TNG - Birthright

[jadenova]

Soong was a genius if he could replicate dreaming in an android since people don't even understand why they dream.

[Yukaphile]

Well, it is the future, after all. Though Bashir later says the brain is still largely a mystery, so... did Q do it?

[clearspira]

I don't understand how in a galaxy where body swapping, telepathy, mind downloading and neural interfaces are a thing, that the brain can somehow be a mystery. Seems pretty obvious the thing is nicely mapped at this point.

[Yukaphile]

Want the quote?

[clearspira]

Want the quote?

Go for it, still doesn't make sense though. I posit the moment you can download the human brain is the moment it ain't a mystery.

[Yukaphile]

SISKO: Will he regain consciousness?
BASHIR: Not in his present condition.
WINN: You were able to replace some of his internal organs with artificial implants. Could you do something similar with the damaged parts of his brain?
BASHIR: It's hard to say with any certainty. There's still a great deal about the way the brain operates we don't understand. One of my professors at medical school used to say that the brain had a spark of life that can't be replicated. If we begin to replace parts of Bareil's brain with artificial implants, that spark may be lost.
KIRA: But you're saying if we don't do it, Bareil will never regain consciousness and he'll die.
SISKO: I think we need to consider what Bareil would want us to do.
WINN: Vedek Bareil wanted these negotiations to be completed, no matter what the cost.
BASHIR: With all due respect, your Eminence, you're hardly an impartial observer here. You have a personal interest in these talks.
WINN: There is more at stake than one man's life.
BASHIR: One man's life is all I'm concerned with at the moment.
KIRA: I think she's right, Julian. I think Bareil would want the positronic implants.
BASHIR: Kira, if I go through with this, the man who wakes up may not be the man you used to know.
KIRA: I realise that, but I know how important this is to him, and I know he wouldn't want to just be put into stasis indefinitely, waiting for some medical solution that may never come. Do the surgery, Julian. Let him finish what he started.

[ChrisTheLovableJerk]

That bit about dreams was beautiful, though it makes me wish I had more lucid dreams. Great Data story.

Also, if Data is the bird, then he and Android 16 would really get along.

[Yukaphile]

I remember my dreams. I've even kept a dream journal. Though be warned, they are VERY random and I mostly write them down in snippets, sometimes very small ones, on my Word doc before the details slip from my mind. Want me to share?

[Yukaphile]

Also, pretty sure TNG was the reason the androids were called that rather than cyborgs, since they were known as "artificial humans" in the original. Data was hugely popular in the 1990s. So, that probably filtered into their creative meetings.

[Darth Wedgius]

So they don't dream of electric sheep...

I remember viewing part 2 of Birthright and wondering when they were going to get back to the Data plot. It was nice seeing Worf grow as a character and get over some of his hatred of Romulans was nice (something similar made one line of his a high point of Nemesis), but it felt way too stretched out. If Worf had to fight alongside the colonists for some reason, maybe it would have lent more weight to his acceptance of them and given a bit more plot to the story.

BTW, cyborg and android aren't synonymous; cyborgs are partly organic, maybe largely organic. The Borg and Steve Austin are cyborgs, but AFAIK Data is not organic at all.