Who Owns Data?

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Episode of the series Spaceship Enterprise - The Next Century
title Who Owns Data?
Original title The Measure of a Man
TNG DE title neu.svg
Country of production United States
original language English
length 45 minutes
classification Season  2 , episode 9
35th episode overall ( list )
First broadcast Feb 11, 1989
German-language
first broadcast		 Feb. 14, 1992 on ZDF
Rod
Director Robert Scheerer
script Melinda M. Snodgrass
production Burton Armus , Mike Gray , John Mason
music Dennis McCarthy
camera Edward R. Brown
Guest appearance (s)
chronology

←  Predecessor
The exchange officer

Successor  →
The heir to the throne

Who Owns Data? is the 35th episode of the US television series Spaceship Enterprise - The Next Century . It was broadcast for the first time in the USA in February 1989 and in Germany in February 1992. It deals with the pros and cons of a cyberneticist's order to forcibly relocate the android data and to take it apart as part of an experiment in order to work towards the creation of several similar androids. The episode has been scientifically studied by several philosophers and is among the highest rated in the series.

action

While the Enterprise is making a stop at Starbase 173, Starfleet officer and cybernetics researcher Bruce Maddox comes on board the ship. He was the only one who spoke out against the inclusion of Datas in Starfleet on the grounds that Data was not a sentient being. Now he asks Picard to be allowed to take Data with him in order to take it apart as part of an experiment with which Maddox is also working towards the creation of numerous data-like androids and to copy the data from Data's positronic brain. When Picard spoke out against the request that Maddox had done too little basic research and that there was a serious risk of damage to Data, Maddox ordered Datas to be relocated. Picard's old acquaintance Philippa Louvois, Starfleet's legal representative on the space station, asked Picard that Data should quit his job in order to oppose his relocation and thus his participation in the experiment. Data follows the suggestion and justifies his departure from Starfleet to Maddox, among other things, with the risk that his personal experiences might not survive the experiment.

Louvois' quick decision that Data is owned by Starfleet and therefore cannot quit the service is challenged by Picard. Since the space station has not been in operation for long and Louvois does not yet have enough employees, she uses Picard as defense counsel for Datas and Riker as prosecutor in the immediately scheduled court hearing . Once the negotiation begins, Riker can prove that Data is a machine, including by temporarily turning it off. During a pause in negotiations, Guinan Picard draws attention to the fact that Starfleet, should Maddox be successful with his experiment, would be able to create an army of data and thus have a new race at their disposal, consisting of a bunch of lawless people that can be switched off at any time Individuals. Back in the negotiation, Picard can show - also by interviewing Maddox - that Data meets the criteria for emotionality , but Maddox neither denies nor affirms the presence of self-confidence . After Picard warned that Starfleet would be guilty of slavery by creating many Datas , Louvois, the judge emphasizing the complexity of the case, decides that Data has the right to decide for herself. Maddox then revokes his order to move data for research purposes.

publication

The episode was released on Blu-ray along with a 15-minute longer version.

reception

The script, written unsolicited by Melinda M. Snodgrass and sold to Paramount, convinced the producers so much that Snodgrass got a job as a story editor in the production of the series.

The episode became a working topic for several scientists. This also includes the philosophy professors Richard Hanley and Robert Alexy , who devoted their lectures to the episode, among other things. Hanley dealt with the question of whether data is human in detail in his 1997 book The Metaphysics of Star Trek , the second edition of which in 1998 under the main title Is Data Human? (analogous meaning: "Is data human?") appeared. In his lecture given in 2000 at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel , Alexy pointed the question of whether data is entitled to human rights solely to the question of whether data is a person . Answering this question both in the affirmative and thus confirming the court judgment in the episode, Alexy saw all the criteria of personality fulfilled: "Data is intelligent, he feels and he has consciousness in all three dimensions of reflexivity : the cognitive , the volitive and the normative ."

Wilcox (1996) referred to the episode as the "Enterprise Variation of the Dred Scott Case ".

As the only episode in the series, the script was nominated by the Writers Guild of America for a WGA Award in 1989 in the category of Best Original Screenplay .

The US film magazine Cinefantastique was certain that the episode was rightly one of the best episodes of the entire series and rated it - in addition to time jump with Q - as one of only two episodes of the second season with four out of four stars. Among the 10 best episodes of the series selected by Entertainment Weekly 2007, Who Owns Data? sixth place. In a 2011 Forbes Magazine list of the ten best Star Trek episodes dealing with artificial intelligence , transhumanism and other singularities , the episode ranks first.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Mark A. Altman: Episode Guide , in: Cinefantastique No. 2, Sep. 1990 (21st year), p. 35
  2. ↑ Alexy 2000
  3. ^ Rhonda V. Wilcox: Dating Data. Miscegenation in Star Trek: The Next Generation , in: Taylor Harrison et al. (Ed.): Enterprise Zones - Critical Positions on Star Trek . Westview Press, Boulder 1996, ISBN 0-8133-2899-3 , pp. 69-92
  4. ↑ Spaceship Enterprise - The Next Century (1987–1998) Awards , in: IMDb , accessed on Dec. 28, 2013
  5. ↑ Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Top 10 Episodes , in: Entertainment Weekly , Sep. 20. 2007, Retrieved December 28, 2013
  6. ↑ Alex Knapp: The 10 Best Singularity Themed Star Trek Episodes , in: Forbes Magazine, August 4, 2011, accessed January 5, 2014