Data: Emotion Chip Vs. Evolution

[Riley]

One of the things about TNG that has aged poorly for me over the decades is Data's journey toward a more fully-realized being though one that will never be human.

While I understand why the emotion chip was introduced in "Brothers" and subsequently retrieved in the second part of "The Descent," I think it was ultimately a gimmicky and unnecessary approach to Data achieving emotions that ignored a more organic and established approach.

The whole thrust of Data's character is that he wants to be more like humans. We see Data grow in his knowledge of the human condition and grow as a sentient being as he does so. We eventually learn that Dr. Soong gave Data the capacity to dream and that he gave the android version of his wife the ability to appear as if she was aging naturally, along with feelings.

By the end of season seven, everything was in place for Data to develop feelings naturally as a result of how he was programmed by Soong. He would learn that there is no need for an emotion chip and would also learn of programs that allow him to appear as if he is aging. This would have kept Spiner from wanting to kill Data off because he felt he was growing too old to portray him.

I hated that Data was killed off in NEM, his treatment in the first two seasons of Picard, and the massive plot shenanigans required to restore Data, give him emotions, and appear to be aging. I don't count the Kurtzman stuff as canon, but the status they reached with Data could have been reached by the first TNG film. Instead of the idiotic emotion chip subplot in Generations, Data could have naturally discovered an emotion subroutine and began a journey as an emotional being.

 

[Christopher]

The original idea was that Data had the capacity for emotion all along, but it was underdeveloped and he'd learn as he went (much like his prototype, Questor from Roddenberry's pilot movie The Questor Tapes). We saw he was capable of emotion when he showed subdued rage toward Armus for killing Tasha, and when we saw in "The Measure of a Man" that he kept mementos of her because he'd cared about her. While "The Schizoid Man" implied that Deanna sensing human emotion from him was unusual, it wasn't until season 3's "The Ensigns of Command" that Data explicitly stated he was incapable of emotion, and acted clueless toward Ardrian's sexual advances despite being established two seasons earlier as "fully functional" in that respect.

I always found that an irritating retcon, because the trope that "machines can't feel emotion, only programming!" is a hackneyed, nonsensical sci-fi cliche. After all, emotions are programming, essentially -- they're hardwired, automatic responses to stimuli, rather than something we have to learn or do by choice. Animals have emotion, so emotion is neurologically simpler than conscious thought. So there's no reason why an artificial intelligence shouldn't be capable of emotions. Indeed, it would have to, since neurological studies show that emotion is involved in even the most rational cognitive decision-making, such as solving a math problem. Without emotion, there's no motivation to prefer one choice over another.

Also, in retrospect, Data was essentially written as autistic, so TNG was ableist as hell in insisting that Data didn't have emotions at all just because he didn't express them in a neurotypical way. He obviously had preferences and desires and hopes and regrets, even if he didn't laugh or cry. So it's an idea that's aged very badly. I would've rather had them ditch the attitude that Data had to become "more human," i.e. more neurotypical, and instead let him recognize that it was more important to embrace his own individuality, that there was nothing wrong with the way he acted or felt or expressed himself.


Anyway, my retcon for why Soong built Data "without emotion" is that we've seen that strong emotional conflict can trigger cognitive collapse in a sophisticated android, as with Rayna Kapec and Lal. We know that most of Soong's prototypes had similar cascade failures, except B4, who was too simple, and Lore, who was basically a psychopath and thus didn't care enough about others to have the kind of inner conflict that crashed Rayna and Lal. So after his failure with Lore, Soong built Data with his emotional capacity diminished so that Soong could solve android cognition first and then tackle the emotion problem later, with the emotion chip being his ultimate fix for it.

Still, I've always hated the way the movies handled it. Generations was a good start, with Data undergoing a major change that was established to be permanent, with the chip fused irrevocably into his neural net so that he'd just have to learn to live with it. But then First Contact made the cowardly choice to retreat from that and established that Data could turn the chip on and off at will, just handwaving away what was supposed to be a challenging growth process. Then Insurrection just threw away a line about Data not taking the chip with him -- the chip that was permanently fused two movies earlier -- and never established whether he put it back again, and then Nemesis just acted as though it had never existed at all. Data's character growth went backward from one movie to the next. What a waste of potential.

and would also learn of programs that allow him to appear as if he is aging. This would have kept Spiner from wanting to kill Data off because he felt he was growing too old to portray him.

Geordi actually said in "Inheritance" that Julianna Soong had a program that made her "age in appearance, like Data" -- a line the writers threw in to handwave Brent Spiner's visible aging over the course of the series. But then they forgot that when they made Insurrection and had Data claim that he was physically unchanged from the day he first went online.

 

[carcinoGeneticist]

I agree with Christopher, and don't really have a better response than that. I think Data had emotions the whole time and just didn't express them in the same way as his flesh-and-blood peers did. I always find it kind of annoying that everyone thought Data just straight up did not have emotions, including apparently Data himself. Seems like something you might have expected Dr. Pulaski to think during early Season Two, not something you'd think the whole crew (and the writers, viewers, etc. of the show!) would agree on, because he does pretty clearly have them in some way or another.

 

[NCC-73515]

IIRC, the idea was that he gets as close as possible to being human, but not quite, and that he has emotions, but isn't aware of them. Similar to Vulcans allegedly being unemotional, while it was later revealed most of them suppress them.

 

[Christopher]

IIRC, the idea was that he gets as close as possible to being human, but not quite, and that he has emotions, but isn't aware of them.

The original producers' idea, as I said, was that he did have the potential for emotion, but it was subdued and undeveloped, something he'd learn to get better at over time. But when Michael Piller took over as showrunner in season 3, he imposed the hackneyed "Robots Can't Have Emotion" cliche and Data's characterization was forced into that simplistic mold from then on.

Similar to Vulcans allegedly being unemotional, while it was later revealed most of them suppress them.

That was established quite early, in "The Naked Time" and "Balance of Terror."

 

[Brennyren]

The original producers' idea, as I said, was that he did have the potential for emotion, but it was subdued and undeveloped, something he'd learn to get better at over time.

That Data was developing emotions -- I assumed he was developing them as he developed the ability to handle them -- seemed so clear to me in the early days that I really didn't see the point of the emotion chip. If anything, I thought it was a cheat, as if a person was suddenly granted the ability to run like an Olympic sprinter without putting in the training and practice. And I wondered if it would have comparable disadvantages, with Data being hurt or damaged by suddenly experiencing emotions he wasn't prepared for, much like my hypothetical runner could strain or injure muscles that weren't in condition for such fast running.

When I realized that the producers had clearly decided that the emotion chip was the only way Data was ever going to have fully-realized emotions, I lost interest in his character development -- and honestly, I lost interest in him.

 

[Christopher]

That Data was developing emotions -- I assumed he was developing them as he developed the ability to handle them -- seemed so clear to me in the early days that I really didn't see the point of the emotion chip.

Yes, exactly. Two different concepts of Data by different showrunners. A lot of the original intentions of TNG's creators got abandoned thanks to the revolving door in the writers' room in the first two seasons. For instance, the Enterprise was supposed to have a large contingent of civilian scientists aboard, part of the reason for having families, but after a while, that was forgotten and every adult on the ship was Starfleet except Guinan and Keiko. Seasons 1-2 presumed that the Federation had been at peace for a long time, but then "The Wounded" retconned in that they'd been at war with the Cardassians until season 3. The early concept was that there was a fair amount of transhumanism in the 24th century, that things like Geordi's VISOR and Picard's bionic heart were commonplace, but later producers abandoned that transhumanism, reinterpreted cyborg enhancement as something evil with the Borg, and even retconned in a ban on genetic engineering, contradicting "Unnatural Selection" where it was explicitly legal, if ethically iffy. And Geordi's VISOR was reduced from being a superpower to being little more than a fashion accessory that occasionally let him be mind-controlled or tortured.

By the same token, Data was completely redefined from having subdued emotions to having none at all. There was no need for an "emotion chip" in the original concept of the character, but that concept was overwritten when Michael Piller took over. Most of what Piller did for TNG was great, but that reimagining of Data, substituting a lazy cliche of how sci-fi robots and computers were written for the original, more nuanced idea, was unfortunate.

 

[Qonundrum]

Yes, exactly. Two different concepts of Data by different showrunners. A lot of the original intentions of TNG's creators got abandoned thanks to the revolving door in the writers' room in the first two seasons. For instance, the Enterprise was supposed to have a large contingent of civilian scientists aboard, part of the reason for having families, but after a while, that was forgotten and every adult on the ship was Starfleet except Guinan and Keiko.

And how the ship was not to have a Scotty-type character, as not to mimic too much of TOS, hence the guest actor of the week being the latest in the merry-go-round of chief engineers... for which none of them were fully convincing. Then Geordi got segued down there more and more often because he just fit in so well.

Seasons 1-2 presumed that the Federation had been at peace for a long time, but then "The Wounded" retconned in that they'd been at war with the Cardassians until season 3. The early concept was that there was a fair amount of transhumanism in the 24th century, that things like Geordi's VISOR and Picard's bionic heart were commonplace, but later producers abandoned that transhumanism, reinterpreted cyborg enhancement as something evil with the Borg, and even retconned in a ban on genetic engineering, contradicting "Unnatural Selection" where it was explicitly legal, if ethically iffy. And Geordi's VISOR was reduced from being a superpower to being little more than a fashion accessory that occasionally let him be mind-controlled or tortured.

^^this

Only "The Masterpiece Society" remembered the practicality of the VISOR, though it too allowed Geordi to become the ultimate "lie detector on legs" and he doesn't pick up his associate's giveaways along with everything else (though "Up The Long Ladder" does stretch the VISOR from seeing a better range of wavelengths to becoming more generic, noting that many parrot species do have the visual acuity to pick up on the physiological changes so it's not impossible what Geordi says about the VISOR is completely "for the sake of plot". A shame more episodes didn't involve aliens who have food or visual differences more often...) The abandoning of its features was painfully obvious in "Disaster" as well. He could still see the calamity behind the bulkhead after turning from one distraction to the latest issue but be stuck in the middle and unable to fix it, which alone removes that part of the plot problem. One of far too many as the episode is so unwatchable...

By the same token, Data was completely redefined from having subdued emotions to having none at all. There was no need for an "emotion chip" in the original concept of the character, but that concept was overwritten when Michael Piller took over. Most of what Piller did for TNG was great, but that reimagining of Data, substituting a lazy cliche of how sci-fi robots and computers were written for the original, more nuanced idea, was unfortunate.

Especially season 4 onward. Even "The Most Toys" tries to suggest Data is more than emotionless, in its own way. But it feels out of place in season 3 due to Piller's change. And the most cliché of it all would come later.

 

[Christopher]

And how the ship was not to have a Scotty-type character, as not to mimic too much of TOS, hence the guest actor of the week being the latest in the merry-go-round of chief engineers... for which none of them were fully convincing. Then Geordi got segued down there more and more often because he just fit in so well.

The idea was supposed to be that the E-D was so advanced it could "heal" itself, but they soon realized it was too dramatically useful to have a chief engineer character.

I realized some years back that it might have been more interesting if, at the start of season 2, they'd made Worf the chief engineer and Geordi the security chief. It would've let Worf grow into something more than just the stereotyped warrior guy (something he wasn't really allowed to do until DS9), and Geordi's VISOR and lie-detection ability would've been useful in a security chief, as well as allowing the idea of a security chief to be written more as a peacekeeper and detective than just a bodyguard or soldier.

 

[SurfingtheInterweb]

I agree with Christopher, and don't really have a better response than that. I think Data had emotions the whole time and just didn't express them in the same way as his flesh-and-blood peers did. I always find it kind of annoying that everyone thought Data just straight up did not have emotions, including apparently Data himself. Seems like something you might have expected Dr. Pulaski to think during early Season Two, not something you'd think the whole crew (and the writers, viewers, etc. of the show!) would agree on, because he does pretty clearly have them in some way or another.

I feel like there's mention with the crew believing he has some form of emotion throughout the series ? I could be misremembering, but I was always under the impression that the crew believed Data had emotions, and that Data's insistence he did not was something he said because it was what he'd been lead to believe his whole life, something the crew shook their heads at. In Spiner's portrayal and the writing, Data seemed to me to have implied emotion throughout the whole series.

 

[Christopher]

I feel like there's mention with the crew believing he has some form of emotion throughout the series ? I could be misremembering, but I was always under the impression that the crew believed Data had emotions, and that Data's insistence he did not was something he said because it was what he'd been lead to believe his whole life, something the crew shook their heads at. In Spiner's portrayal and the writing, Data seemed to me to have implied emotion throughout the whole series.

I actually wrote a scene like that in my TNG spec script way back when, and repurposed it for my novelette "Friends with the Sparrows" in the TNG anniversary anthology The Sky's the Limit. But no, from season 3 onward, the working assumption of the writing staff was that Data had no emotions, period. None of the other characters ever expressed disbelief in that premise, because the writers assumed it was true.

 

[carcinoGeneticist]

I feel like there's mention with the crew believing he has some form of emotion throughout the series ? I could be misremembering, but I was always under the impression that the crew believed Data had emotions, and that Data's insistence he did not was something he said because it was what he'd been lead to believe his whole life, something the crew shook their heads at. In Spiner's portrayal and the writing, Data seemed to me to have implied emotion throughout the whole series.

I think you're right and there was some allusion to Data having emotions but the only instances of that I can think of were before Season Three which is apparently when the writers decided he didn't have emotions