It's 2:30 am here so I'll probably go back to write a more extensive reply later. But stil... I don't really understand the 'hell'... But anyway, what I can't assume is how deactivation and dismantlement could not be considered punishment ! Deactivation seems to pause and stop all running programs in STA and puts them in a state pretty similar to coma...Not really something I'd wish to anyone. Besides, we don't really get their impressions about it, so how can we know it doesn't cause them unpleasant effects ? Lore didn't sound so happy to have been deactivated. And Data doesn't like people knowing about his 'switch'...Which makes sense. Who would like their whole neural activity to be paused and to lose conscience without consent ? I feel the same about disassembly, especially with the associated helplessness. Let aside specific occasions when such procedure would be mandatory or useful, I can't imagine how taking someone's limbs apart while they're in a coma could be anything else than a punishment. It's plain disposal of someone else's body. I get where you're coming from by taking TMOAM as an example, but even if Riker had no choice, I still have that feeling it was just humiliating and wrong to remove Data's forearm and deactivate him without clearly asking for his consent before the hearing (or maybe he did but we don't know it). There's some 'freak show' vibe about that scene...it just feels wrong. Indeed, but Lore didn't feel so happy about having spent years deactivated and disassembled. He actually appeared like he'd do anything to avoid being deactivated and disassembled again...
Sorry, it's just an exclamation I often do, like "heck". Completely irrelevant. Just colorful language I never said it wasn't a punishment, only that it might not be unduly cruel under the circumstances, given Data has been willing to have both done to him on occasion, or seemed ok with it I agree, it isn't something to be trivialized, but think on his deactivation like you would a Vulcan Nerve pinch. If someone could've reached over & tapped that button of his during his commandeering of the ship in Brothers, shouldn't they have? The issue is merit. He didn't refrain from trying to torture & kill a bunch of people & attempt to take over the galaxy. That would've been the only thing he needed to do to avoid it lol Of course not. There's no denying it's a punishment. The question is if it's an appropriate one, & my overall point is that there is no better authority on the appropriateness of punishing an android thusly than Data, because he is one... the only other one, at that point. We know Lore is guilty, & any Federation due process would exist only to determine the proper penalty, & who better to make that determination anyhow? Furthermore, Data bears a certain amount of responsibility for everything Lore has done, because he was the one who chose to reassemble & reactivate him in the 1st place... well... him & his crewmates. These are the people who rightly have the purview to determine what to do. Heck... these same people were the people who in part presided over Data's own rights hearing. They're best qualified party there is imho, & also representatives of the Starfleet judicial system to some degree
Picard would do the same thing Janeway did unless someone confronted him about the morality of it kinda like the way Seven of Nine did to Janeway. In "Measure of a Man" Picard agreed more with Bruce Maddox until this moment: DATA: I will not submit to the procedure, sir. PICARD: Data, I understand your objections, but I have to consider Starfleet's interests. What if Commander Maddox is correct, there is a possibility that many more beings like yourself could be constructed. DATA: Sir, Lieutenant La Forge's eyes are far superior to human biological eyes. True? Then why are not all human officers required to have their eyes replaced with cybernetic implants? (Picard looks away) I see. It is precisely because I am not human. PICARD: That will be all, Mister Data. Then he put his career on the line after Data made this speech in TNG "The Offspring": DATA: Admiral, when I created Lal, it was in the hope that someday she would choose to enter the Academy and become a member of Starfleet. I wanted to give something back in return for all Starfleet has given me. I still do. But Lal is my child. You ask that I volunteer to give her up. I cannot. It would violate every lesson I have learned about human parenting. I have brought a new life into this world, and it is my duty, not Starfleet's, to guide her through these first difficult steps to maturity, to support her as she learns, to prepare her to be a contributing member of society. No one can relieve me from that obligation. And I cannot ignore it. I am her father. HAFTEL: Then I regret that I must order you to transport Lal aboard my ship. PICARD: Belay that order, Mister Data. HAFTEL: I beg your pardon? PICARD: I will take this to Starfleet myself. HAFTEL: I am Starfleet, Captain! Proceed, Commander. PICARD: Hold your ground, Mister Data.
In a somewhat loose association ... suppose the Borg had been depicted as really superior to us poor old humans. No grey zombies, but all as quick-witted and dexterous as Data, all as impossibly strong (or at least as far organics will take it) all eternally young, all still "somewhat" individual superficially.... just with this tiny price tag of giving up total individuality and having to submit to the will of the Collective overall.... I would have been interested in Our Heroes' refutation of that.