From: KELSEY@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU (KELSEY, Michael H.)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.misc
Subject: Re: The Measure of a Man
Date: 15 Aug 92 08:04:24 GMT
 <1992Aug13.212045.3493@mercury.unt.edu>
 <1992Aug14.221841.4223@cco.caltech.edu>
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

In article <1992Aug14.221841.4223@cco.caltech.edu>, tlynch@cco.caltech.edu
(Timothy W. Lynch) says:
>
>I've moved this to r.a.s.misc from .current.
>
>danny@ponder.csci.unt.edu (Danny Faught) writes:
>
>>I may be opening an old can of worms here, so if you don't want to rehash
>>an old discussion, then don't followup.  But since I don't specifically
>>remember reading this discussion, I'll bring it up.
>
>It's come up occasionally, though not recently.  Go right ahead.
>
>>Here goes.  There is no question in my mind that Data is sentient.
>>Even so, I would not give him the rights that he has been granted
>>on the show.  Why would we build robots/androids just to set them
>>loose in society?
>
>On the other side of the coin, if the android you make *is* sentient, what
>right have you to dictate how its existence in society works?  What is sepa-
>rating a sentient android from any other sentient creature apart from the
>physicalities of the situation?
>
>>Computer systems are emerging that can be considered sentient.
>
>Not ruddy likely.   Not now.  And *certainly* not on Data's level.  Unless
>you're aware of some major recent advances, I think we're using different
>definitions.
>
>>And I wouldn't dream of giving them the same rights enjoyed by humans.
>
>Current computers?  Nor would I; among other things, they wouldn't
>*understand*
>them.  That's my main criterion; if a creature is advanced enough to
>understand
>and desire a right, I see no reason why they should a priori be denied it.
>
>What is it about Data that makes you suggest he should not be given equal
>rights?
>
>>So as I see it, sentience is not a sufficient prerequisite to receiving
>>the rights of humans^H^H^H^H^H^H intelligent living beings.
>
>Two questions, then:
>
>1)  How are you defining sentience?
>
>2)  What other prerequisites are you requiring, and why?
>
>Tim Lynch

As the JAG Captain put it so well in "Measure of a Man" (paraphrasing!):

  The question we're all dancing around here is "Does Data have a soul?"  I
  don't know.  Hell, I don't know if _I_ have one.  But Data is able to ask
  that question, and I don't want to be the one to deny him the right to find
  an answer for himself.

In the episode, Maddox _himself_ (eventually) conceded that Data satisfied
all of his objective criteria to be called sentient.  The only one he
"didn't" satisfy was the subjective one of "consciousness," which the JAG
Captain (_what_ was her name???) put so elegantly in the passage I tried
to quote above.  If Data can assert his desire for freedom in a novel (i.e.,
not preprogrammed) situation, then doesn't he deserve that freedom, in the
same way all the rest of us do?
                                              -- Mike Kelsey

[  My opinions are not endorsed by SLAC, Caltech, or the US government  ]
What is your _name_?    "kelsey@slacvm.slac.stanford.edu"
What is your _quest_?   "To get a Ph.D. in high-energy physics"
When will you _finish_? "I don't know.   Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh..."
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.misc