Without the Emotion Chip, Does Data Have Emotions?
- Thread starter Zameaze
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I don't know the answer to your question, however, I have a thought on the crew's reactions. Maybe Data reacts in a certain way, or says certain things, or has a certain expression on his face that the crew interpret as an emotional response but actually is just them doing exactly that - interpreting it. A bit like the way we can interpret the way an animal looks as having an emotional response to something, but they aren't.
It’s quite possible that the crew is anthropomorphizing Data, but, I think, it’s equally possible that Data has achieved that level of complexity that would support emotion and doesn’t know it “consciously.”
But it’s interesting that you (the first poster on the subject) allow for both possibilities.
That having been said, I’m back where I started.
I'm going to go ahead and point out that you are, in fact, and animal, and that other animals do, in fact, have emotions.
^ I knew someone would point that out. But it was the only way I could find to explain what I wanted to say.
Your point still stands - its not that animals don't have emotions, it's just that we interpret those emotions based upon signals that we're used to getting from humans. People who view dogs as 'smiling', for example. Dogs show 'happiness' by panting and wagging their tail, not by smiling - but we often still interpret a similar facial muscle movement as being associated with the same emotion as it is in people.
It's possible something similar is going on with Data. Or, indeed, that he was programmed to respond to certain situations with certain expressions or mannerisms designed for this very purpose - to simulate an emotional response.
Thanks, cult, that's exactly what I was trying to say. I just worded it rather clumsily (which doesn't surprise me since I was posting at 6.15 this morning!
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I had to vote "yes" because of that. I can recall several instances where Data showed anger without an emotion chip.
I think he has moments. We also see him act bemused and entertained from time to time.
The emotion chip brings in strong, full emotional capacity, but I think Data also has reactions without it that are hard to explain.
By mistake, I posted this poll on Trek General Discussion first, and then realizing my mistake, posted it here. The interesting thing is that the stone TNG watchers here seem to think more of the possibility that Data may have feelings. Or maybe the sampling is too small to tell anything yet.
I originally voted 'No'. But after many such posts as these, im starting to think Data does infact have some kind of emotion. Captain Stoner is right to point out that in many episodes Data smiles and appears amused and entertained by various things...
I always wondered whilst watching the show how Data would find anything at all amusing enough to grin if he was totally void of all emotion.
I'm not too sure; though he does 'miss' Tasha.
Was Data always supposed to be emotionless? I'm sure there are several scenes in the first season where he appeared to have emotions, one that springs to mind is in Datalore where Picard says something about feeling uncomfortable and data seems to hang his head and look down looking very uncomfortable.
Was Data always supposed to be emotionless? I'm sure there are several scenes in the first season where he appeared to have emotions, one that springs to mind is in Datalore where Picard says something about feeling uncomfortable and data seems to hang his head and look down looking very uncomfortable.
So once again we are ignoring the fact that sentient technology has been floating around the Trek universe since TOS?
It's hardly a new idea for Trek or for Science Fiction in general. I'll never understand why people can buy into warp drive, transporters, luck machines, and a million other incredibly implausible tech related things, but take a hard line against beings like Data or the Doctor ever being sentient.
The fact is, we just don't know. I won't even try to argue whether Data has emotions or not, I'm just always surprised when people dismiss these things out of hand.
Thought this has been an interesting thread/poll. My initial reaction was "no," but voted on not knowing. Data always came off stiff, but I do wonder if he evolved during the course of the series and movies - the circumstances of being in space; commanding and learning; dealing with the variety of species (not to mention the diverse personalities and cultures of humanoids); and the bond with Tasha Yar and other friendships - maybe he adapted and unconsciously reached another level. There were instances where I wonder if Data really felt puzzled by the dilemmas or the scientific questions or felt the discomfort about dealing with Lore or Dr. Soong, or other situations (like missing Tasha). I'm reminded of how McCoy reacted to Data in the first episode - he almost wondered if Data was secretly Vulcan - and it's not like Vulcans don't have emotions rather than having to learn to control them to extreme degrees. Whether we can say that about Data - maybe he's not to that level. I'm not sure how much the emotion chip really succeeded (was it really emotion or mimicry?), but Data became quite a sentient and unique being.
Yes. No doubt in my mind at all. Not as big a part of his personality as the emotion chip later gave him, but there just the same. Data's reaction after Tasha died, and Data in Measure of a Man talking about her, makes no sense at all if he doesn't have emotions.
It's true, I think if he were truly emotionless, he might have simply made some plain statements about Tasha's service record. We might have seen him make a suggestion for her replacement at a highly inappopriate time. Of course Data does make mistakes like that, but there is something going on with him.
I think the pathways are there, in his positronic brain. Here's a thought: maybe Data (pre-emotion chip) is actually more empathic - he picks up emotional states from other people, and writes subroutines to approximate them and understand them. He may not be "feeling" their emotions like Troi would, but he is picking up on a lot of the same body language and such. And since he has the pathways in his neural net, once he has a number of those subroutines, he starts having emotion-like reactions based on outside input - or the lack thereof.
Then, when the emotion chip is installed, he begins having self-generated emotions as well.
This might explain how he seems to have emotional reactions, and yet goes back to "I am incapable of feeling anything" when the question comes up. He is picking up on emotions and responding to them, but he doesn't consider it to be any more than subroutines - and yet it continues to puzzle him -
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