I just watched Measure of a Man, they rule Data has the right to choose. But in Voyager the EMH gets relegated to forced servitude. Why? Doesn’t that violate precedent?
I just watched Measure of a Man, they rule Data has the right to choose. But in Voyager the EMH gets relegated to forced servitude. Why? Doesn’t that violate precedent?
The Federation is internally inconsistent at grappling with the implications of AI. It helped that Data was a humanoid robot. The Exocomps took far longer and even then it only seemed to be revolving around not using them as expendable equipment until Peanut Hamper joined Starfleet. Even then, the discussion seemed to be around life instead of sentience.
By the time Voyager’s EMH started claiming its rights, it seemed like the Federation was only ok with claiming sentient life if hardware was tied to software, something that the EMH lacked.
Then, after the
Butlerian Jihadburning of Mars, all AI research was put on hold. I don’t know what happened to holographic based AI in that time.