• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Star Trek vs Wars: Robot Slavery?

^ I guess I missed the part where restraining bolts are there to keep driods from walking off cliffs. I remember dialog that said they are there so the driods don't run off.

I figured that regular programming allows droids to avoid walking off lifts.

In the case of 3PO or R2 units, you'd be right. But power droids in the EU are depicted as having extremely limited intelligence (since they're basically walking batteries, this makes some sense), to the point that a crimelord was once able to order a power droid to walk into a room filled with his rivals and tell it to overload its mini-fusion generator...

Restraining bolts aren't the true sign of droid slavery though, that's the memory wipe. It's not just a way of keeping secrets, as Organa thought when he had C-3PO scrubbed at the end of RotS... it's been stated as a routine measure against droids expanding beyond their programming. Some owners allow this - R2's owners have often found his "experience" has enhanced his abilities and value this - but it seems that many fear droids will begin making decisions outside the strict parameters of their factory settings.
 
^ I guess I missed the part where restraining bolts are there to keep driods from walking off cliffs. I remember dialog that said they are there so the driods don't run off.

I figured that regular programming allows droids to avoid walking off lifts.

In the case of 3PO or R2 units, you'd be right. But power droids in the EU are depicted as having extremely limited intelligence (since they're basically walking batteries, this makes some sense), to the point that a crimelord was once able to order a power droid to walk into a room filled with his rivals and tell it to overload its mini-fusion generator...

Restraining bolts aren't the true sign of droid slavery though, that's the memory wipe. It's not just a way of keeping secrets, as Organa thought when he had C-3PO scrubbed at the end of RotS... it's been stated as a routine measure against droids expanding beyond their programming. Some owners allow this - R2's owners have often found his "experience" has enhanced his abilities and value this - but it seems that many fear droids will begin making decisions outside the strict parameters of their factory settings.

Memory wipes are not necessarily indicative of attempts to derail emergent droid intelligence. Programming corruption leading to unexpected (still nonsentient) results, like those that eventually cause slowdowns and crashes in modern PC software, could just as easily (and perhaps even more reasonably) be the purpose of the wipes.
 
Memory wipes are not necessarily indicative of attempts to derail emergent droid intelligence. Programming corruption leading to unexpected (still nonsentient) results, like those that eventually cause slowdowns and crashes in modern PC software, could just as easily (and perhaps even more reasonably) be the purpose of the wipes.

Except it's only in the worst cases I ever need to resolve a slowdown or crash by wiping my PC and reinstalling the OS and the attendant software. Most times, I download a patch or somesuch. You're arguing for the equivalent of a lobotomy in cases of neurological dysfunction where corrective surgery or medicinal treatment would be effective.
 
Considering that some droids are able to be tortured in the Star Wars universe, yeah I'd say at least some of them are slaves.
 
What a ridiculous discussion.

R2-D2: Toaster
C3PO: Toaster
Data: Toaster
Voyager EMH: Holographic Toaster

'Measure of a Man' is one of those episodes that I wished had never aired. It led to the ridiculous Voyager episodes where the Doctor wants to be free.

Data is no more sentient than the M-5 from the The Ultimate Computer.
 
What a ridiculous discussion.

R2-D2: Toaster
C3PO: Toaster
Data: Toaster
Voyager EMH: Holographic Toaster

'Measure of a Man' is one of those episodes that I wished had never aired. It led to the ridiculous Voyager episodes where the Doctor wants to be free.

Data is no more sentient than the M-5 from the The Ultimate Computer.

Data seemed sentient to me he was able to expand his original programming on his on on many occasions. R2-D2 seemed to be smarter than C-3PO. The doctor from voyager seemed to become much more than his base programming after being on for a few years. What is the basis for you bias against non-organic sentience?
 
What a ridiculous discussion.

R2-D2: Toaster
C3PO: Toaster
Data: Toaster
Voyager EMH: Holographic Toaster

'Measure of a Man' is one of those episodes that I wished had never aired. It led to the ridiculous Voyager episodes where the Doctor wants to be free.

Data is no more sentient than the M-5 from the The Ultimate Computer.

Nonsense, Data fulfills all of the criteria that we as humans set for ourselves to prove our "superiority" over other animals.
 
What a ridiculous discussion.

R2-D2: Toaster
C3PO: Toaster
Data: Toaster
Voyager EMH: Holographic Toaster

'Measure of a Man' is one of those episodes that I wished had never aired. It led to the ridiculous Voyager episodes where the Doctor wants to be free.

Data is no more sentient than the M-5 from the The Ultimate Computer.

Data seemed sentient to me he was able to expand his original programming on his on on many occasions. R2-D2 seemed to be smarter than C-3PO. The doctor from voyager seemed to become much more than his base programming after being on for a few years. What is the basis for you bias against non-organic sentience?

Since no one knows exactly what Data was programmed for, how can you say he's exceeded it? What everyone seems to think is sentience could merely be errors creeping into the program due to too much data being accumulated without de-fragging the hard drive. Once they re-install the OS and re-boot, these robots/androids will be back to functioning properly. :guffaw:
 
"Sentience" is just a word humans use to make themselves feel better. Consciousness is an illusion of intelligence. We're not any more special than any other living being, we just happen to use more tools and rely on elaborate communication systems far more than others.

Any being that does the same thing will doubtless be as "sentient" as we are.
 
Since no one knows exactly what Data was programmed for, how can you say he's exceeded it? What everyone seems to think is sentience could merely be errors creeping into the program due to too much data being accumulated without de-fragging the hard drive. Once they re-install the OS and re-boot, these robots/androids will be back to functioning properly. :guffaw:

They did "reboot" Data, in "Contagion". He suffered no ill effects.
 
Since no one knows exactly what Data was programmed for, how can you say he's exceeded it? What everyone seems to think is sentience could merely be errors creeping into the program due to too much data being accumulated without de-fragging the hard drive. Once they re-install the OS and re-boot, these robots/androids will be back to functioning properly. :guffaw:

They did "reboot" Data, in "Contagion". He suffered no ill effects.


I dunno. That was more like a Registry Rollback.

;)
 
What a ridiculous discussion.

R2-D2: Toaster
C3PO: Toaster[/I].


Can you torture a toaster?


Though, I will admit this one is a toaster.

talkietoasterqu6.jpg
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top