Sentience: Dr. Maddox vs Data

[Saquist]

In the episode Dr. Maddox list....

Intelligence, self awareness,
consciousness.


as the ingredients for sentience. But are they really? A friend of mine and myself vigorously began shaking down the difference between Sentient Life and non Sentient life

Sentience is the ability to feel, perceive or be conscious, or to have subjective experiences. Eighteenth century philosophers used the concept to distinguish the ability to think ("reason") from the ability to feel ("sentience"). -wiki

Sentience having the power of sense perception or sensation; conscious~Dictionary.com

Sentience : responsive to or conscious of sense impressions <sentient beings 2. Aware~Merriam and Webster

However these definitions don't seem to agree with sentience being a higher form of thinking life as the episode suggest.
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Self-awareness:an awareness of one's own personality or individuality

Intelligence: (simple meaning) capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding,

Consciousness: 1. The state of being awake and aware of one's surroundings.
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This episode makes it seem however that SENTIENCE itself is a higher form of intelligence but some sources deign that there is simple sentience among animals.

We determined that

Self Awareness:
Intelligence: The ability to use knowledge and reason on it
Instinct Override: The ability to chose beyond the drive of instinct
Abstract Thought: imagination and intangible perceptions such as math and arts.

are factors in higher intelligence IF we want to term higher Intelligence ...Sentience....

The First Problem is that Maddox listed CONSCIOUSNESS as a requirement for this supposedly higher form of ability to think. But are not all complex animal life conscious or aware of their surrounding? If they were not they could not evade predators or other dangers nor could they find mates and procreate. Simply being awake can't be a requirement for higher think that sentience implies.

The Second Problem deals with the interesting idea that Data might not actually be sentient as the Good Doctor would call it or (sapience) or whatever word to describe human level of thinking and processing. Data is guided by programing and programing is much like instinct in that it's just as inate and difficult to counter.

In the first definition of Sentience it says: the ability to think ("reason") from the ability to feel. s Of course Data doesn't feel or have emotions but emotions and feelings are merely biological drives at the control of instinct and Data's programing is much like that instinct.So if data doesn't have the ability to override his basic instinct then isn't he not just like lower forms of animal life that can be quite intelligent yet lack the ability to chose to go against his inner nature?

I don't think that just having programing isolates data but rather the inability to go against that programing. Or even to grow beyond that programing may isolate Data as a slightly lower form of sentient life.

 

[tighr]

I was extremely disappointed that the season 6 episode "The Quality of Life" (featuring the exocomps) didn't even bother to reference the season 1 episode "Home Soil" (the silicon-based microbrains), or the season 2 episode "Evolution" (the sentient nanites). Both feature lifeforms that are ultimately declared "sentient".

 

[Trekker4747]

TNG got sentience and sapience mixed up a lot -actually completely. A lot of animal life here on earth demonstrates sentience but very, very little of it shows signs of sapience (that-is being on par with humans in how they operate.)

Obviously by TNG's time the two terms must have blurred or merged as exploration of the galaxy stretched out and new life forms were found.

"Measure of Man" is a good, great, episode that puts the idea of life greatly on display to show that it can include things beyond what we normally see as being equal to us.

My only gripe is that the trial was about whether or not Data had the "right" to choose his destiny and career path, whether or not it was "legal" for Starfleet to order Data into a job where he'd basically be a test subject to be taken apart and attempted to be duplicated.

This contradicts at the very least a huge chunk of Data's backstory where we had learned that Data had elected to go into Starfleet and even had to go to the Academy. If Data had the choice to enter Starfleet, certainly he'd have the choice to leave just as everyone else, apparently, does.

Maddox's argument was that he had a "right" to further his career by examining Data. He's got a funny idea of what his "rights" are as certainly someone's unwillingness to do something that'd further Maddox's career shouldn't mean Maddox's "right" trumps the other guy's. If he wanted to be the first person to perform an Autopsy on Tholian or one of those jelly-fish aliens from the pilot would he be allowed to do so, even if the participant is unwilling?

Maddox's "rights" end where other people's rights begin.

Which brings us back to Data's rights as a being, and my argument above on Data entering Starfleet. Hell we're shown in this episode Data was awarded medals for his service and other accommodations from commanding officers! Certainly Starfleet isn't in the habit of awarding medals to pieces of equipment, is it?

But, okay, Data's life is in gray area where it's not well defined what he is and how his ambitions meet/end with someone else's.

Which brings us to Riker's arguments. Riker was cast as the advocate for Starfleet/Maddox -the plaintiff, if you will. In that capacity it was up to him to show that Data is "owned" by Starfleet and not owed any "rights."

To "prove" this Riker's whole argument pretty much hinges on the fact that Data is a machine. Which is odd because that's not in dispute. Just because Data's very strong, or has removable limbs, or can be shut-off proves nothing and does nothing to show that Data is property. As Picard points out plenty of other species have great strength, I'm sure other species (probably crustacean ones) have removable limbs that either can be "reattached" or replaced by a new one growing in, and every species can be "shut off" by a phaser or a drug only to regain consciousness later.

So what was the point of Riker's argument? He pretty much tells the court something it already knows, Data is a machine. Great, Will. But what does that have to do with him not having rights to chose his own destiny when he's already been allowed to chose it in the first place?

Picard's argument could've pretty much been "We've already allowed Data to act and behave in our society as sentient/sapient being so why does that change now when it's inconvenient?"

 

[Saquist]

Maddox's "rights" end where other people's rights begin.

I like that. It seems symmetrical...

 

[cgervasi]

Maybe the idea was Data's right to choose never conflicted seriously with someone else's interests until that point. Maybe the relevance of Data's strength, processing power, detatchable arms, etc was the benefit of trying to create more androids. "In the past we could treat Data as a person because there was no cost. But look at the opportunity cost of doing it in this case!"

 

[Trekker4747]

Then why not conduct a vivisection on aliens they come across to see what biological concepts could possibly be introduced into humans or other species?

Someone only has rights until they have something to offer us at which point their rights are null in order for is to capitalize on that? That's bullshit.

Starfleet up until this Maddox case as far as we're aware treated Data as a sentient being with control over his own destiny. Data chose to enter Starfleet was made to go through the academy and had to work his way up the ranks over the course of years to get where he is now. He was a decorated officer with medals and accommodations and did something at some point to impress a man enough to make Data the Second Officer of the fleet's Flagship.

Clearly, from the way he was treated, Data was much more than "just a machine" until Maddox got all butt-hurt over something. Starfleet's treatment of Data from the moment he was discovered to the moment Maddox stepped on the Enterprise shows that he was seen, very much so, as a sentient being with control over his own destiny and able to make his own choices. That doesn't, and shouldn't, change just because Maddox's career hinges on destroying another being.

Further more if Data is "property" of anyone he'd be property of Dr. Soong or whatever passes for his surviving estate.

 

[Gary7]

^ Excellent points. This was a rather significant hole in the story, for me anyway. Data joining Starfleet of his own accord meant he was his own independent self, not the property of Starfleet. It's not like his appearance meant that they adopted him as their own. Thus, Maddox didn't have any clout in this respect.

They used this "property" bit as a last ditch effort to bring the whole case to a trial setting. Maddox could have used an analogy as a "derelict piece of machinery" with no owner to lay claim. Starfleet then decides to make that claim, based on the property premise. Data would then say "I own myself", at which point the whole question would come into play about whether or not he is sentient/sapient.


Although Riker's points were very dramatic in effect, they fall flat on the very fact that he is only addressing the "machine" aspect to Data. It would be not much different than if someone used a surgical laser and detached the arm of a human, or knocked him over the head to unconsciousness. His points do not address his mind.


Data made it very clear that he would cooperate with Maddox once he was convinced that his Positronic net was sufficiently duplicated so that the essence of his memories would be preserved. All it means is that Maddox needs more time to do it. Simple as that. The rush into this disassembling of Data before he can eliminate risks is just fool-hearty. Data is too precious and unique to risk destroying. Thus, it is up to Data to know when conditions are appropriate. He knows himself better than anyone else.

I was extremely disappointed that the season 6 episode "The Quality of Life" (featuring the exocomps) didn't even bother to reference the season 1 episode "Home Soil" (the silicon-based microbrains), or the season 2 episode "Evolution" (the sentient nanites). Both feature lifeforms that are ultimately declared "sentient".

A good illustration of a break in continuity. Just because the Exocomp doesn't look humanoid doesn't suggest it has a lesser chance for sentience. You'd think they would have achieved that level of understanding and reached the conclusion that they are sentient much faster.