How 'Star Trek: Picard' sets itself up to explore the fragile line between humanity and AI
"It could significantly redefine the boundaries of personal liberty and freedom, expanding them for some. Savagely curtailing them for others."
The above quote is taken from 'Measure of a Man', Episode 9 of Season 2 of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'. It is spoken by Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) in his closing statement for a trial to determine whether Data (Brent Spiner) was a sentient being or Starfleet property.
It's a speech that has become profoundly relevant over 30 years later in the events of 'Star Trek: Picard', a show that appears to be setting itself up to explore just what it means to be human.
Data lies at the heart of the series premiere of 'Star Trek: Picard'. When Data was last seen, he had sacrificed his life in 'Star Trek: Nemesis', but not before he attempted to upload a copy of his consciousness into an older version of his android body known as B-4.
The process did not work, but it sparked something — B-4 was seen singing 'Blue Skies,' one of Data's favorite songs. It's the song that plays when the episode opens, bringing the question of Data's resurrection sharply into focus for longtime 'Star Trek' fans.
Despite the return of Brent Spiner as Data in Picard's dreams, however, Data himself does not appear to be returning.
What has been managed instead is the passing on of his essence to a new form of being. To the women who are, for all intents and purposes, his daughters.
Through a theoretical process known as fractal neuronic cloning, the essence of Data has been grown into something new, and the show's name-dropping of Bruce Maddox seems to imply that he had something to do with it.
Bruce Maddox (Brian Brophy) was the commander who, in 'Measure of a Man', sought to dismantle Data in order to study and replicate him. The trial to determine whether or not Data was Starfleet property and thus unable to refuse his own dismantling was called for by Maddox.
After losing the trial, Data asked Maddox to come back to him, at a later date, as some of Maddox's ideas for replication were, as Data put it, "intriguing". It is possible that the two did indeed meet up at a later date because Maddox was involved with attempting to recreate another synthetic being like Data.
According to Dr Agnes Jurati (Alison Pill), Maddox continued his efforts, though when Starfleet's Division of Advanced Synthetic Research was shut down, he disappeared.
Part of that could be guilt — the rogue synthetics who attacked Mars came from the same division in Daystrom, leading to the ban on all synthetic lifeforms.
Data's remaining daughter, Soji (Isa Briones), is the lone survivor of a race that might bridge the gap between human beings and synthetic organisms. Given the galactic ban on synthetic AI, her existence is, technically illegal. What's interesting is where she is at the moment — working onboard a Borg cube.
The fight for synthetic rights is an argument for their humanity — and the Borg are all about the erasure of humanity and identity. Their methods of assimilation erase all sense of liberty and freedom — something a young Jean-Luc Picard predicted would be at stake when Data's unique being managed to be replicated.
The rights of synthetic beings have most certainly been "savagely curtailed" by the United Federation of Planets, in a way comparable to how Borg assimilation curtails the rights of all freethinking sentient beings.
The first episode of 'Star Trek: Picard' appears to be setting up a direct sequel to 'Measure of a Man' and questions of identity, free will and humanity are things to watch out for at the heart of the show.
You can watch the end of Data's trial, and Picard's impassioned speech, from 'Measure of a Man' below:
The next episode of 'Star Trek: Picard' airs on January 30 on CBS All Access.
