Data (Star Trek)

Data is a male television character who features in Star Trek.

Biography

Origin

Data was a male android developed by the scientist Dr. Noonien Soong in the 24th century with the goal of creating an artificial intelligence that was sapient. He was the fifth of six known androids developed by Soong with Data being created on the world of Omicron Theta around the year 2336. Soong's prior creation was another android known as Lore who had been deactivated. (TNG: Datalore) This was done so against the protests of Soong's wife Juliana. (TNG: Datalore) According to Noonien, he had built Data to be perfect amongst his androids with the intention of making these improvements to Lore. (TNG: Brothers). During his development, Juliana came to see Data as a beloved son but came to fear for him as she thought he would either fail like his previous 'brothers' or become dangerous like Lore which would have resulted in him being dismantled. In his earliest existence, Data was much like a baby, struggling with motor control and sensory input. Over time, Data had learned about himself and his world, and his programming was refined by Dr. Soong, who attempted to eliminate certain undesirable behaviors. Problems included a disregard for social niceties, courtesies like 'please' and 'thank you', and a lack of appreciation for clothing, Data did not see any necessity since he 'didn't suffer from the elements'. In regards to the latter issue, the Soongs had to write a 'modesty subroutine', because the colonists objected to an anatomically-accurate android being unclothed. (TNG: Inheritance) Eventually Soong decided to feed Data with the logs and journals of the colonists, while simultaneously wiping his memory of his early existence. Unfortunately, while Data was still deactivated, a mysterious Crystalline Entity attacked the colony. (TNG: Datalore) Juliana's fears that Data would be another failure motivated her to lie to her husband when they fled, forcing him to leave Data behind in an inactive state. (TNG: Inheritance)

In the first few weeks after Data was reactivated, and without the early presence of Noonien and Juliana Soong, Data claimed he had no one to guide him as his neural net was developing and achieving sentience. (TNG: The Offspring) In that process, more complex pathways replaced simpler ones. As the integration of these pathways became increasingly difficult, the probability of cascade failure increased. As a consequence, Data considered shutting himself down and beginning all over again. He eventually considered the situation a challenge and continued on. He later expressed to La Forge that, in essence, he considered suicide at a difficult point in his early life. (TNG: Eye of the Beholder)

One of Data's first assignments after he graduated Starfleet Academy was aboard the USS Trieste. (TNG: Clues) He spent three years as an ensign and twelve as a lieutenant before being promoted to lieutenant commander in 2360. (TNG: Datalore)

U.S.S. Enterprise

Shortly after the Farpoint mission, the Enterprise crew was infected with a polywater intoxication which caused the crew members and even Data to act irrationally, as if mentally unstable. Fortunately, Dr. Crusher found an antidote, and with Data's help the recovered crew was able to retain control of the ship. (TNG: The Naked Now)

In 2365, Jean-Luc Picard was asked by Admiral Nakamura on behalf of Commander Bruce Maddox to submit Data to an untested procedure that Maddox believed and had advocated would grant Federation cybernetic science a greater understanding of the technology of Data's positronic brain. Data studied Maddox' proposal and found it to be flawed; persuading William T. Riker and Picard of the legitimacy of Data's position as to the scientific merit of Maddox' project; prompting Maddox to present Nakamura's duly-logged orders requiring Data to submit. Data refused, and resigned from Starfleet. Maddox challenged Data's right to do so, implying that Data should not be considered a sentient being with rights to self-determination. Maddox's petition prompted Louvois' supposition of a legal issue as to whether or not Data was property and not to be accorded rights to self-determination. This position was supported in a preliminary ruling, by Captain Phillipa Louvois of the Judge Advocate General's office, 23rd Sector, based on the 21st-century Acts of Cumberland. Captain Jean-Luc Picard adversarially challenged this ruling, and sought due process of law in Data's regard. Picard asserted a position in favor of Data's sentience as a matter of law, in a legal hearing wherein Picard advocated on Data's behalf while Riker advocated a position benefiting Maddox. After a conversation with Guinan, Picard became inspired to assert that Data represented an entire race, and that duplicating Data for the purposes of enforced and potentially-dangerous labor, without legal recognition of rights to self-determination, essentially would result in the institution of slavery. Ultimately, Louvois ruled that Data was not the property of Starfleet, and had the legal right to choose whether to acquiesce to Maddox' requests. (TNG: The Measure Of A Man) Data refused Maddox' procedure, but did instead offer to openly communicate with him in assisting him in his work, which the cyberneticist accepted. (TNG: Data's Day)

Data also later asserted specific reproductive rights. In 2366, Data perfected the submicron matrix transfer technology which was necessary to reproduce a positronic brain. Data designed and built his 'daughter', whom Data named Lal that according to Data meant 'beloved' in Earth's Hindi language and he used his own positronic brain as a design template for the offspring. Thus, Data seemingly came to succeed at Maddox' aspiration in creating artificial life. As Starfleet Vice Admiral Haftel, himself a cybernetics specialist, wanted to move Lal off the Enterprise-D to a Starfleet cybernetics research facility for study in order to add to Federation cybernetics expertise, against Data's wishes, Picard again came into conflict with the Starfleet Admiralty as to Data's civil rights. The issue was rendered moot when Lal ceased functioning due to positronic neural-pathway cascade failure arising from the positronic development within Lal of the simulation of Human psychological emotional response. This, despite the best efforts of Data and Haftel to prevent Lal's positronic matrix from ceasing to function as a result. (TNG: The Offspring) Many agreed with Data that Soong-type androids were sufficiently advanced to be considered indeed sentient, so much so that, as of 2372, Data was considered the only sentient artificial lifeform in Federation society. (VOY: Prototype)

In 2366, the Enterprise-D was contacted by Sheliak Corporate for the first time in 111 years. In a recorded message, set on repeat broadcast from the Shelia system, they demand that on Tau Cygna V, a planet that was ceded to the Sheliak from the Federation in the Treaty of Armens has been discovered to contain a Human colony. The Sheliak insist they be removed before they arrive at the planet, or the Humans will all be killed. Data – immune to the deadly hyperonic radiation that exists on the planet – was ordered to take a shuttle craft and land at the planet and prepare the colonists for evacuation. Unfortunately, the colony's leader Gosheven was both far too stubborn and nostalgic for all his ancestors' accomplishments on the planet to agree to leave even after several attempts to persuade him or other colonists, even with the help of Ard'rian McKenzie, one of the few reasonable colonists. Eventually, through a demonstration of the firepower of a Type 2 phaser, Data was able to finally convince the colonists to leave, thereby saving over 15,000 Humans from certain death. (TNG: The Ensigns of Command)

In late 2366, Data was apparently killed when the shuttlecraft he was using to ferry hytritium, desperately needed to neutralize contamination of the water on Beta Agni II, exploded en route from the freighter Jovis to the Enterprise-D. In fact, Data had been abducted by the owner of the Jovis Kivas Fajo, who had added Data to his collection of "rare and valuable" items – which, now besides Data, included a Lapling, a Roger Maris Baseball card, and a Varon-T disruptor. Fortunately, Data, with the assistance of Fajo's partner Varria, as well as the arrival of the Enterprise, was able to escape the Jovis; the unanticipated ease with which the hytritium purified Beta Agni II's water suggested that the contamination had been man-made, leaving the crew suspicious of Fajo – and, after hearing the computer's description of only a part of Fajo's collection, they had concluded that Data could be considered a "rare and valuable object", leading them to the possibility that Data had not been on board the shuttle when it exploded. Upon Data's return to the Enterprise-D, Fajo was arrested. Data had previously mentioned to Fajo his ability to use deadly force and had it not been for the functioning of the Enterprise transporter retrieving Data from the Jovis, Data would have successfully shot and killed Fajo with the Varon-T disruptor, in retribution for Fajo previously having killed Varria with it and through a cold, logical decision that all nonlethal options had been exhausted. (TNG: The Most Toys)

Picard

A fragment of Data managed to survive within a salvaged positronic neuron that was salvaged by Bruce Maddox. He took it with him as he looked to develop synth life in secret leading to a partnership with Altan Inigo Soong who was the son of Noonien Song. The pair established a colony on the hidden world of Coppelius and continued their work on making more life-like androids. At Coppelius Station, the positronic neuron was maintained and kept within a quantum simulation construct allowing Data to continue on living. However, he believed that this was a needless existence and instead wanted it to end as he believed it gave life meaning. In 2399, this fragment of Data encountered Jean-Luc Picard after his near-death experience where the two had some final words with one another. Data then requested Picard to shut down the neuron to allow him to live a natural end to his existence. Picard was then restored in a new body where he complied by fulfilling his friend's last wish with the neuron powered down thus leading to Data's death. (PIC: Et in Arcadia Ego)

Overview

Personality and attributes

Since he did not require sleep, he routinely stood night watch on the bridge. (TNG: Data's Day)

Data had been known to play poker with people from other time periods, including Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein, and Sir Isaac Newton, out of interest as to how they would interact in such a situation. He called the exercise 'most illuminating'. (TNG: Descent)

Powers and abilities

He was built with an ultimate storage capacity of eight hundred quadrillion bits (100 petabytes) and a total linear computational speed rated at sixty trillion operations per second. (TNG: The Measure Of A Man) However, he later augmented his computational speed by converting his interlink sequencer to an asynchronous mode of operation, removing the performance constraint created by virtue of having space between his positronic links. His computational speed became virtually instantaneous after this modification. (TNG: The Quality of Life)

He did not require sustenance, but occasionally ingested semi-organic nutrient suspension in a silicon-based liquid medium to lubricate his biofunctions. (TNG: Deja Q)

Notes

• Data was portrayed by actor Brent Spiner where he first appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Encounter at Farpoint".

Appearances

• Star Trek: The Next Generation:
• Star Trek: Picard:

External Links

• Memory Alpha Wiki Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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