The Doctor's behavior in Equinox

[GotNoRice]

I was watching this episode last night. There is that scene where Equinox captain Ransom was trying to have the Voyager doctor (who was on Equinox at the time) extract a security code from Seven of Nine so that they could enable their enhanced warp drive. The doctor claims that he would cause serious damage to Seven in doing so, and refuses. Captain Ransom then proceeds to delete the Doctor's "ethical subroutines" after which he basically turns into an evil doctor and is happy to perform the surgery on Seven, even singing while he does it.

This scene really bugged me, and I felt that it really cheapened and took a lot of depth out of the Doctor's character. If this had happened to a default/stock EMH, or if the Doctor had been operating on one of the Equinox crew (essentially, someone he isn't familiar with), I could sort of understand. I feel like the Doctor should have had deeper connections to Seven of Nine than what would have been directly controlled by "ethical subroutines".

Seven and the Doctor were essentially friends. Wouldn't he have still wanted to keep her alive, if not for ethical reasons, then simply for selfish reasons? Meanwhile what reason does he have to follow the orders of the equinox crew? The fact that he was directly violating the Hippocratic oath would seem to indicate that "violating orders" should not be a big deal for him at that point.

I think it would have been a much better plot development if disabling the ethical subroutines essentially backfired on the Equinox crew. The Doctor could have worked to save Seven (for selfish, not ethical reasons) while taking actions against the Equinox crew that were not necessarily ethical...

Finally, I think that, at the end of the episode, they really glossed over the implications of what the Doctor had done (Operating on Seven against her will, almost causing permanent severe brain damage). He mentioned it, Seven didn't seem to care, and then they briefly talked about potentially making the doctor's program more secure. In the earlier episode "Latent Image", the doctor freaks out due to having to make a choice in which one crew-member dies. It seems to me that this should have had just as much repercussions, if not more, as that did for him.

 

[Orac]

Doesn't his memory get erased every three years to stop him glitching? He would never have emotional growth greater than a three year old.

 

[GotNoRice]

Doesn't his memory get erased every three years to stop him glitching? He would never have emotional growth greater than a three year old.

I'm not sure what you're referring to with the 3-year memory erasure, but he had only known Seven for two years or less at that point. I also don't feel that you can draw direct analogies to a human child. A child at three years old still has many more things developing in his/her brain than just it's emotional center. The doctor seemed to have developed fairly advanced friendships with many of the crew.

 

[Paradise City]

Didn't Lore, chief of that band of Borg individualists do something akin to this to Data in that lamentable season 5-6 cliffhanger?They mucked about with his emotion chip and made him "evil".

 

[Orac]

Correction, it's actually every two years, it was at the beginning of season 3 in the episode The Swarm that the limit of his memory became apparent.

 

[GotNoRice]

Correction, it's actually every two years, it was at the beginning of season 3 in the episode The Swarm that the limit of his memory became apparent.

I never got the impression that the events in "The Swarm" meant that the Doctor's memory had to be periodically erased at regular intervals going forward. If anything I would assume that this issue was resolved since the Doctor seems to not think twice about adding additional information to his database and expanding his program on numerous occasions after that.

But even if that was the case, it doesn't really have anything to do with the point I was making. The Doctor and Seven were clearly good friends prior to the Equonix episode, regardless of if or when the Doctor's memory was last "erased".

 

[Tim Thomason]

Yeah, the Doctor ran out of memory in 2373 (fixed by deleting the Diagnostic program and merging its memory circuits with the Doctor). But a year later, he was hanging out in the Alpha Quadrant aboard the USS Prometheus. He may have had an update to his memory capacity at that point. He probably did a few years later in 2377 when he was hanging out on Jupiter Station with Lewis Zimmerman.

 

[hux]

This scene really bugged me, and I felt that it really cheapened and took a lot of depth out of the Doctor's character.

That's because like so many others, you were tricked into believing that the doctor was a genuinely self-aware, sapient life-form. He isn't.

He's just a person-shaped piece of technology. There is no genuine sentience there and Starfleet know it (see Author Author for more information).

If I drew a face on a plate, called it Keith and then told you that Keith dreams of seeing Paris one day... then I smashed the plate on the floor... you'd feel sorry for it.

 

[Paradise City]

This scene really bugged me, and I felt that it really cheapened and took a lot of depth out of the Doctor's character.

That's because like so many others, you were tricked into believing that the doctor was a genuinely self-aware, sapient life-form. He isn't.

He's just a person-shaped piece of technology. There is no genuine sentience there and Starfleet know it (see Author Author for more information).

If I drew a face on a plate, called it Keith and then told you that Keith dreams of seeing Paris one day... then I smashed the plate on the floor... you'd feel sorry for it.

There's no real reason why he isn't sentient within the internal logic of the ST universe. The arbitrator in that Author Author episode is "unsure" and kicks the ball down the road and doesn't declare a final position on it IIRC. It's almost certain that this an attempt by the writers to draw parallels with difficult rights based struggles in real life most of which unfolded in stages with rights granted only in a piece meal fashion over an extended period of time.

In terms of testing this stuff against real life. I don't hold the view that the beginning and end of man is just as a machine. I think there's something more to being man and I don't believe a sentient Data like character is feasible in RL or that emotions and consciousness can be simulated by machinery.

 

[Tim Thomason]

That's because like so many others, you were tricked into believing that the doctor was a genuinely self-aware, sapient life-form. He isn't.

He's just a person-shaped piece of technology. There is no genuine sentience there and Starfleet know it (see Author Author for more information).

If I drew a face on a plate, called it Keith and then told you that Keith dreams of seeing Paris one day... then I smashed the plate on the floor... you'd feel sorry for it.

It's probably possible to knock me out, root around in my brain, and remove the part that prevents me from becoming a sociopath (i.e. personality changes of that type have been known to occur to those following brain surgery or serious trauma). It's just easier to do so on the Doctor, because his 'brain' is a computerized network and everything is labelled and accessible.

The Doctor exists firmly in the uncanny valley. He is, of course, a simulation. And one that can be easily edited and adapted to fit different situations. But he can also clearly reason and feel and all that jazz. It's no wonder that Lewis Zimmerman's work was quickly curtailed and mothballed.

 

[hux]

There's no real reason why he isn't sentient within the internal logic of the ST universe. The arbitrator in that Author Author episode is "unsure" and kicks the ball down the road and doesn't declare a final position on it IIRC.

Asserting that Data is self-aware - and as such, deserves to be in receipt of the rights afforded to self-aware beings - has no real consequences because of the complexity in duplicating androids.

If just one hologram on the other hand, receives those same rights, you have a disaster on your hands because it logically follows that if a hologram is sentient then "all" holograms have the "potential" to be sentient (even the dumb ones that just make coffee). The Federation has an unlimited supply of holograms. For that reason, the Federation would fight tooth and nail to avoid accepting the doctors putative self-awareness.

It's probably possible to knock me out, root around in my brain, and remove the part that prevents me from becoming a sociopath (i.e. personality changes of that type have been known to occur to those following brain surgery or serious trauma). It's just easier to do so on the Doctor, because his 'brain' is a computerized network and everything is labelled and accessible.

I wouldn't recommend rooting around in your brain in the small hope that it might accidentally result in you being less dickish. Aside from the fact that it would be unlikely to succeed, there's also the unfortunate possibility of death. The doctor has no such concerns... because his programming isn't natural occurring or naturally evolving. He's simply a convincing representation of those things. And if he isn't... then just program him with more until he is convincing.

But he can also clearly reason and feel and all that jazz. It's no wonder that Lewis Zimmerman's work was quickly curtailed and mothballed.

Reason and feel by what criteria? Because he looks like he is? The point of the Equinox episode was to demonstrate that... he actually wasn't reasoning at all. He was following programming (which the Equinox crew then changed so that he would "reason" in a manner that better suited them).

He's a (highly sophisticated) plate with a drawing of a face on it.

 

[Tim Thomason]

But he can also clearly reason and feel and all that jazz. It's no wonder that Lewis Zimmerman's work was quickly curtailed and mothballed.

Reason and feel by what criteria? Because he looks like he is? The point of the Equinox episode was to demonstrate that... he actually wasn't reasoning at all. He was following programming (which the Equinox crew then changed so that he would "reason" in a manner that better suited them).

By the appearance criteria. He appears to be as completely sapient as any other Tom, Dick, and Harry on Voyager. That's why, regardless of any judgment on his true nature, his appearing to be a more and more complex being as the years go by, is probably why the Federation began to stymie Lewis Zimmerman's work and the pursuit of holography into potentially dangerous avenues (in my headcanon, at least).

I assume the Emergency Mining Holograms had their memories wiped on a regular basis and weren't given access to all the social and cultural experiences that the Doctor was privy to.

 

[Paradise City]

There's no real reason why he isn't sentient within the internal logic of the ST universe. The arbitrator in that Author Author episode is "unsure" and kicks the ball down the road and doesn't declare a final position on it IIRC.

Asserting that Data is self-aware - and as such, deserves to be in receipt of the rights afforded to self-aware beings - has no real consequences because of the complexity in duplicating androids.

If just one hologram on the other hand, receives those same rights, you have a disaster on your hands because it logically follows that if a hologram is sentient then "all" holograms have the "potential" to be sentient (even the dumb ones that just make coffee). The Federation has an unlimited supply of holograms. For that reason, the Federation would fight tooth and nail to avoid accepting the doctors putative self-awareness.

You do get these absurdities and the writers quite walk often into these things without thinkin' it through and they get into these kind of paradoxes.

The writers having fleshed out the EMH depicted him as this autonomous individual, they would've not then gone on to decline him his rights. They weren't going to create a two tier system of citizenship in some final settlement in the utopian rights centric world that is the Federation. Either the guy is a toaster or he's another species and the writers were never going to revert him back to being a toaster having developed all that characterisation. It's a while since I seen the ST:V finale but IIRC depicts the doc as an accomplished professional fully engaged in federation society and (I think?) he even got married. Either the Feds have a two tier system citizenship or the doc got his rights.

 

[Drone]

I was watching this episode last night. There is that scene where Equinox captain Ransom was trying to have the Voyager doctor (who was on Equinox at the time) extract a security code from Seven of Nine so that they could enable their enhanced warp drive. The doctor claims that he would cause serious damage to Seven in doing so, and refuses. Captain Ransom then proceeds to delete the Doctor's "ethical subroutines" after which he basically turns into an evil doctor and is happy to perform the surgery on Seven, even singing while he does it.

This scene really bugged me, and I felt that it really cheapened and took a lot of depth out of the Doctor's character. If this had happened to a default/stock EMH, or if the Doctor had been operating on one of the Equinox crew (essentially, someone he isn't familiar with), I could sort of understand. I feel like the Doctor should have had deeper connections to Seven of Nine than what would have been directly controlled by "ethical subroutines".

Seven and the Doctor were essentially friends. Wouldn't he have still wanted to keep her alive, if not for ethical reasons, then simply for selfish reasons? Meanwhile what reason does he have to follow the orders of the equinox crew? The fact that he was directly violating the Hippocratic oath would seem to indicate that "violating orders" should not be a big deal for him at that point.

I think it would have been a much better plot development if disabling the ethical subroutines essentially backfired on the Equinox crew. The Doctor could have worked to save Seven (for selfish, not ethical reasons) while taking actions against the Equinox crew that were not necessarily ethical...

Finally, I think that, at the end of the episode, they really glossed over the implications of what the Doctor had done (Operating on Seven against her will, almost causing permanent severe brain damage). He mentioned it, Seven didn't seem to care, and then they briefly talked about potentially making the doctor's program more secure. In the earlier episode "Latent Image", the doctor freaks out due to having to make a choice in which one crew-member dies. It seems to me that this should have had just as much repercussions, if not more, as that did for him.

It's possible that Ransom only mentioned the ethical subroutines as regards the programming changes they were going to do to allow him to do their bidding

That's because like so many others, you were tricked into believing that the doctor was a genuinely self-aware, sapient life-form. He isn't.

He's just a person-shaped piece of technology. There is no genuine sentience there and Starfleet know it (see Author Author for more information).

If I drew a face on a plate, called it Keith and then told you that Keith dreams of seeing Paris one day... then I smashed the plate on the floor... you'd feel sorry for it.

Your lack of faith is disturbing. Not only is the ambivalence reached as the judgement you cite in Author Author not particularly impressive as decisive information, but you appear to discount the example of Latent Image that the OP mentioned as evidence of an entity that is capable of severe, if not catastrophic emotional impairment just as a human would given the same stimuli, as being a particularly more substantive measure of the possibility of sentience than the apocryphal toaster has. I would further refer you to the dialogue Janeway uses in speaking to Kes about the Doctor's inherent nature in Eye of the Needle. It resonates almost exactly with what you posit here and I would strongly suspect that everyone else in the crew subscribed to that line of thought at that time in the series. Yet, in that self-same episode that you believe makes your case, not only Janeway but even Tuvok supports the contention that that is no longer operative and I don't think that the latter's belief is just rooted in the arcana of legalese. Why would they and the others that feel the same way make that effort, say those words, if they didn't believe them? Because the Doctor was their buddy, or if they hadn't of stood up for him they were fearful of future substandard care, or maybe they just wanted to see to it that the Doctor made a shitload of money (sorry credits, chits, whatever)? I think that the trick you point to with such assurance is instead a rather attenuated view of a major theme that Trek, sometimes haltingly perhaps, has maintained for a very very long time.

I will grant that the practical logistics of the Federation making an affirmative determination of sentience in the case of holograms would likely be indeed daunting, but that's another discussion.

 

[hux]

I assume the Emergency Mining Holograms had their memories wiped on a regular basis and weren't given access to all the social and cultural experiences that the Doctor was privy to.

But if they were, would they become sentient? Also, hasn't this supposed criteria for sentience already been met by the mining holograms? They gather in huddles and recommend watching "Photons be free" (would mindless automatons do this?).

This is my main issue with the doctor. People tell me that he becomes a more complex being. Does he or are people simply seeing what they want to see? Specifically wanting to see that development.

He knows he's a hologram from the word go (self-aware), his sarcastic temperament is already there. He demonstrates an interest in the outside world. By the time of "Projections" he's already questioning the nature of his reality (early season two). I see no real evolution of sentience here. I see exactly the same character as was there in the beginning but with a (programmed) interest in opera.

It's a while since I seen the ST:V finale but IIRC depicts the doc as an accomplished professional fully engaged in federation society and (I think?) he even got married. Either the Feds have a two tier system citizenship or the doc got his rights.

But that's the alternative reality (the one where it took twenty-three years to get back home). Admiral Janeway's actions changed that and it now only took seven years.

Your lack of faith is disturbing.

Not only is the ambivalence reached as the judgement you cite in Author Author not particularly impressive as decisive information, but you appear to discount the example of Latent Image that the OP mentioned as evidence of an entity that is capable of severe, if not catastrophic emotional impairment just as a human would given the same stimuli, as being a particularly more substantive measure of the possibility of sentience than the apocryphal toaster has.

Aaand breathe.

It is impressive when compared to the very immediate verdict Data achieves (and Data is the only comparable character we have as far as rights are concerned). And Latent Image only proves that holographic technology is hugely limited and that the crew have so anthropomorphised the doctor that they would prefer to indulge him rather than reset him again.

If I consistently keep telling you that the plate with a face on it is feeling sad, you will be influenced by this. The doctors putative sentience is based far more on Voyager's circumstances than on any profound scientific criteria.

We do of course have a more analogous comparison than Data if we look at Moriarty. For me, this is the most damning evidence.

Are we honestly saying that true, genuine, artificial sentience can be achieved simply by saying the words... "computer, create an adversary capable of defeating Data."

There are a few problems with this but the biggest must surely be, if the computer can create sentient appendages (which is what the holograms are) then surely the computer itself must bee sentient.

 

[Drone]

This is my main issue with the doctor. People tell me that he becomes a more complex being. Does he or are people simply seeing what they want to see? Specifically wanting to see that development.

He knows he's a hologram from the word go (self-aware), his sarcastic temperament is already there. He demonstrates an interest in the outside world. By the time of "Projections" he's already questioning the nature of his reality (early season two). I see no real evolution of sentience here. I see exactly the same character as was there in the beginning but with a (programmed) interest in opera.

It's a while since I seen the ST:V finale but IIRC depicts the doc as an accomplished professional fully engaged in federation society and (I think?) he even got married. Either the Feds have a two tier system citizenship or the doc got his rights.

But that's the alternative reality (the one where it took twenty-three years to get back home). Admiral Janeway's actions changed that and it now only took seven years.

Your lack of faith is disturbing.

Not only is the ambivalence reached as the judgement you cite in Author Author not particularly impressive as decisive information, but you appear to discount the example of Latent Image that the OP mentioned as evidence of an entity that is capable of severe, if not catastrophic emotional impairment just as a human would given the same stimuli, as being a particularly more substantive measure of the possibility of sentience than the apocryphal toaster has.

Aaand breathe.

It is impressive when compared to the very immediate verdict Data achieves (and Data is the only comparable character we have as far as rights are concerned). And Latent Image only proves that holographic technology is hugely limited and that the crew have so anthropomorphised the doctor that they would prefer to indulge him rather than reset him again.

If I consistently keep telling you that the plate with a face on it is feeling sad, you will be influenced by this. The doctors putative sentience is based far more on Voyager's circumstances than on any profound scientific criteria.

So you don't find the story lines of Lifesigns and Real Life to be significant markers of the Doctor's growth? His recognition and pursuit of a romantic interest and the value of even conceiving to be a part of a familial unit as, eventually, a means to better understand and process the realities of joy and pain as part of a more individuated life no indication of the change in the character? By your reasoning, the same events were just as likely to have occurred right after the Doctor's activation as any time else. Right.

What does the difference of 16 years make in the evolution of his personality? You seem to suggest something noteworthy about the iteration we see of the Doctor in the Admiral Janeway timeline. Why? Would weathering that additional time dealing with further depredations in the DQ play a role in actually making him more relevant than a mere program? Is there some formula for measuring the impact of a certain number of years having an impact on how he expresses his character that wouldn't be apparent in the course of only 7? Why not just throw out a period of 100 years as the requisite amount before it's plausible that the Doctor is anywhere further down the road in developing as a being that might be worthy of being considered sentient?

I'm not sure how Janeway indulges the Doctor in Latent Image. I guess you mean that by not reflexively wiping out his personality and starting from scratch, she thinks she's doing the right thing by virtue of the unwarranted attachment that has developed for him amongst the crew. That would be the logical and practical step to take in this scenario. But, it doesn't address the reality of the emotional toll that the Doctor's Sophie's choice inflicted on him. I guess you're attributing this to the limits of his programming not being able to handle the complexity of the traumatic event that he had to endure. Wouldn't Zimmerman though, have calculated that a Mark I dealing with such a situation, would simply apply a rigorous cost-benefit analysis to the scenario and not be prey to any subsequent emotional reaction to that decision at all?

The holographic iteration of Zimmerman in The Swarm was quite explicitly condemnatory of the "enhancements" that the Doctor himself had chosen to pursue in just 3 years of service. I don't think he attributed these independent decisions as a consequence of the Doctor's extended period of activation, although he clearly saw the degradation being witnessed as coming form the other end of the stick, that the Doctor having taken on these other interests and goals had exceeded his program's ability to retain integrity. Clearly, Zimmerman saw these choices as antithetical to the basis on which the Doctor had been constructed and that he was no longer acting with the level of self-awareness and actuation as when he was first put into operation.

 

[hux]

So you don't find the story lines of Lifesigns and Real Life to be significant markers of the Doctor's growth? His recognition and pursuit of a romantic interest and the value of even conceiving to be a part of a familial unit as, eventually, a means to better understand and process the realities of joy and pain as part of a more individuated life no indication of the change in the character? By your reasoning, the same events were just as likely to have occurred right after the Doctor's activation as any time else. Right.

Exactly so. Look at the family the doctor creates. So perfect and unreal that B'Elanna is sickened by it (so much so that she inflicts a ridiculously over-the-top bereavement on him to force him to engage with what she sees as the human reality of family). There is no questioning the sophistication of the doctor's holographic program but I see no reason why we should believe that the sophistication we see is HIS sophistication rather than the computers. I simply don't believe it is.

He is not an independent life-form separate from the ships computer. So again, I say, if he is sentient then it stands to reason that the ships computer must also be sentient. As with Moriarty, there are only two options available to us. One is that the computer is sentient, the other is that the computer is capable of creating sentience from scratch with very little effort required. Either scenario would require a profound response from Starfleet and the Federation but this response never comes. It seems clear that they do not take holographic sentience as seriously as those trapped on a ship in the Delta quadrant do.

What does the difference of 16 years make in the evolution of his personality? You seem to suggest something noteworthy about the iteration we see of the Doctor in the Admiral Janeway timeline. Why?

Because 23 years of the doctor's story spreading throughout the Federation would inevitably result in a need to take holographic rights more seriously. They cannot sweep him under the carpet as their hand has clearly been forced. It would no doubt filter through the various societies that utilise holographic technology and become an unavoidable slavery issue.

But... admiral Janeway has changed all that. She has taken 23 years of Voyager stories seeping into Federation ears and establishing a narrative regarding what the doctor is... and she has cut this down to just 7 years. And let's be realistic, his sentience narrative within the Federation only really began when Voyager successfully established communications with Stafleet so this nascent narrative was very short lived.

This clearly influences his position. A vocal hologram communicating his sentience to the entirety of the Federation for 17 years has profound and far reaching consequences. An irritating holographic tool speaking to a private room of Strafleet people for just one year however, does not.

Admiral Janeway not only screws with the lives of countless people by doing what she did in Endgame but there is very good reason to postulate that she has also had a huge effect on holographic rights. In fact, cynics (like me) might even theorise that Starfleet deliberately sent her back with the specific objective of making sure that the holographic-rights juggernaut instigated by the doctor, never gets started (saving her three favourite people was just a bonus).

I'm not sure how Janeway indulges the Doctor in Latent Image.

Human beings will anthropomorphise virtually anything. Janeway knows that a hologram - designed for short term use - being active for so long will inevitably be viewed by the crew as more than just a tool. Even she is seduced by the notion. Hell, even B'Elanna (the last hold out, in my opinion) eventually softens to the idea of him as a real boy. They all indulge him. What choice did they have. I would have to. But will Stafleet?

 

[Drone]

You are ignoring that he accepts B'Elanna's challenge to that lack of reality and works with her in altering his ideation of a family to reflect the actual positives and negatives that one would encounter with a group of complex characters as the intimate indviduals in this representation that ultimately, however painfully, reinforces the meaningfulness of growth rather than the play acting of his first attempt.

I think I now gather what you're suggesting on the time element. In essence, the implication is that the notoriety and acclaim that the Doctor would garner back on Earth, and elsewhere, because his exploits would be chronicled for a much longer time would be the driver behind an unequivocal wellspring being created that the time for a change in the perception and acknowledgement of the character, personality, and potential of holograms had arrived.
All this, although in reality, from your perspective, this would be a false determination as the Doctor really hadn't advanced at all from how he was originally constituted from the beginning. That seems to be a fair assessment of your contention. Correct?

But you're still not addressing the why of the Doctor's response to the initial act of Latent Image. Why would he give evidence of being overwhelmed emotionally if it seems clear that Zimmerman would never have integrated such possibilities of response in the Mark Is as he would see it as superfluous and even detrimental to the intentions of its proper and limited functionality?

 

[hux]

You are ignoring that he accepts B'Elanna's challenge to that lack of reality and works with her in altering his ideation of a family to reflect the actual positives and negatives that one would encounter with a group of complex characters as the intimate indviduals in this representation that ultimately, however painfully, reinforces the meaningfulness of growth rather than the play acting of his first attempt.

No I'm not ignoring it. In fact, it's vital to the point I was making. Namely, that his first attempt demonstrates no real insight into humanity or the complexity of emotional relationships. He needs a genuinely sentient, self-aware life-form to redirect his efforts (B'Elanna) specifically because such things are beyond his non-sentient comprehension.

All this, although in reality, from your perspective, this would be a false determination as the Doctor really hadn't advanced at all from how he was originally constituted from the beginning. That seems to be a fair assessment of your contention. Correct?

But the influence wouldn't be limited to him and his sophisticated programming. It would include the perspectives of the crew. As I've already stated, their anthropomorphising of him is inevitable (this would be massively intensified over a period of 23 years). It would be impossible not to emotionally attach to him in that sense. The whole narrative received by Federation worlds from Voyager regarding the doctor would be built on a default acceptence of his being sentient.

But you're still not addressing the why of the Doctor's response to the initial act of Latent Image. Why would he give evidence of being overwhelmed emotionally if it seems clear that Zimmerman would never have integrated such possibilities of response in the Mark Is as he would see it as superfluous and even detrimental to the intentions of its proper and limited functionality?

Zimmerman (and Stafleet) both acknowledged that the mark one was flawed. Prone to emotionalism. Latent Image resulted in and required a different approach to the problem because of their circumstances but again, the problem is not one of nascent sentience. It is one of programming. In the rest of the Federation, the solution was different.

ZIMMERMAN: Because you're defective. Emergency Medical Hotheads. Extremely Marginal Housecalls. That's what everyone used to call the Mark Ones until they were bounced out of the Medical Corps. I tried to have them decommissioned, but Starfleet in its infinite wisdom overruled me and reassigned them all to work waste transfer barges. That's where you'd be too, if you hadn't been lost in the Delta Quadrant. Do you know how humiliating it is to have six hundred and seventy five Mark Ones out there, scrubbing plasma conduits, all with my face?

 

[Amaraen]

How can someone possibly claim that The Doctor was not sentient?

Anthropomorphising does happen, but it is a fallacy to claim that just because it exists it means The Doctor is not sentient. Star Trek has a history of recognizing sentience in things that do not appear humanoid: such as in "Home Soil" and "The Quality of Life" as simple examples.

The Doctor passes Bruce Maddox's sentience test from "The Measure of a Man". Saying that The Doctor is not sentient is no different than saying that Data is not sentient. The fact that he was programmed and part of the Voyager's computer is also irrelevant. It is possible for a superior being to emerge from something inferior (without accepting this one cannot believe in evolution).

Saying that he made a mistake in programming his family, making them "too perfect", is also irrelevant to arguing against his sentience. How many human authors require editing of their work? How many have created Mary Sue's who are "too perfect"? Was Gene Roddenberry not sentient because of Wesley Crusher?