Does Data Pass the Turing Test?
Comments: This 46 min. long episode, named “The Measure of a Man” (Star Trek The Next Generation – The Complete Second Season, episode 35), explores questions of whether an android, Data, is (qua android) property of Star Fleet. Is he a sentient being? Is he relevantly different (in sentience) from a toaster or a calculator? Do we have ethical obligations to treat him equal under the law? I love this episode because it predicts problems that we may well encounter in the future. The plot is fairly simple: A Star Fleet technical officer, Maddux, comes aboard the Enterprise to study how Data functions and eventually make more Datas. Now it is part of Star Trek lore that Data is the only known (possibly sentient) android in existence (though he also has a brother). So Data is anxious about the idea of serving science, however he thinks the procedure will lead to the loss of some of his ineffable memories (during the process of being taken apart). Data therefore refuses the research (or att
