Star Trek: The Next Generation/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

→‎Shaka, Where Nobody Knows What They're Saying: replaced: [[Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone → [[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (novel)
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*** I think Data would "feel" more than that. Remember, he still has that little holo of Tasha, and it's brought up in a few episodes. If he "feels" enough to keep a holoprojection of a dead friend—as pointed out, Data can perfectly remember every moment he ever spent with her, yet he keeps a physical keepsake of her—then surely he would remember Spot in a similar way.
** Desire isn't necessarily an emotion. Imagine an artificial intelligence trying to solve a complex problem, programmed to come up with an answer as close as possible to the perfect solution. It could be said (if it spoke English like Data) to "desire" the solution.
* One theory circulating around the net (including This[[TV Very WikiTropes]]) is that he ''does'' have emotions but has no physical feedback to provide him with a point of refrencereference and thus is simply ill-equipped at expressing them. Numerous times in the series he has shown things very similar to bravery (even recievingreceiving several commendations for it) annoyance, happiness at the successes and safe returns of his friends, and even sorrow at the loss of his father and daughter. He's also shown deep affection for his crewmates and especially his cat, almost to the point of spoiling her. Concerning Data and his emotions or lack therofthereof it is very much a case of actions speaking louder than words.
** This can be borne out in ''"The Next Phase"''. When reminiscing about Geordi's "death", Data remarks that his neural processors become used to certain kinds of input over time, which are then noticed when absent. He says this about Geordi, noting that he is used to having his "input" after several years working together and, now that it's absent, it will be missed. So in his own roundabout, mechanical way, Data shows that he's capable of missing someone if they're dead or gone.
* I always thought that he had emotions, but they weren't the same as human emotions. He reacts to events around him more than Spock does, with facial expressions (varying from obvious confusion to interest) and comments. Androids must have something like emotions (let's call it "Emotion.1"), but Data's been too busy searching for human emotion to notice that he has them. Emotion.1 is probably less complex than human emotion, and also less obvious on the outside, but it exists. If another android like him (not uber-human like Lore) were to show up, they could probably relate through their Emotion.1.
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** "Steve, when he asked how many men were attacking." - "Um, Dave, when answered: fifteen!"
** "Stella, when she wanted to sell you a shirt." - "Rachel, when she wanted the green one ... no, excuse me, when she wanted the one on the left."
** How do you name it? *inventor name* at *invention location*. How do you explain it - [concept of going from one place to another] and not [concept of physically moving]. We humans also call most scientific ideas by their inventors, rather than by a separate noun. Van Allen belts, Heisenberg uncertainty principles, Planck lengths - these could easily be called Van Allen around Earth, Heisenberg of Democritus at Athens, Planck of Democritus at Athens. So that would go "Bingo, when he pressed the red button.<ref>(= what I did)</ref> [[Diplomacy|Russia at Warsaw and Bohemia, Lepanto at Ionian Sea]].<ref>(= moving two spaces in one turn, without going to a space in between = what happened)</ref> [[This Troper]] and [[The Lancer]] at Current Location.<ref>(= naming new event)</ref> Shaka when the walls are strong.<ref>(= success)</ref> Remember that this is an alien culture with an alien mindset - can you logically explain how you came to understand the concept of "the"? Then how do you expect somebody to be capable of logically explaining the first principles of an alien language? <ref>([[Harry Potter and Thethe Philosopher's Stone (novel)|Neville at the table]] (have forgotten what you try to remember), [[Star Trek: Enterprise|Archer and the Xindi]] (utterly alien conversation). Booboo in kindergarten about Shaka and Tenagra (learning first lingual concepts), [[Watchmen (comics)|Juspeczyk and Dr. Manhattan on Mars]] of "the" (explaining something logically which seems obvious to one who doesn't understand, concerning the word "the"), Shaka where the walls have fallen (have failed and cannot undo). Dr. Manhattan to Juspeczyk at Mars (logical creature expecting beliefs of opponent to be logical), [[That Guy With The Glasses|Chester A Bum at the end]] (demanding), Booboo as Neville for Shaka and Tenagra (inability to remember learning lingual concepts)!)</ref> Compare, for example, Chinese, which has no written grammar at all. They have approximately 3000 common characters, and around 50,000 terms in total. Simply by replacing each character by the name of a person or event, you get something which could pretty much pass for Darmok language. The Chinese have no problem making new combinations of characters to describe new physical discoveries, so it would be utterly unreasonable to say the people of Darmok can't do the same.<ref>Shaka and Tanagra of China as Gilgamesh of Picard at Darmok. [[Peloponnesian War|Athenian League at Epidauros]], Wikipedia of Shaka and Tanagra of China, Arabian border of Hadrian's Empire, [[There Is No Such Thing as Notability|TVTropes]] of Shaka and Tanagra of China. Starfleet Translator at Urda at Darmok, Shaka and Tenagra, China as [[Assassin's Creed|Altair in Acre]] to Darmok. Higgs and Planck as before, China to Shaka and Tenagra, Taegris, his arms wide. Darmok to China, Atalante at speed.</ref>
*** ...Chinese Does Not Work That Way. Actually it has a fairly simple grammar (at least... depending on which Chinese you mean), and Chinese characters ''don't'' map to words 1:1, or necessarily map to meanings at all. Chinese forms new words in the same way as other languages.
* Perhaps our inability to understand how it can work is simply a reflection of how alien it is.
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* In "Suspicions", Crusher's Ferengi scientist friend supposedly commits suicide, but obviously that's not true. Crusher wants to do an autopsy to prove it, but that would be against his family's wishes. She does it anyway, and finds nothing. Why did she ever resort to that in the first place? Did she forget about all the super-advanced medical equipment that can provide hyper-detailed imaging of the entire body and its internal structure? It's not like she needs a direct look at his organs. We've seen sensors identify scarring from surgical procedures on bone tissue. Are dead people impervious to sensors or something?
** Sometimes yes. Depends on the sensors. And the species. And the state of the body. Also remember that for as advanced as the Enterprise-D's sensors are, the sort of deep tissue scanning technology with intensive proper displays that you're thinking of would not be shown until ''Voyager'', which was state of the art at the time it left spacedock.
 
==Who's running the ship?==
*At the end of "All Good Things", Picard, Riker, Data, (Beverly) Crusher, Troi, LaForge, and Worf are playing poker. Who is the command officer on duty? We know it's not a common qualification; Troi got that certification as part of the tests for ''Commander'' rank, although Data appears to have it as well. There are a couple of other times this happens in the series, but it's usually for a better reason than a ''poker game''.
 
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