TNG - The Mind's Eye

[Durandal_1707]

He turns it off when sleeping to save a few watts, because he's an engineer.

That's what I was going to say. Do you guys leave the lights on in your house when you travel and sleep in a hotel somewhere? After all, they're not keeping you up.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I don't know if BCM is actually blind, but I've heard that blind people can still have really limited perception of light, so I guess Geordi could be bothered by lights.

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[J!!]

The question isn't why Geordi turns his lights off before bed, the question is why he even has them on in the first place.

The answer of course, is so that the audience can see what he's doing.

[Durandal_1707]

The VISOR probably uses optical imaging for at least some of its functionality.

[Wolf359]

I don't know if BCM is actually blind, but I've heard that blind people can still have really limited perception of light, so I guess Geordi could be bothered by lights.

Could be, but Geordi doesn’t look to have anything in his eyeballs that would allow light in, whereas real blind people seen to at least have normal eyes that just don’t work right but could let light in, if that makes sense?

The VISOR probably uses optical imaging for at least some of its functionality.

I’m sure it does, or Geordi wouldn’t have been surprised by the plasma fire behind the panel in the cargo bay in “Disaster”. But when he goes to bed, he takes the VISOR off.

[Fianna]

He probably has the lights on so that, if any visitors come by, he doesn't have to turn them on before letting them in. As for turning them off, maybe all quarters on the ship come with a standard "occupant is asleep, do not disturb them" mode, and activating that automatically turns off the lights.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

He probably has the lights on so that, if any visitors come by, he doesn't have to turn them on before letting them in. As for turning them off, maybe all quarters on the ship come with a standard "occupant is asleep, do not disturb them" mode, and activating that automatically turns off the lights.

Oh yeah what if there's an emergency?

[clearspira]

He probably has the lights on so that, if any visitors come by, he doesn't have to turn them on before letting them in. As for turning them off, maybe all quarters on the ship come with a standard "occupant is asleep, do not disturb them" mode, and activating that automatically turns off the lights.

I like this idea. And Geordi is a seasoned officer: he knows that Worf or Data will one day have to run into his quarters to save him from Something Of The Week.

[clearspira]

Speaking of Data and eyes, has anyone ever noticed that Data's eyes do seem to be the most primitive part of him? Super strength, super fast, super intelligent; but if you need something actually looking at like they often did in season 1 (by getting him to stare of a window at it) you got Geordi.

Data does seem to have something similar to a Windows desktop in his vision as he often talks about ''organising his files'' and ''making new folders'' and such, but other than that, night vision is definitely something he does not have because he would not need a flashlight if he did. X-ray, no. Telescopic, no. Targeting systems, no. it just seems like a weird oversight on Soong's part.

I wonder if behind the scenes they didn't want Data overshadowing ''the blind guy''?

[Deledrius]

Data does seem to have something similar to a Windows desktop in his vision as he often talks about ''organising his files'' and ''making new folders'' and such, but other than that, night vision is definitely something he does not have because he would not need a flashlight if he did. X-ray, no. Telescopic, no. Targeting systems, no. it just seems like a weird oversight on Soong's part.

By the time we get an explanation for Data's past, I think it can be assumed that Soong was worried that giving him too many obvious "super-powers" aside from his inherent abilities might keep him from being accepted as human.