Synopsis: Lt. Commander Data observes that another artificial life form has exhibited signs of sentience and acts to defend its rights.
In this episode we see how the conscious ego determines what it values and what it does not. Often what is not valued is contained in an individual’s unconscious, but sometimes the ego is just drawn to things that it can identify with.
At the end of “The Quality of Life” Lt. Commander Data explains to Captain Jean-Luc Picard why he acted to protect the life of the artificial life forms, the Exocomps, as opposed to Picard’s. Data tells Picard: “If I had not acted on their behalf they would have been destroyed. I could not allow that to happen, sir,” Picard replies: “It was the most human decision you’ve ever made” (Shankar & Frakes, 1992).
Another way to interpret Data’s actions is that it is the most Logos-driven conscious ego-like decision that he had ever made. Data acted to protect something that he felt a kinship to, something that he identified with. And this is how the Logos-driven conscious ego often makes its decisions.
Ironically, it is the Exocomps, the artificially created life forms that acted in the most wholly humanistic fashion. One of the Exocomps gave its life to not only protect the lives of the two other Exocomps, but also of Picard and Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge, who would have been killed in the blast. The Exocomps seemed to have figured out a way in which the most number of lives, of all types of lives, were saved. The Exocomps were created by a female scientist, Dr. Farallon. Perhaps she instilled in them a more Eros-driven irrational worldview that allowed them to think beyond the Logos-driven parameters normally associated with artificial intelligence.
Reference:
Shankar, N. (Writer), & Frakes, J. (Director). (1992, November 14). The quality of life (Season 6, Episode 9) [TV series episode]. In R. Berman & M. Piller (Executive Producers), Star trek: The next generation. Paramount Television.
Original post created 3 November 2021
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