Pets roaming the halls

It depends on what the threshold for sentience is. Remember that Dr. Maddox had trouble proving to the court that Captain Picard was sentient, and found it impossible to prove that Data was not. If it was difficult for him, it might be difficult for Data, too.

 

Given that Picard was annoyed when his crew rescued and revived three clinically dead 20th century people and considered them no more important than human trash (essentially asking why they bothered to revive them since they were already clinically dead), I have no good impressions of any TNG ideas about sentience.

Data might know what any science text would know about cats, but as someone who has been owned by cats for just over 46 years, my view is that Data knows nothing about cat psychology or what it means to bond with a cat.

 

I saw S3 E8 of Picard, and I disagree.

One of his worst moments. That and "Homeward".

 

^^this

Picard loathed it when anyone acted independently. How much is "chain of command" versus "ego" is a fun differential. Thankfully stories like "Pen Pals" go out of their way to cite the former...

Data should know about the psychology, but sentience would be more than just pattern recognition. He might understand why a cat behaves a certain way or exhibits bonding tendencies, but he couldn't have a genuine emotional response. Even with an emotion chip, that wouldn't be a complete set of how-tos or heuristics. Chip and all, he was designed to emulate behaviors and actions. Little else. (It doesn't help when Troi can somehow perceive (but might be able to sense, especially via eye contact but it's still not as simple as that and I digress) biochemical emotional reactions from a walking pile of phablets too. Electronic, positronic, duotronic, treknoblabonic, etc, it's too much to be nybbled at to be believed... )

 

I haven't watched Picard since the episode where Icheb was killed off. That series has ceased to exist for me.

It wasn't so much independent action, but the fact that he dismissed the people as not worth saving since they were "already dead." I suppose by that reasoning, he would lecture Beverly for administering CPR to someone... oh, wait. 24th century people are Different. They are Special. They are Enlightened.

Patrick Stewart is an excellent actor. But Picard can go to hell.

 

Spoiler: story idea

Now I want Data to try to write a program for a hypothetical android cat in the hopes of understanding Spot better, storing it in a chip he carries, only to accidentally activate it in his positronic brain and start behaving like a cat himself.

 

Spoiler: story idea accepted

OMG. A litter box on the Bridge, Data licking himself in varying positions, rubbing up against people, hoping for treats, and of course he'd go nuts whenever anyone fired the phasers.

That would actually be a great way to write him off the show.

*phasers fire*
*Data transports off the ship to bat at them*
ZAP!

 

I hope he keeps his uniform on.

 

Agreed - I never wanted to know what was under Data's uniform!

 

You want pets roaming the halls turned up to 11, check THIS out: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/star-trek-lower-decks-cf058-jurassic-ark.315573/

And no, it's not my work this time.

 

I assumed Spot was the victim of a transporter accident.

 

You mean... the rematerialization subroutine went wrong, and the cat lost molecular cohesion... and Spot became a spot on the carpet.

 

The most likely explanation is that Data was rehearsing Macbeth, playing the part of Lady Macbeth, uttered the words "Out, damned Spot", and Spot figured, "Okay, if that's how you feel about me, g'bye!" and left the ship at the next starbase. Data was too embarrassed to admit what a lousy cat guardian he was, so he just got another cat, named it Spot, and carried on.

 

Well, if it's anything like what Kryten's got

 

I'm sure there was a recent episode of Discovery where someone steps aside in a corridor to allow a big fat tribble through. Or did I hallucinate that?