How the Doctor deals with death

[Dee1891]

The 60's German SF-series "Raumpatrouille" (Space Patrol) had some sort of primitive robots who were programmed with a rule that "a robot may not in any circumstance do a human any harm" or something like that.

That didn't prevent some robots to actually seize power on a mining colony. When some of the human workers started to argue and kill each other, the robots became neurotic and took over the colony.



In some occasiions, The Doctor's program made him almost "too human".

Like in Real Life (hmm, why do I always write "Still Life" which is an Iron Maiden song?) in the situation you describe above. I would have told The Doctor the same as you did.

We also had that scenario in Heroes And Demons when The Doctor became so devastated over Freya's death that he refused to call himself Schweitzer anymore.

He could easily have replayed the Beowulf holoprogram in which Freya wouldn't have died, then he could have created a new oprogram in which he marries Freya and live happy with her all the time when he's not active in Sickbay.

What would be the point of him developing as a character if the writers had allowed the Doctor to do that?

 

[Lynx]

What would be the point of him developing as a character if the writers had allowed the Doctor to do that?

But did he develope as a character because of that?
I get the impression that it only made him depressed.
I think that he developed more because of real situations than what could have been made by using a holodeck program.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

If he wants to experience what it's like to be human, he has to live in a world where he can only control his own actions and words, not those of others, and not things that happen to him. He gets a little of that when B'Elanna messes with his program to add variables he didn't choose for his family (fake "free will").

The best way to get that, however, is to stay out of the holodeck (or rather, differentiate between holo-happenings and real ones) at least until he can separate the two in his mind.

 

[KelisThePoet]

Is it possible that this capacity was compromised exactly because he was allowed to grow, form attachments to the crew, and reflect upon his own actions? He does make the choice who to treat at the moment itself without problem, and he chooses Kim. It's only afterwards that he starts to destabilize when he starts thinking about his decision.

Exactly. The original EMH program was not flawed in this respect and could make subjective triage decisions (even while working solo), provided those decisions were made about relative strangers, the only kinds of patients the EMH was designed to treat, as a short-term emergency medical aid.

Voyager's EMH does not confront the easily foreseeable issue of how to make subjective decisions in triage situations. He confronts the unforeseen issue of what to do when friendship and emotion enter into the decision, either at the time of decision (as the doctor fears that it did) or in retrospect (as it certainly did for the doctor). This is a version of the ethical problem that any medical officer serving on a starship will face, since they will invariably know and care for some of their patients more than others. But the programmers didn't address it because they didn't imagine an EMH becoming a long-term medical officer and forming genuine friendships among the crew. It took a special set of unlikely circumstances for that to happen (all of the other medical officers wiped out AND the ship is too far away for anyone to replace them, long-term BUT the ship is in good enough shape, with a big enough surviving crew, that it continues to function like a starfleet ship and turns to the EMH as a medical officer--something even Janeway wasn't originally considering, even in this weird situation, until Kes talked her into it).

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Emergencies of that nature were so few and far between (the odds of the whole medical staff being incapacitated long-term, with no chance of acquiring replacements, and any crew members/passengers who could pinch hit for them (medical/first aid being their minor at the Academy, etc) being unable to do so is low).

The odds of the EMH remembering a former patient with any degree of fondness or familiarity, even if the program could allow them to, and then having to treat them again, this time a life or death choice between them and another random person, are also low.

To some extent, the program has to learn either through past experience or software updates, new techniques and information, so it's the latest best version.

Essentially, it's unlikely that the last resort medical program will encounter the same person for more than one incident.

 

[Oddish]

I think that happened is that the EMH had a sophisticated triage program, that ran the mathematics of the patients against each other. Age, health, family, value to the ship, odds of survival, and other factors. He multiplies it all together, and the patient scoring highest is treated. Problem is, Kim and Jetel were both young, reasonably important, and eith identical injuries they had the same chances. With the EMH's triage subroutines totally exhausted, he still could not choose a patient to save. So, his emerging human self took over and made a subjective decision. But since such decisions were incompatible with his program, he went wacky. Kind of like HAL in 2001, when he was forced to do something he wasn't designed for.

 

[KelisThePoet]

It really isn't clear whether the doctor chose Kim in the moment for emotional, personal reasons; or if that's how he rationalized it later. It's even less clear what an EMH without emotional, personal connections would have done. No reason to assume the subroutines would have been exhausted and the program would have frozen or malfunctioned.

 

[Oddish]

No reason to assume the subroutines would have been exhausted and the program would have frozen or malfunctioned.

If I remember right, he basically froze on the spot, and Paris yelled for him to make a decision. Who knows what would have happened otherwise?

 

[KelisThePoet]

Some reasonable guesses might be (a) he'd have snapped out of it on his own in time or (b) someone else would have snapped him out of it by saying, "make a decision." And again, none of that speaks to what an EMH that hadn't formed personal attachments after running continuously for 3 years (against recommended operating procedures) would have done.

In order for an AI program to be autonomous and adaptive, it must have the ability to overwrite its own programming. Contrary to Asimov, there can't be hardfast lines the program never crosses. The original EMH program had a triage subroutine that most likely amounted to something in lay terms like "simulate coin flip in the case of two roughly identical patients, then move on." But in choosing to form friendships, Voyager's doctor adapted and thus in effect overwrote that subroutine with something more like, "cultivate and respect friendships, but don't allow friendships to compromise medical ethics at times of difficult decisions," which was a more difficult subroutine to follow than anything his original programmers designed or intended.

 

[STEPhon IT]

Latent Image - After having to choose who lives and who dies in triage (picking the one he knows better over another also-ran never references until now), has a breakdown and can't function properly until his memory is wiped

Real Life - Faced with the inevitable death of his holofamily daughter Belle (someone he grows close to, despite her being "less real" than he is, she is family for the purposes of the program - like crying when your favorite TV/book character dies), shuts down the program and refuses to see it through, until convinced to do so. Afterwards, never re-visits the program again.

Is it a limitation of his programming, as originally, he is supposed to treat the person he is activated to help, and move on quickly to whoever is next, then be shut down? Most emergencies don't last anywhere near as long as Voyager's stranding did, after all, and he is only meant to be a stopgap, although I suppose his program ought to be capable (without active editing) of learning and applying what he's done in previous situations to new ones.

Does anybody else have other examples?

How powerful that episode "Latent Image "could've been if the victim was a crew member we loved and valued? This was the first episode where GOAT Janeway had to reassess her interpretation of the EMH, and had a difficult decision which showed vulnerability from her normal SUPERHUMAN self.

I thought "Real Life" was a missed opportunity to give that scenario to Seven of 9, I would've loved to see her facing these situations as the Doctor did so either the GOAT or Chakotay could counsel her.

It really isn't clear whether the doctor chose Kim in the moment for emotional, personal reasons; or if that's how he rationalized it later. It's even less clear what an EMH without emotional, personal connections would have done. No reason to assume the subroutines would have been exhausted and the program would have frozen or malfunctioned.

What a kicker it could've been if the EMH didn't choose Kim???

 

[Oddish]

The original EMH program had a triage subroutine that most likely amounted to something in lay terms like "simulate coin flip in the case of two roughly identical patients, then move on." But in choosing to form friendships, Voyager's doctor adapted and thus in effect overwrote that subroutine with something more like, "cultivate and respect friendships, but don't allow friendships to compromise medical ethics at times of difficult decisions," which was a more difficult subroutine to follow than anything his original programmers designed or intended.

What a kicker it could've been if the EMH didn't choose Kim???

Those actually point out an interesting question... what was the EMH's exact assessment? Were the two patients mathematically identical? Or might Jetal have had a slightly higher priority score, which he ignored because of his personal fondness for Harry? The implications of his action would be very different then.

Choosing Jetal was a far from inconceivable decision... there were obviously still severe issues between Garrett and the producers, and they might have decided that the whole issue with the magazine wasn't really relevant anymore. And given that many Trek shows have gone along fine with 7 characters, VOY could have managed with 8.