From: thogek@cco.caltech.edu (Thomas G. Kiefer)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Re: The Official Dorm-Rec review of "Quality of Life"  (spoilers)
Date: 18 Nov 1992 21:21:31 GMT
Organization: Nope, just me.
NNTP-Posting-Host: yvonne.caltech.edu

>>>>"Quality of Life" spoilers below...


First of all, let's get straight that I am offering a *possible* alternate
explanation to the inconsistancy/hypocracy that you have complained about.
I thought that was clear before,...

>	To quote the mighty sage: "...take care of the 'what if they resist'
>worry the others had."  Does not resistance require an act of will?  And 
>therefore an act of sentience???  Sorry, strike one.

Resistance requires an act of will.  She does not believe the exocomps have
such ability.  Data does, and Riker isn't sure, and this is an obstacle to
using the exocomps.  If she offers to sever the command pathways -- even if
she does not believe this will actually affect anything -- that might assuage
Data and Riker's concerns of possible exocomp resistance, and allow them to
move on.  This would not imply that *she* is concerned about possible exocomp
resistance, but that Riker and Data are, and that she is trying to satisfy
them so that they will let her use the exocomps.

Make sense so far?


>	To quote again: "She did not suggest it because it would work,..."
>	That's funny, it didn't seem to me she suggested it because it wouldn't work.  I'm pretty she whe must have thought it would work.  And therin lies the contradiction.  Sorry, strike two.

I don't know if she thought it would work or not, and neither do you.
(Unless your TV broadcasts telepathic views of the characters as well.)
We can only look and guess.

I'm not suggesting that she suggested it because she thought it would or
would not work as proposed.  I'm suggesting that *maybe* she proposed it
because it would satisfy Data and Riker without actually affecting anything.


>	Hmmmmm.  Let's see.  I don't recall the Dorm Rec questioning her motivesas regards the method of saving Picard and Laforge.  So I will address your
>claim that no contradiction existed in her argument.  I'll try to use small
>words and easy sentence structure so you'll be sure to understand this time.

Try to use the return key a little more often, too, eh?  :)

>	Data claims that use of the Exocomps in the suggested manner will cause them to "turn themselves off."  Here Mr. Data affirms his belief that the tiny
>machines are sentient; for as I previously posited, terminating their own       commands requires and act of will, etc.
>	The scientist's response is, as you already stated, that severing these neural pathways will prevent them from _SHUTTING THEMSELVES OFF_ and allow them to save Picard and Geordi.  Now, despite our dissagreance as concerns her
>motives for suggesting this, one must admit that this solution assumes,
>a priori, sentience on the part of the Exocomps, and therefore contradicts her  position that they are thoughtless machines.  

Her proposal assumes that she believes/hopes that *something* will be
acomplished by disconnecting the command pathways of the exocomps.

I am simply suggesting that it is POSSIBLE that she hoped it would
accomplish the relaxation of Data and Riker's concerns about using the
exocomps, preventing them from (if in fact they were capable of, as
Riker and Data seem to believe) turning themselves off.  Not the she
necessarily did or did not believe in the exocomps ability and will to
turn themselves off, but that this suggestion might satisfy Riker enough
to allow her to use them.

Turned out that it worked for Riker, but not for Data...

>	Hence, surely even you can now see that in order for her to suggest     severing the command pathways, she has to assume that the Exocomps are sentient,otherwise, there's no point in severing them.  Therein lies the rub, if she     claims to believe they are mere machines.
>	Strike Three!  Yer' Out.

Surely even you can now see that there are other possible explanations.

She had to assume (since it seemed pretty obvious) that somebody making the
command decisions (Riker and Data) was concerned that the exocomps might be
alive, willful, and thus resistant.  The "point in severing them" would in
this case have been to assuage Riker and Data's (baseless, in her opinion)
concerns as to the exocomps sentience and will.

She does not have to agree with Riker and Data's concerns in order to
suggest something (which will affect nothing, in her opinion) to negate
their concerns.


>	Once again, thank you for playing.

Good thing your game does not require (in fact prohibits) imagination...
-- 
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====> Thomas Kiefer <===> thogek@cco.caltech.edu <====
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