I would have thought that while training in medicine with Starfleet and all the scientific knowledge of the Federation, there would have been a semester or two on non-conventional forms of life, such as silicon-based and non-corporeal. I find it hard to imagine there wouldn't have been at least one lecture covering the possibility of technological based life. With that in mind, Pulaski's treatment of Data seems unprofessional at best, ignorant at worst. Even if she assumed that Data isn't actually alive, would it have killed her to give him the benefit of the doubt and treat him as such?
It's unprofessional, yes. Data is a decorated bridge officer and entitled to the respect attendant to that. If other officers are addressing him as a toaster, then we have a problem. Of course, this is an attempt by the writers to bed in Data as a being worthy of respect over a period of some episodes, so we are to witness him eventually defeating Pulaski's prejudices and ultimately winning her respect. I think that's the idea behind it. But it does come across as disrespectful and unprofessional.
Maybe they were trying to set-up the relationship between the doctor and the emotionless character like TOS. But, then again, however they tried to write it was pretty silly.
In Next Gen, first they established Data the android as a fully recognized being, equal to any human, an officer, with authority over flesh and blood people... Then they tried to have it both ways, occasionally showing people, even higher ups in Star Fleet, thinking he's a toaster... so they could do those kinds of stories too, where they deal with whether he's a legitimate being or not. Then again, there's only one like Data (we think, then), and he's a big novelty for people. Pulaski as a doctor has a hard time with the concept of a machine being like a flesh and blood person, probably. She deals with the messy mechanics of life every day. She has her own gut level sense of what "life" is, probably.
You could be right about that. Regardless, I think a lot of Pulaski hate comes from the fact that she was so dismissive of Data.
I don't really get the "Pulaski Hate". I think the Pulaski/Data 'hatred' has been made too big a deal of over the years. Yes she's intially slightly dismissive of him, but never to the levels people often like to portray it as, and after only a handful of episodes or something it was downplayed, even eliminated entirely. By the end of the season she's shown to be quite accepting of him. Friendly, even.
That's definitely what they were trying to do. Polaski was clearly supposed to be a virtual clone of McCoy, but failed completely in that role. The fact that they wrote her so that she had even more animosity to Data than McCoy had to either Spock or transporters (which I'm pretty sure is what they were trying to channel; doctors aren'ts supposed to like technology, you see) really drives that home.
She had a general 'technology aversion'. In "Contagion" she seems positively dismissive of the guy who doesn't understand what a splint is. Data and Moriarty help her to learn to accept artifical sentience. Character. Growth.
McCoy-Spock had the measure of each other. Spock could throwback a cutting Vulcanesque barb that was the match for anything that McCoy's curmudgeonly wit could throw at him. Pulsaki having a pop at Data however is like a grown-up having a nasty go at an innocent child. So that's where the hatred comes in. I liked Pulaski well enough but she does suffer from this somewhat misfiring relationship with Data and of course she had her character development chopped off with her sudden departure at the end of season.
That's a fair point. I think the reason it feels so much harsher is Data's lack of reaction, or more particularly his wide-eyed innocent non-reaction, which projects his being victimized. By contrast, Spock was never at a loss for a response to McCoy's jibs (in fact he clearly enjoying sparring with the good doctor.)
I've heard somewhere that they were specifically trying to re-create the Spock/McCoy dynamic. The difference is that Spock gave it out as bad as he got, as he could be pretty condescending himself towards the doctor, so their bickering was just fun to watch. Here you just feel bad for Data because he never actually does anything to make her dislike him so it just comes off as her picking on him.
But...what if she was right, and Data really is nothing more than a simulation of intelligent life? What if its humanity is, in fact, Soong's (and Spiner's)? What if the creation of intelligent life is nothing more than an inferior vanity and misidentification? It ennobles to treat it as an equal - but there is an equal chance it is an anthropomorphized mirror capable of calculating probabilities and making "choices". Data could just have easily been programmed to make toast, in point of fact. How is its simulated behavior any different from a toaster's? (Just playing Ardra's advocate here). Proving his humanity, like it or not, is Data's onus. Not a human's responsibility to just accept their own devaluation and material objectification at face value. And what of Lore, who would eliminate human life and liberty at will? He would not describe himself as human, I think, but "other". Though what drives him is, in fact, a product of human intelligence: programming. Data's and the EMH's personalities could just have easily been written to be inconsistent and bewildering, rather than the endearing mascot role that integrated them socially. If anything, they might be demonstrating human vanity and delusion, as well as a liberal largesse these machines do not, in fact merit. Endowing them with rights may be cautious and civil and nice, but it may also be - a lie. A vanity. You can call this argument specious or even intolerant - but acceptance of those cute robots as sentient beings is no more one's authority to declare than disavow. But sure, it's nice to be nice. They may have individual rights - but life? Sure, the way the pan is still hot after a human cooked some eggs. Can it vote now? Can it take your kid's seat in school? Send people to their deaths now? Eh?
@TheAdmiralty nailed it: The dynamic with Spock and McCoy worked because 1) there was never any genuine ill feelings there, it was just friendly insults back and forth, and 2) it was equal participation from both. Data, on the other hand, was so innocent that he just sat there and took everything that Pulaski slung at him. It couldn't even occur to him to fight back. She may not have intended to take advantage of his nature, but that's what ended up happening. "Doctor, I believe this empty turbolift shaft requires attention."
Well, if Data is a toaster and Pulaski is spot on, then Starfleet are insane and have just educated the interactive equivalent of a kitchen table and made that kitchen table a senior officer on the "flag ship". Ooops.
It was all just sexual tension, word around 10 Forward was that Data was a tiger in the sack and Pulaski wanted to take him for a spin. She was just trying to get him to notice her by teasing him and pronouncing his name incorrectly. If Muldaur had stayed on the show, her and Data would've been getting it on by the end of season three (to make Worf jealous, of course).
But like in The Measure of a Man, how exactly could Data prove his Humanity? How would you, if asked, prove your own? I know (for example) that I am sentient, sapient, (do/have/experience?) qualia, and everything else. But how to prove that to another person?
@Scotchy: I really hope there's a special somewhere on BRAIN BLEACH because God knows we need it now.