]

Sisko wasn't human.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Hey?

Is that how he was able to deck Q?

I'd assumed that Q was humouring Sisko, but what if Sisko could punch through and around time, that Q never saw it coming?

[MatthiasRussell]

Unicron wrote:

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We might have to agree to disagree on that, because I'm not clear why you think the person claiming to be Ballard is no longer her because she was given some alien biologies and cultural influences. The ep makes it pretty clear that most of her original human personality survived and that she still wanted to be on Voyager, but that her alterations also made that difficult. I don't think it's comparable to Tuvix at all. By your definition, Sisko wasn't human because the Prophets caused his birth and interacted with him on an exclusive level so he could be their emissary.

Tuvix had the memories and personality traits of Neelix and Tuvok but he was a different being himself, more than the sum of the parts that went into creating him. The same was true of Ballard after her change; she had the same memories and some of the old genetics but had become something new. Over the time that the new beings that came from those seeds gained new experience and evolved in their new lives, they became a new life, new entities.

In either case, killing the new creature to recreate the old would be like trying to turn a butterfly back into a caterpillar. Except in both their cases, the caterpiller was dead before it became a caterpillar and new DNA was added to create the change.


'My' definiton doesn't make Sisko any different from any other human. the prophets maneuvered events to create a person who, to them, already existed and would exist. They caused 2 humans to conceive a child without adding any new DNA. In the case of Ballard and Tuvix, a new life was created from a pre-existing one with new genetics added to the mix. Tuvix wasn't even simply a Talaxian/Vulcan hybrid since the flower DNA was added in.

[Guy Gardener]

You don't know that the DNA wasn't altered by some inperceptible method, or his "mother" didn't change him, or educate him in the womb like what happened to kal in the Rocket ride to Earth in the 70s movie. At what point does he stop being completely human?

He was after all able to go live as a Prophet in the finale, and a regular human shouldn't be bale to do that.

[MatthiasRussell]

Before Sisko went to live at the celestial temple, he had only experienced visions and guidance, same as many other people. When Sisko 'died' fighting Dukat, I have no idea what happened to him at that point, whether he bodily taken away or just his consciousness. However, up until that point, we have no reason to belief he was anything other than a human who had regular contact with a non coporial species. Just because his conception was guided by the prophets doesn't make any more or less human than a test tube baby.

[Guy Gardener]

Well, it took a lot of technology going bollocks but Sisko is a walking paradox after his stint as Gabriel Bell.

That shit has got to leave marks.

[exodus]

Unicron wrote:

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We might have to agree to disagree on that, because I'm not clear why you think the person claiming to be Ballard is no longer her because she was given some alien biologies and cultural influences. The ep makes it pretty clear that most of her original human personality survived and that she still wanted to be on Voyager, but that her alterations also made that difficult. I don't think it's comparable to Tuvix at all. By your definition, Sisko wasn't human because the Prophets caused his birth and interacted with him on an exclusive level so he could be their emissary.

It's a valid question, and my own feeling is this: Data and Lore were always intended to have the capacity for sentience that humans have, in the same way that a planet full of Soong-type androids could be expected to develop their own culture and traditions. The Doctor and other holograms have that same potential too, but because they are designed primarily as tools or companions they're less likely to take the initiative on their own. The EMH did because of Voyager's unique situation, and I don't mean to infer that he's less sentient than Data as a result.

We tend to develop our own definitions of determining life and sentience, but as Picard pointed out in "Measure of a Man," Data met all of the perceived qualities for sentience that would also apply to a human. It's hard to judge how society as a whole perceives them, because we just haven't been given much information either way. I don't think the Bolian published was necessarily biased against holograms (I'd have to go back and watch the ep again), but he didn't feel bound to honor Doc's request because the law says that holograms don't have the same rights as others.

Picard and a publishers opinions mean nothing.
It's society and the government, not the military that determine whether a being should be considered for equal rights or not.

[exodus]

MatthiasRussell wrote:

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Before Sisko went to live at the celestial temple, he had only experienced visions and guidance, same as many other people. When Sisko 'died' fighting Dukat, I have no idea what happened to him at that point, whether he bodily taken away or just his consciousness. However, up until that point, we have no reason to belief he was anything other than a human who had regular contact with a non coporial species. Just because his conception was guided by the prophets doesn't make any more or less human than a test tube baby.

..but it does because Sisko biological mother was a Prophet, which made Sisko equal to Bajorian Jesus. Sisko like Jesus was part God.

[Sindatur]

exodus wrote:

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..but it does because Sisko biological mother was a Prophet, which made Sisko equal to Bajorian Jesus. Sisko like Jesus was part God.

That's not how I remember it? What I remember is Benjamin's mother was a Human Woman, who the Prophet possessed and manipulated into marrying Benjamin's father, so Benjamin would be conceived. When the Prophet left his mother, she "fell out of love" with Benjamin's father and that's when she left the house.

So, perhaps, there is some Prophet in Benjamin, due to his biological mother being possesed by the Prophet during conception, but, the Prophet is not Benjamin's biological mother.

Am I remembering wrong?