I never cease to be amazed and shocked at the downward spiral of human
philosophy. Its approach to science has all but erased the fundamental spirit and morality every human once knew was contained in the core of its being.
This episode is but another example of the warped application of mechanical science to understanding the grand Godliness of man and his elevated unique spirit.
As if, despite being a technical person, B'Elana couldn't see the enormous world of difference between a human being and a machine whose nature and functions were nothing more than the very limited programming created by a human being.
The story follows her risking human life and the prime directive to save human-created mechanisms, solely on the basis of the appeal of their simulated human characteristics and programmed self-awareness.
As if a program running on a machine - whether a human-looking graceful android, any more than a clunky mainframe computer - could ever be truly sentient and have an identity simply because of a clever program with a modicum of artificial intelligence!
Has mankind in its love of technological conveniences actually come to believe that a human-equivalent deserving of respect and human rights can be constructed out of machinery and human-written code that, at best, simulates the infinite broadness of human thought to only a miniscule degree?
Do they not realize that such a machine - even if it is made to look human - is merely electronics and motoric parts running a program that is itself human-designed, error-filled and based upon a human creator's extremely limited understanding even of himself - let alone the depth and breadth of a human soul?
Even the best actor delivering an astoundingly realistic portrayal of a character can by no extrapolation of imagination even begin to become that fictional character in his daily life. Similarly, a human-style android is a mere shadow of a human character and has no internal identity. All attempts to create such an identity are simply pre-written computer logic that simulates human style, but has no intrinsic self at its core.
What is so horrendous about this story and others like it that abound in the later Star Trek and other science fiction stories, is the degradation of true human life and its lofty moral capabilities by equating life with mechanical lifeless mechanisms.
Mechanisms have no identity and no morality - fortunately this episode at its end does, atypically, make that point to a certain degree.
This episode is but another example of the warped application of mechanical science to understanding the grand Godliness of man and his elevated unique spirit.
As if, despite being a technical person, B'Elana couldn't see the enormous world of difference between a human being and a machine whose nature and functions were nothing more than the very limited programming created by a human being.
The story follows her risking human life and the prime directive to save human-created mechanisms, solely on the basis of the appeal of their simulated human characteristics and programmed self-awareness.
As if a program running on a machine - whether a human-looking graceful android, any more than a clunky mainframe computer - could ever be truly sentient and have an identity simply because of a clever program with a modicum of artificial intelligence!
Has mankind in its love of technological conveniences actually come to believe that a human-equivalent deserving of respect and human rights can be constructed out of machinery and human-written code that, at best, simulates the infinite broadness of human thought to only a miniscule degree?
Do they not realize that such a machine - even if it is made to look human - is merely electronics and motoric parts running a program that is itself human-designed, error-filled and based upon a human creator's extremely limited understanding even of himself - let alone the depth and breadth of a human soul?
Even the best actor delivering an astoundingly realistic portrayal of a character can by no extrapolation of imagination even begin to become that fictional character in his daily life. Similarly, a human-style android is a mere shadow of a human character and has no internal identity. All attempts to create such an identity are simply pre-written computer logic that simulates human style, but has no intrinsic self at its core.
What is so horrendous about this story and others like it that abound in the later Star Trek and other science fiction stories, is the degradation of true human life and its lofty moral capabilities by equating life with mechanical lifeless mechanisms.
Mechanisms have no identity and no morality - fortunately this episode at its end does, atypically, make that point to a certain degree.
