Sentient holograms: Minuet, Moriarity, and The Doctor

[Tracy Trek]

I saw this idea or fan theory on the TV Tropes website section for Voyager. I thought it was interesting. I wonder what some of the rest of you might think. You know, it's just for fun. OK, here goes:

The Bynars installed the Minuet program to distract Riker while they hi-jack the Enterprise. I'm guessing one of the reasons he is so drawn to her was that she was sentient. When the crisis is over he can no longer access the program, but wasn't deleted.

When Geordi asks the computer to come up with a character that can get the best of Data while they are playing Sherlock Holmes, the computer used the sentience part of the Minuet program as a template for Moriarty. A few years later when they "Give Moriarty what he wanted" by getting him and his countess off the real holodeck and into a portable unit. This unit is entrusted to Barclay's care.

After the destruction of the Enterprise D, when Barclay is first working at Jupiter Station, Dr. Zimmerman accesses the program and uses it to create the sentience template for his EMH program.

So, what do you think. Possible, or completely off the mark?

 

[The Old Mixer]

It was long part of my "head canon" (back when the shows were on, before I'd ever read that term online) that the Jarada probe in "The Big Goodbye" and/or the Bynar tampering in "11001001" had effectively put a "bug" in the Enterprise's computer system that made Moriarty possible...and possibly culminated in the new lifeform that sprang from the computer in "Emergence".

 

[Albertese]

...

The Bynars installed the Minuet program to distract Riker while they hi-jack the Enterprise. I'm guessing one of the reasons he is so drawn to her was that she was sentient. When the crisis is over he can no longer access the program, but wasn't deleted.

....
So, what do you think. Possible, or completely off the mark?

I've thought this for years. I dunno if it necessarily went through the specific channel you describe with Dr. Zimmerman, but I do think the seed for sentient hologram programs lay in the Bynars tampering. I agree that this same tampering lead to Moriarty. But I think that after Moriarty was stored in the yellow cube, the software was studied and further developed leading to both the EMH and other advanced holograms like the Vic Fontane program.

(As an aside, we know that there is an actual Vic Fontane living as a human somewhere in the 24th century, who's name and visage are used in the program. We know this because we briefly meet the Mirror Universe Fontane just be fore his violent death on the mirror Empok Nor This wasn't a holoprogram, but a real guy in a cargo hold IIRC.)

--Alex

 

[Shawnster]

The Doctor, however, was never intended to be sentient when he was designed or programmed. That was a consequence of his being left on for so long.

 

[Tracy Trek]

Another theory I read on TV Tropes site concerning the Doctor. That his sentience was helped along by the bio-neural gel packs. The other Intrepid class ships might have had this technology and had EMH programs too. But not ones that were in almost constant operation like Voyager's EMH was.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

(As an aside, we know that there is an actual Vic Fontane living as a human somewhere in the 24th century, who's name and visage are used in the program. We know this because we briefly meet the Mirror Universe Fontane just be fore his violent death on the mirror Empok Nor This wasn't a holoprogram, but a real guy in a cargo hold IIRC.)

They do call him Fontaine, but not Vic. So in my head canon, that's the counterpart of Felix - the programmer who (in the regular universe) wrote Vic.

I have this image of the RU Felix being some overworked Dilbert-like cubicle drone who created Vic as a way to live out his fantasies. And of course in the MU, Felix gets to be the badass warrior his RU counterpart can't be.

 

[Christopher]

I don't think Minuet was actually sentient, just a more advanced personality emulation than the holodeck computers were equipped to generate at the time. She acted sentient, but that just meant she could pass the Turing test, i.e. could fake it well enough to fool an observer. The appearance doesn't prove the actuality. And it seems like overkill for the Bynars to create an actually sentient AI when all they really need is something that can distract a couple of humans for a few hours. Especially if their intent was to delete it afterward, which would be murder.

Still, I did always assume that the Bynars' programming did leave something in the E-D's computer that created the potential for Moriarty. Minuet may not have been truly sentient, but her code may have been an ingredient in the mix that made Moriarty sentient.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

She acted sentient, but that just meant she could pass the Turing test, i.e. could fake it well enough to fool an observer.

One could say the same thing about any of us. We can't prove WE are, or are not, sentient, so the same applies to Minuet and her ilk.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

I'm fond of the Robert Ford character's quote from the Westworld TV series:

There is no threshold that makes us greater than the sum of our parts, no inflection point at which we become fully alive. We can't define consciousness because consciousness does not exist. Humans fancy that there's something special about the way we perceive the world, and yet we live in loops as tight and as closed as the hosts do, seldom questioning our choices, content, for the most part, to be told what to do next. No, my friend, you're not missing anything at all.

I like the idea that the Bynars unintentionally seeded bright AI in the Federation's computer systems but I doubt the show runners were ever bright enough to join the dots in the same way.

 

[The Wormhole]

(As an aside, we know that there is an actual Vic Fontane living as a human somewhere in the 24th century, who's name and visage are used in the program. We know this because we briefly meet the Mirror Universe Fontane just be fore his violent death on the mirror Empok Nor This wasn't a holoprogram, but a real guy in a cargo hold IIRC.)

It's been debated whether or not he was a real guy. Some speculate he was an android, based on the fact that sparks shoot out when he gets hit by the phaser. Somehow though, I doubt the human rebellion is able to make androids so sophisticated in the MU. He'd put Data to shame.

 

[Idran]

One could say the same thing about any of us. We can't prove WE are, or are not, sentient, so the same applies to Minuet and her ilk.

Minuet didn't seem sapient to me, though. She seemed like an advanced chatbot with computer access, or a well-written videogame NPC with some VI behind it. There was no sense of depth to her to me, just a really advanced Alexa. "How do you feel about you are from France?"

Plus she's not real, so we don't need to give her any benefit of the doubt; it's up to the work of fiction to convince us, and I'm still not sure that the writers intended for her to be sapient.

 

[Christopher]

Minuet didn't seem sapient to me, though. She seemed like an advanced chatbot with computer access, or a well-written videogame NPC with some VI behind it. There was no sense of depth to her to me, just a really advanced Alexa. "How do you feel about you are from France?"

What's more, Riker and Picard didn't even think she was sapient -- they were just impressed at what a convincing and entertaining simulation she was. Riker was a bit smitten with her, but more in the sense of her being a fantasy that resonated with his image of the ideal woman, rather than falling for her as an actual person.

 

[Tracy Trek]

Minuet didn't seem sapient to me, though.

It seems to me, the way the term sentient has been used in Trek stories or other sci-fi stories is how you define the difference between a life form that can think for itself and one that cannot (by that meaning one that relies on instinct). Would sapient mean one step above sentience or does it mean the same thing? If I misunderstood, please tell me.

 

[Christopher]

It seems to me, the way the term sentient has been used in Trek stories or other sci-fi stories is how you define the difference between a life form that can think for itself and one that cannot (by that meaning one that relies on instinct). Would sapient mean one step above sentience or does it mean the same thing? If I misunderstood, please tell me.

Strictly speaking, they're talking about two different things. "Sentient" literally means "feeling" (from the same Latin root as "sentiment"), and it's used to refer to consciousness, whether an entity is aware of its existence and the world around it and able to feel emotion, pain, etc. "Sapient" literally means "wise" and is used in science fiction synonymously with "intelligent" -- referring to whether a species has the ability to think and reason and communicate on a humanlike level. The two don't necessarily go together. There's good reason to believe that a lot of animals -- dogs, horses, birds, etc. -- are sentient, aware of their existence and able to feel, even though they aren't at a human level of sapience. This is the basis for a lot of arguments in favor of vegetarianism, ending animal experimentation, etc.

And it's theoretically possible for a being to be sapient but not sentient. This was the basis of the debate in TNG's "The Measure of a Man": It was undisputed that Data was intelligent, but the focus of the court debate was over whether he was sentient as well, an actual person rather than a really sophisticated piece of software. Still, on the whole, Trek tends to use "sentient" to encompass sapience/intelligence, treating them as equivalent concepts. TOS used "sapient" a few times in the third season and "sentient" only once in "Arena," but Trek from TNG onward has used "sentient" exclusively. However, the term "intelligent" is far more commonly used throughout the Trek franchise.

There's also "sophont," from the Greek equivalent of "sapient." It was pretty much coined by Poul Anderson, but is favored by other writers including David Brin, Vernor Vinge, and myself (because I'm a fan of those guys). The other terms are generally adjectives that some SF writers have used as nouns, but "sophont" is strictly a noun.

 

[Will M.]

This is actually touching on some old but interesting arguments about the definition that separates man from say the great apes.

The scientific definition of man used to involve "tool use" and then ample evidence of primates using tools caused them to change it to "tool making" and then you have scientists who documented chimpanzees fashioning wooden spears for hunting.

You used to have communicate by language but lots of ample evidence that bats and dolphins also communicate with each other by structured sound. Not to mention Coco the gorilla. Then they changed it to adaptive language skills and of course you get studies showing Orca's able to learn bottle neck dolphin sound combinations for communication.

They tried: was inherently able to do things were are contrary to evolutionary advantage solely for emotional basis and rhesus monkey's will feed sick and dying members of the family.

We inherently know there is a difference between Human's and Apes, Humans and Dolphin but defining it has eluded the best scientists for a considerable length of time now. Wouldn't surprise me if in a few future space with more species are capacity on other worlds than different animal life has also evolved some of the traits we would consider exclusively "human" so the definition of it may still be a huge puzzle in the 24th century.

 

[Christopher]

This is actually touching on some old but interesting arguments about the definition that separates man from say the great apes.

That very focus on separation is the problem. It's clinging to an outdated and unscientific notion that humans are some special, superior breed. If we start with the premise that we're unique and try to make up justifications for it, that's not science, just egotism. What science shows is that there is no clear dividing line between humans and other animals; we're just part of the continuum. Our abilities are a refinement of abilities found in other species, an incremental elaboration on what came before, like all evolutionary advances. They're not some absolutely unique thing on the other side of a chasm from the rest of nature.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Very neat theory! I like it.

 

[UnknownSample]

It's been debated whether or not he was a real guy. Some speculate he was an android, based on the fact that sparks shoot out when he gets hit by the phaser.

Mirror Vic is an android. It's not a matter of sparks, but that we see for the briefest moment (if you catch it) burnt and damaged machinery and circuitry where the wound is. I'm sure sparks are there, I'm sure, but there's more.

I was almost disappointed when I finally saw, because it halfway justified Mirror Vic, and I'd thought it was so priceless that this impossible thing had happened. Vic could not have a living counterpart.

 

[Kevman7987]

Mirror Vic is an android. It's not a matter of sparks, but that we see for the briefest moment (if you catch it) burnt and damaged machinery and circuitry where the wound is. I'm sure sparks are there, I'm sure, but there's more.

I was almost disappointed when I finally saw, because it halfway justified Mirror Vic, and I'd thought it was so priceless that this impossible thing had happened. Vic could not have a living counterpart.

If we accept that "Warship Voyager" is the closest VOY came to showing the mirror universe, and their doctor was an android as opposed to a hologram, why not android Vic? Maybe mirror Soong was successful at an earlier stage and the mirror universe is lousy with androids?

 

[Christopher]

Mirror Vic is an android. It's not a matter of sparks, but that we see for the briefest moment (if you catch it) burnt and damaged machinery and circuitry where the wound is. I'm sure sparks are there, I'm sure, but there's more.

Here's a screencap: http://ds9.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/7x12/emperorsnewcloak_181.jpg

I also rewatched the scene, and it doesn't look like machinery or circuitry to me, just burned, smoking fabric and tissue. The white and red lights are evidently just reflections from the set lighting -- compare them to the highlights on Vic's face, Ezri's shoulder and hair, etc. And there are no sparks while he's lying there, only at the moment he's hit by the disruptor blast. The wound merely smokes.