From: jal41820@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Smiley)
Subject: Re: Lynch's Spoiler Review: "The Quality of Life"
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 22:41:57 GMT
Keywords: TNG, Data, machine life?

dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Schaumann) writes:
:)In article <1emnn4INN13r@gap.caltech.edu>, tlynch@cco (Timothy W. Lynch) writ
:)>WARNING:  The following review contains spoiler information for "The Quality 
:)>of Life."  (The TNG episode, that is, not the concept itself.  :-) )  Those 
:)>not wishing said spoilers are advised to remain calm, avoid panic, and simply
:)>skip this message.


:)>"The Quality of Life" brought on a lot of thought.  In spades.  Let's face 
:)>it, Bev was right -- "What is the definition of life?" *is* one of the 
:)>thorniest questions in the book, and any show that tries to touch on it had 
:)>better be very careful where it treads.  "The Measure of a Man" did it, and 
:)>so, to a point, did "The Offspring".  "The Quality of Life" acknowledged 
:)>MoaM's legacy

:)What about "Evolution"?  IMHO, this is almost a straight re-working of that
:)episode:

:)  -modification on a tool creates intelligence

The nanites were let out of their contained environment. The exocomps were
*physicallY* modified.

:)  -new intelligence causes havoc, which gets in the way of obsessive scientist

The intelligence itself causing havoc, and someone *protecting* that
intelligence, is *quite* a difference.

:)  -since recognizing this new presence as life would impair the scientist's
:)   research, the scientist is opposed to any line of inquiry to establish
:)   whether a new intelligence is present

In Evolution, this occured. Here, the scientist *watched* a test that
everyone there agreed would determine it's state of life. Data was the
only one who still had hopes. Even Geordi thought the test meant it
wasn't alive. Quite different from Evolution.

:)  -Data is instrumental in proving the existence of the new intelligence.

Actually, Wesley was more instrumental in Evolution. There, the entire
crew pretty much agreed it was probably alive, but the needs of the
crew outweighed the needs of the nanites. Picard ordered their
destruction since there was no alternative to getting them to cooperate,
until Data was able to establish communication.

:)>"Okay, so Data's alive and sentient, and 
:)>after Picard fighting for him, everyone's agreed on that.  Now, what happens 
:)>next time, when we get a machine that might be alive and that *doesn't* look 
:)>as human as Data?"  The answer -- only Data realizes it.

:)This might have been an interesting point, if they'd done anything with it.

They did. Subtly.

:)Instead, it's just used as a plot device to drive the overworked "our heros
:)are in danger and we need to save them" plot.  We're now going into the 6th
:)season of seeing the crew made virtually invulnerable to any threat.  I

Actually, Picard and Geordi would have quite probably died if it weren't
for the exocomps. I'd say that doesn't make them invulnerable.

-- 
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