FuglyDuck

also in the episode with data’s daughter, Lal, and with the exocomps, and with Vger (er, that was the voyager probe,) and with the M-5 unit and then if we go into non-AI/synthetic… we got the Horta and the microbes in Home Soil and such.

fixed the typo, I should have known better.

In any case, like, the Prime Directive absolutely would require a robust, well crafted definition. Like. without one… are Serpent Worms sentient? I mean, they probably have some form of sensory apparatus, right? they feel. yet how often do we see starfleet officers slurping down gagh? or beaming down to some random world and fucking up the environment for science? at least some of those plants and all the animals “feel”.

In order for the Prime Directive to be enforced… it would have to be something that’s not totally left to arbitrary standards. Even if the courts were ran by some of the galaxy’s most notorious stoners… it’d still have to have some level of precedent.

And it’s not like this isn’t the first time they came up with artificial intelligence that’s possibly sentient. You got Vger, the M-5 multitronic thingamadoo. Then y you got things that weren’t immediately recognized as sentient- Horta, the microbe thingies discovered earlier in Home Soil. the Crystalline Entity in Datalore.

this question would come up every single time a ships captain makes first contact with a new species. it’s part of why they have the prime directive.

Like, IRL, JAG-lady would have just interviewed Picard, maybe Riker or some of the other senior crew, Maybe consulted Troi. Sat down with Data and worked through whatever test would almost certainly exist for guidelines and then render a decision. (this technically would have been a deposition.) And that decision would have been “Maddox you’re an ass for wasting our time with this shit.” (maybe worded a bit more politely.)

The underlying purpose of the article is to show that while some in starfleet are… not as enlightened, most of starfleet is and it makes the right decisions. But like. nope nope. That this went that far shows they’re not nearly as enlightened as they think they are.

Which could have been a very sinsister and subversive backplot that could have been amazing, I guess. but then they stuffed it down like it wasn’t. (I mean, a lot of people in the US think our legal system is amazing and fair and enlightened. it’s not.)

well, I’d settle for that bit where Riker takes his arm off, “I’d like to call Riker to the stand, please”, and then a curt gesture to Worf, armed with a batleth.

(if you’re getting the sense that I don’t like Riker… there’s a reason for that. )

I dunno. I think Picard taking a phaser to Riker because he’s being a dick would be even more memorable. Glorious. Possibly even grandiose if Picard put a little brandish in the draw.

Lets just be realistic here, the Prime Directive wouldn’t work if they hadn’t already sorted them. first off, the PD is restricted to sentient life or cultures. If it weren’t, eating a non-replicated salad would break the PD. or keeping a houseplant. Which, then would obviously require some highly codified definition of what ‘sentient’ was- and almost certainly would have already had massive amounts of precedent, including standardized tests to be applied whenever someone who might be sentient is found.

Presumably, the only reason the PD would not apply to Data is because he was “made”. but the PD applies to clones, which are also made.

“Did you run the sentience tests?” “yes…?” “Did he pass?” “but he was manufactured!! they don’t apply?” “Did he pass?”

Maddox new this, is which is probably why he waited until Data was off Earth, or so far on the fringe that the only appropriate place to hear this was on a fringe space station so new that the JAG officer didn’t have enough jurors and had to do a drumhead trial.

That episode annoyed the shit out of me.

First off the entire premise of a court martial or hearing is freaking stupid.

The admiral forcing Riker to “prosecute” Data is stupid.

The idea that Starfleet (or the federation) doesn’t already have some list of qualifications for sentience or sapience or whatever term you want to use to say ‘they’re like us’; is patently stupid. And we’ll add to it that an Admiral whose job it is to weigh in on these matters, wouldn’t have checked if such a test existed, is even more so.

The only realistic thing in this episode is some exploitive asshole shopping around for an incompetent (or bribable?) judge.

but what bugs me most of all? when Riker makes the “So he can be turned off,” argument, Picard didn’t immediately whip out a phaser and say, “yeah. So can you. <ptssssrrrshhhh>” and then have Crusher bring him back just to make a point.

… I’m stealing this.

(“no. like give us an example.”… “I just did.” )

Still more useful than Kai Wyn.

I wonder if julian realized she was being paid to pay attention to that medical exam story.

A soap opera with a little bit of genocide and ware crimes.

Can I go first?

(I take the center cube.)

With lots of gold teeth.

Depends. Do you wrap everything individually (nacelles, struts, engineering and the saucer,) so you can still see that it looks like a naked duck,

Or do you wrap everything like a hitbox in a b-tier video game?

I’m thinking it’s a bit past time to cut you off. please plan a sober ride…

This is why O’Brien is basically a god.

He’s reprogrammed the transporter to remove them.

Cold virus? Transporter.

Rumpled uniform? Transporter.

Annoying in-laws? Transporter accident.

EDIT: HAHAHA. something just occurred to me. Scottie was probably doing the same thing. Not enough redshirts? transporter “accident” makes more. It explains why Kirk is never bothered by them dying.