To anyone who thinks the EMH isn't a sentient lifeform because he's "programmed", I say this: Prove that YOU'RE not programmed.![]()
A humans programming is significantly more complex.
So is the EMH's.
To anyone who thinks the EMH isn't a sentient lifeform because he's "programmed", I say this: Prove that YOU'RE not programmed.![]()
A humans programming is significantly more complex.
The EMH is designed to fake humanity, and then pursue a fake heroes quest to become more human.(O'Brien is up a ladder, putting holo-projectors in the ceiling.)
BASHIR: This is a long questionnaire.
ZIMMERMAN: I pride myself on my attention to detail.
BASHIR: Let's see. Compare and contrast your eating habits at age five with those at ages ten, fifteen, twenty, and twenty five?
ZIMMERMAN: It will be necessary for the holo doctor to interact naturally with patients for weeks, possibly even months. The doctor will be expected to share amusing anecdotes, extend sympathy, swap dirty jokes and even have culinary opinions formed by experience.
O'BRIEN: You mean this programme is going to have all of his personal likes and dislikes?
ZIMMERMAN: That is why we bother to choose a human template in the first place.
O'BRIEN: Wow, think of it, Julian. If this thing works, you'll be able to irritate hundreds of people you've never even met.
ZIMMERMAN: If you two could suspend your oh so amusing banter for the moment, I'd like to begin the optical parameter scans.
BASHIR: What do you want me to do?
ZIMMERMAN: Just stand there and look like a doctor. If you can.
To anyone who thinks the EMH isn't a sentient lifeform because he's "programmed", I say this: Prove that YOU'RE not programmed.![]()
A humans programming is significantly more complex.
So is the EMH's.
Alo I always found it silly that they made the other EMHs work in a mine instead of just throwing them away.
If she tried the latter, she failed completely.Do you think she worked harder to get the humans to the EMH seriously or to take Neelix seriously?
I think there is a key difference in the way that the EMH was originally programmed in comparison to other holograms that allowed him to develop sentience. Standard holograms can be unaware they're not real, their growth is limited by their programming and cannot make decisions that contradict their programming. Over the course of Voyager the EMH's personality grew and changed and he reached the stage where he wanted to be more than a Doctor and step outside the sickbay so he gained sentience.
Holograms in comparison could not be allowed to be sentient by any degree to avoid repeating the missstep the Federation experienced with the exocomps.
Limiters.
He's sentient, he shows (increasing) self-awareness of his existence and purpose, and he shows some degree of advancement in character
If I program a hologram to repeatedly say (in a convincing manner) "I am alive and deserve rights", at what point do you stop saying...it's programmed to say that.....and start saying......does he really mean what he's saying ?
I simply don't accept that he's anything more than what he's programmed to think he is. There's no real personality there, no real individuality.
People keep saying he developed, changed, became more, exceeded his programming but honestly, if you listen to the doctor in season one and listen to him in season seven, is there really a massive difference.....are they worlds apart
He developed what B'Elanna allowed him to develop
He's sentient, he shows (increasing) self-awareness of his existence and purpose, and he shows some degree of advancement in character
But does he?
See bold above
But what if holograms start commandeering ships and bombarding everyone? Who's to stop them? They don't care they are just lines of program inside a computer memory. They are virtually, invulnerable. If the computer is attacked they can just move to another one.Exocomps.
Starfleet invested a kings ransom in resources to develop this mechanical slave race that developed sentience before the first one even rolled off the production line and the "species" mass-production was discontinued.
Holograms in comparison could not be allowed to be sentient by any degree to avoid repeating the missstep the Federation experienced with the exocomps.
Limiters.
I voted no, but I felt bad doing it.
I voted no, but I felt bad doing it.
Could a real-life computer program be a real person? Nope. But in the context of Star Trek's fantasy world, of course he is.
I voted no, but I felt bad doing it.
Yes voters, voted with their hearts, not their heads
Your vote took greater courage
In many ways, you're a hero .
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