So, my man (autistic) is into science fiction, me (ADHD) not so much, but anyway today my man decided he was going to watch Star Trek and I happen to be around (usually I’m not) and watch with him.
It was that episode when the ship goes to be desinfected (I don’t remember the name of the episode) and Data mentions he created a sub-routine (wtv that is) for small talk and decides to listen to every conversation happening in that room and at some point he and the other guy (already forgot the name) start to talk about everything possible and I think it was Troi and Riker ask how can someone talk about nothing for so long. I’m like wdym about nothing? Small talk is about nothing!! Someone need to rewrite that series and give a proper mentor to that computer ASAP.
I can imagine a conversation going something like this:
Data: I’m trying to understand humans ND character I just made up: good luck on that bruh tell me later how did it go. I have been trying to do that for insert character age here years and no success… Data: wait… but you are human, how can you not understand humans? ND Char: oh boy this is going to be a long talk, but long story short what you are trying to understand is neurotypical humans, neurodivergent humans like me, are a totally different story, everyday I wake up and wonder if I’m the same species as Neurotypicals… Anyway do you like to read? Here is a list of books about this subject…
Data after reading them all: holy shit, understanding humans was already complicated when I thought there was only one type of humans and now… this… I’m never going to understand humans! ND Char: I just gave up Data: but then how are you supposed to know what to say and when and how and…? ND Char: welcome to the ND side of humanity bro! Why do you think so many of us are into coding? It’s just ones and zeros, not gesticulates to neurotypical humans being neurotypical all that mess…. Are you sure you don’t want to go back to be just and android? Because I think you are about to short circuit …
Giving a bot an emotion chip and no mood stabilizers? That’s going to go well (not)! How many people did I killed while having his manic episodes?
And also apparently at some point he has a daughter and tries to raise her according to what he read on books about parenting…. Written by Neurotypicals… for Neurotypicals… no wonder she short circuited 🤦🏻♀️
Oh well I guess it must have been what was available at the time, I was born in 1990 so I don’t remember much of what life was like in the 90s 🤷🏻♀️
... How would chemical mood stabilizers function ... in a computer brain?
Would you give lithium or abilify or haldol... to ChatGPT? To a boston dynamics robot?
The entire point is that Data... is an android, he is a machine, he is mechanical and robotic components made to outwardly resemble a human, but he doesn't have a human brain or human metabolic pathways/processes.
His... his 'daughter' is also an android, and part of the point of that plot line is to illustrate how... at the time, and still today, it is difficult to access useful parenting guides and advice or neurodivergent children, and how neurodivergent parents can also need their own approach to parenting in general.
In the case of Data and Lal, they are... basically wholly unique in the entire Star Trek universe... so there are no manuals or guides that apply to them.
Again, this mirrors, with some hyperbole, how difficult it is for ND parents and children to find actually effective, useful and not harmful advice, as they are a very small proportion of wider society and are widely misunderstood.
So who ever created Data had the technology to create a emotion chip but not a mood stabilizers chip? How the hell am I supposed to know how to make one? Use the same code he used for the emotion chip, it should work. Anyway, human emotions, are destructive, unpredictable and explosive in their wors form, who ever wrote that plot didn’t use much of the brain thinking it would be a good idea to just dump emotions into a machine without anything to stabilize them.
The person who created the chip was deceived into installing it into the wrong android; it is entirely possible that if he had installed it himself into Data to begin with that there would have been fewer problems.
Nah I think Data would have gone batshit crazy also. From the comments I’ll understood the chip gets installed somewhere in the future and he still goes nuts anyways, he didn’t turn out psyco probably because he already had this whole “luggage” and life experience (if we can call that life idk), if the chip had been installed from the start he would have 🤯 like the other prototype