Monday, August 27, 2012

In Class Blog: STNG


Seeing how Captain Louvois ruled that Data was not a possession of Starfleet, why is it unethical for Commander Riker to shut Data down?

8 comments:

  1. With that ruling, Data is now man, not machine. If he is more man, than shutting him down would be the same as killing him, which is not acceptable.

    ReplyDelete
  2. By "not acceptable", are you referring to killing or shutting down?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Data is an equal to everyone else on Starfleet. He may not be a possession, but he is still a machine. Shutting him down was wrong, but at least you can turn him back on. I don't think shutting him down is the same as killing him.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree that he is an equal to everyone on Starfleet, human or not. Just as humans can be killed, Data can be turned off. Even if it isn't permanent, he still has no control over it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Humans dying and robots being turned off is not the same because when a robot is turned off it can be turned back on unlike a human after they die.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It seems like it would be more similar to knocking someone out which is still unacceptable without the persons permission.

      Delete
    2. Exactly or maybe like a person be in a coma.

      Delete