The Definition of Life - Star Trek TNG
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ม.ค. 2025
- While on the planet, the crew observe the use of small machines called Exocomps that Dr. Farallon claims can analyze a problem, replicate the correct tool to repair it, and "learn" this for future situations. During a test, one Exocomp refuses to enter a tunnel; moments later a confined explosion occurs within the tunnel. Data suggests that the unit may have exhibited self-preservation behavior and wishes to examine it further. Data asserts that if he is true, the Exocomps should no longer be used as tools.
Data investigates the unit, it finds that it has repaired not only the malfunction but his false alarm, having sensed it was not in any danger from the test. Data concludes the Exocomps possess self-preservation and are sentient.
You know, it just occurred to me, when Dr Crusher told Data that "it is the struggle that is important", that Data paraphrased that when his daughter Lal asked him why they try so hard to become human in "The Offspring". A nice continuity nod that shows he remembered this conversation.
"The Offspring" occurred in a previous season than the one shown here. Therefore, he's not quoting the doctor from this clip when talking to his daughter. That happened before these events.
@@tagonistknightspublishing8972 that's probably why Data understood Crusher immediately when she said "it's the struggle" - since Data used that phrase in the prior episode "The Offspring"
@@tagonistknightspublishing8972 ????
What a shame. Otherwise, it would have been a splendid way to demonstrate personal growth on Data's part.
Of course he remembered. He is not a moron.
@@leo-unddieAnderen I guess it would more accurate to say "of course he remembered. He is an android, he remembers everything"
I love how the Enterprise gang instantly have Data's back in the Exocomp discussion.
I love that family/crew moment
That's a team.
The bond there is unmistakable, yes, but the primary purpose of the Enterprise is to discover and contact new life, so this is in their wheelhouse.
I feel the “Measure of a Man” court trials reinforces this, if there are other sentient synthetic life forms let them think for themselves rather than remain tools
I wonder how much they’d have his back if they hadn’t work with him for as long as they did. I mean, I know their mission is scientific exploration, but imagine them rolling up on Dr. Soong’s lab at the moment he created Data the same way they’re working with this scientist.
This is why Data is my favortie character of all time. He cares so much about life no matter what form that life takes he respects it and wants every living being to have a chance to experience life even knowing deep down he will never actually get that chance.
Ahhh...too humane to be human? (Ripley, 👽)
Oh, but Jeff, by doing so, Data _did_ experience what it was like to be human!
I hope that Data came to realize that Truth before he died.
He IS alive. How do you know that you truly live?? Can you prove this??
@@leo-unddieAnderen Yes. 💡
If you ask him if he is alive, he will tell you that he is.
But, not everything that is alive can tell you that it is.
Plants cannot answer, but they are alive...
Or, maybe we are wrong, and they are not alive.
Maybe they are like fire; a complex chemical reaction, similar enough that we misperceive them.
I miss Star Trek. They make us think about things we would normally never encounter.
Clement Lee try “The Orville”. Not a spoof, but a homage to TNG. It had some trouble in the beginning, but by now, they offer proper quality content.
@clement lee well you're in luck. Theres a new show coming out called Star Trek Picard and its going to have alot of characters from TNG and a few from the other shows.
@@jeffarnold9497 less than one year later... We learn that this too was nothing but a marketing ploy 😑😞😩
How did we end up with an entire generation of talentless writers, that somehow continue to get Green Lit/rewarded for their unworthy products 🙄🙄🙄
@@jeffarnold9497
This comment aged like bread.
@@VictorythroughUnity59 By having execs and producers that only cares about money and shoveling content made to appeal to the largest audience possible. I mean, who is more at fault? JJ Abrams and Kurtzman or the people who handled Star Trek over to those hacks?
She said she has respect for Dr Soogns work, not for Data. Interesting.
A subtle distinction but an important one. This line makes her the villain of the episode.
TNG was really, really good for its day... in some ways, it's still not been matched.
#watchTheOrville #noSeriously
And then Data compares her to a Virus! Great comeback!
@@oooChickenatorXooo I believe she does realize her mistake at the end of the episode
@@stanlee5465 He burned her there.
"That's like me telling you not to use your tricorder!"
Well let's be fair, when was the last time you saw one of Dr Crushers tricorders commit suicide by vaporising itself in a reaction chamber?
In Season Three.
data grows mentally. learns about human behavoiur, adapts to human behaviour, and 'grows' in personality.
Space Aids!
Indeed, at times, one could say that Data is more human than anyone else.
@Norman Boring!
"There's a big difference between you and a virus but you both are alive." That's a classic argument and very salient to this proceeding.
That is quite arrogant of you, to assert that viruses are alive. Do you have any reason to classify them as life?
@@eleSDSU Yes. They produce and use energy and replicate themselves. That is life by any definition I have ever seen. In fact, in the 1st season episode "Home Soil" Data states, "Only life can replicate itself."
@@kellyrayburn4093 ... but both those things are done by other organisms hijacked by viruses, not by viruses themselves
@@eleSDSU Whether or not something is "alive" ultimately depends on the criteria by which you can use objective metrics to test for life. Whether or not viruses are alive has been debated in biology for decades. At one point they were considered alive, but then the definition of life has been refined so as to exclude viruses (as they no longer meet the criteria). Today, most biologists no longer consider a virus to be a lifeform, however that could change again 300 years from now once we discover the first "intelligent" virus that seems to be self-aware.
@@captainbryce1 Saying viruses aren't alive never had anything whatsoever to do with intelligence (protozoa and tomatoes are alive. The vast vast majority of living things have no intelligence). It's because viruses don't reproduce on their own. That's the entire debate.
Later, the Exocomps would cement their claim to self-awareness by forming the Exocomps Local #137 and going on strike to obtain better working conditions and a decent health insurance plan.
Shortly after the Exocomps Mafia was created and they became union leaders where they explored the concept of corruption and a so-called protection racquet.
EXO COMPS YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO DESTROY CORRUPTION NOT JOIN IT
@@MrRurounismc When executive corruption and union corruption smash into each other, sometimes you get something resembling a better life.
@@dsandoval9396 "Protection racquet" - for when they're playing tennis? ;)
@@AdamSmith-kq6ys the scheme is pay me X amount or else some "accidents" might happen to your stuff
It's one of the classics
I see this is not mentioned in the description, nor in the comments that I see here, so let me state...this scene is from Star Trek: The Next Generation, episode The Quality Of Life.
thanks
Season... 3 ? I'm guessing
Fun Size Politics its actually Season 6 Episode 9
This isn't the one with Spock and Kirk and Scotty is it?
Trainer Shayne thats Star Trek the Original Series
I watched this episode when I was in 10th grade. Tonight while helping my youngest son with makeup homework I had to play this video for him because we were arguing about fire being alive. 28 years after watching it the first time I knew exactly where to look for the answer :)
Live Forever and Prosper, Garrett Roen and family.
I wonder why Garret's son was studying how to apply makeup in the tenth grade?
It seems like one of those things you'd learn in grade school or Junior High, if you were to learn it in school. 🤔
'Doctor, there's a big difference between you and a virus, but they're both alive.'
Hmmmmm...
The writers didn't check current science for the futuristic representation of science.
Yeah, I Hmmmmed at that too.
Current science did not exist 30 years ago.
My biology professor, disagreed with consensus and considered viruses to be alive.
@@GregorySnipe Well... They lack the innate ability to divide.
Data: What about me? I do not grow. I do not reproduce. Yet I am programmed in multiple techniques.
1990’s Star Trek: what is the meaning of life?
2019 Star Trek: ‘tHiS Is tHe Pow3r Of MaTh, PeOplE! OuR sPaCeShIp RuNs oN ShRoOms!’
Fuck yeah
"SHEER FUCKING HUBRIS." - STP
DblOSmith watch your frakking mouth.
sonoki82 you’re in the wrong show! 😂
@@DblOSmith Oh god, I read that quote as Stone Temple Pilots.
Data be like "What transpired between the moment when I was nothing more than an assemblage of parts, and the next moment, when I became alive?'
Soogn be like: "IT'S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!"
Oh, my heart.😢 Data saying that he was alone in the universe makes me want to hug him so hard!😔
Remember like they told you when you were little. Bambi's mom is just a cartoon, it's in a land of make believe.
th-cam.com/video/KsWSXDAAOxU/w-d-xo.html
In Measure of a Man, Maddox said he wouldn't be facing such opposition if Data didn't LOOK human. This episode with the Exocomps clearly disproves that.
@Coolio_Wolfus but like before Picard has his back
Beverly Crusher is one fine woman...
Adam Miller i don’t get how such a beautiful woman would produce such a horribly annoying offspring. Lol
J.London - That very point has boggled my mind for many years.
Meh
@@JL0ndon Id blame the father but the man was a war hero.
@@Krystalmyth Well, he isn't there to guide teenager Wesley, so yes his absence is a prob;em
'that's like me telling you not to use your tricorder" tricorders do not sh ut on their users fingers or fry their sensors just to avoid being used in dangerous situations
1:18
[Beverly's chair squeaks loudly]
4:23 Mr. Tricorder disagrees
This is why in biologgy we talk about having a metabolism being a characteristic of the living.
Isn't metabolism just a chemical reaction to extract energy from raw materials
@@jkm7983 exactly. There are things that do not "live" that can form metabolisms.
There's a better definition... Wonder why it still unknown
inito-genesis to nucleosynthesis to chemosynthesis can also be classified as metabolism.
@@rufusapplebee1428 me•tab•o•lism mĭ-tăb′ə-lĭz″əm►
n. The chemical processes occurring within a living cell or organism that are necessary for the maintenance of life. In metabolism some substances are broken down to yield energy for vital processes while other substances, necessary for life, are synthesized.
n. The processing of a specific substance within a living cell or organism.
You could say the same thing about crystals....Data starts having flashbacks
This is such an excellent and amazing episode! That's why I have come to love TNG and Data.
‘You are unique.’
Lorne and B4: ‘I can’t believe you’ve done this.’
I don’t think he knew Lore was still alive.
"the fact that it could be alive"... I think she means the possibility, unless she read ahead in the script.
The Lifeination of Def.
I couldn't resist.
I guess using that virus comparison he prescribes to my belief of life where "it's a chemical process that has only one purpose and that is Recursion of information.
To copy itself at infinim and to modify itself when necessary to persist it's information and that creates a generation"
I was actually told in a microbiology course in 2015 that life is considered as the ability to produce ATP in a cell, leading to the follow up that viruses are not considered living. There’s definitely everything that Dr Crusher said as well, but I just wanted to contribute something too
Look up germ theory history I was also told that viruses are not alive my I also still believe that viruses are not alive. But AI
Like.data Could totally be sentiment or then what That's us playing God Once android starts thinking and questioning itself and wanting to be human that's life it's life created from life
This is fascinating and I want to hear more:
What is "ATP"?
(Besides a home security service).
@@TheNoiseySpectator its genome information (outrageous simplification)
@@TheNoiseySpectatoradenosine triphosphate
@@TheNoiseySpectator This new science fascinates me. Tell me again how a sheep's bladder might be employed to prevent earthquakes
Crusher looked fantastic here.
Troi saying something is a fact when it's nothing but a hypothesis.
Brilliant and thought-provoking
Ah TNG, some episodes they want to send you back to hunter gatherer era because your toaster might pretend to have feelings
Life is a set of mechinism that takes in energy and decrease entorpy within said system
The BEST episode ever! Robots, are they alive or not? Friggin awesome episode. That and the episode; 'the measure of a man'
The Measure Of A Man is an amazing episode with some of the best acting and writing ever.
one of the worst episodes actually, it diminishes actual Life from Nature that is so far beyond complex that any machine seems retarded in comparison.
Gates McFadden was and still is smokin' hot.
Oh Data you were never alone
The next generation is my fave sci-fi series of all time it is like SOUL TV for me❤❤😊😊jpp
This show was so fucking good. TV just doesn't get into ideas like this anymore.
Data, you will never be alone my friend
Data be like: "Me thinks this tool is sentient!"
Everyone: "Be free, screwdriver!!!!!"
Now this explain why the 10 socket always disappears. This one isn't a team player.
The exocomp that vaporized itself may have been unstable, and perhaps even despairing at an existence of compulsory labor without the ability to communicate its unhappiness with its plight. I know that some people would see suicide as a viable alternative to slavery without the possibility of escape, especially if the yoke of control was inside their own neural network.
Yet another TNG episode that blows a moon aized hole in "Picard" with a federation using androids as slave labour
Bro, that virus line was a mic-dropper.
The definition is:
Baby don’t hurt me.
"Doctor where do babies come from"
:o
It's funny how most people don't realize evil clones are everywhere....
Fire then goes memetic to continue, with a relationship and organisms that will feed it, symbiosis
From memetic to molecular
I'm surprised data doesn't crack more skulls irl.
Star Trek chefs kiss
2:05 I never noticed before that when asked the same question by Lahl some years later, data answers as doctor crusher did.
"Why do try to be like them when it only serves to remind you that you are incomplete?" and he responds. "It does not matter that we may never reach our ultimate goal, We must strive to be more than we are Lahl, it is the struggle itself, that is most important."
Back when ST was about having philosophical conversations.
I remember thus episode, I just seen it on BBCA 20 minutes ago. I wanted one of the little floating droids.
Data grows so much over the course of his life. Plus he reproduces
1:16 What's with the seductive posture while in a gi?
Me as a kid: Star Trek has no lightsabers? Booooring!
Me Now: Wow Data's analysis was very insightful, it reminds me of the Kyber Crystals in lightsabers which are also living things, yet force users don't care for their well being, how cruel.
Dr. Maddox answered the question better than Dr. Crusher did in my opinion
Are you sure?
Doctor Maddox was not talking about just straightforward being alive?
Sure, if you can tell your biologist that you are alive, you get let into the club on the "René Descartes gold pass".
But, the great majority of kingdoms of Life Forms that have ever existed on Earth would not fit his three criteria.
The ability to "think" and to have consciousness is by far an arbitrary rarity, limited to the animal kingdom.
Think about mushrooms, and dandelions.
They are not intelligent, nor self aware, nor do they have consciousness.
But, they are alive.
I'm fact, Spot meets all three. Why is Spot not considered a sentient being. 🤔😺
Galileo said something similar. "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered. The point is to discover them."
The moment of conception.
I wonder if this is the direction Picard is going, maybe bring in Exocomps, Lore, and Nanites to the show.
3:52 as a biologist this frustrates me to no end because viruses are not technically classified as living things
Thats true currently, but there's no reason to assume that the biological definition of life hasn't changed in 400 years to include things like viruses, and things like Data.
NASA's definition of life:
“Life is a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution”
Data is self-sustaining, maybe even more than humans, but not a chemical system. He talks about fluids running in his body in some episode but i don't think it applies. He's capable of self-improving, probably capable to adapt much faster than a system in Darwinian evolution, but it's not Darwinian per se.
Data might not fit the definition of Life, because life is more like a system, emerging set of rules from the small building blocks of the universe. But he is certainly alive and self-aware, he's a being.
the fire argument has always been compelling to me. I find the dismissal that fire is a chemical reaction to be unsatisfactory. To me, life is nothing more than a glorified, highly complex biochemical reaction.
My absolute favouriite episode, at least the one I remember the most
"There's a big difference between you and a virus, and both are alive"
OH SHIT I THINK THAT WAS A BURN
one HELL of a burn. it’s sometimes easy to forget how much of a savage data can be.
Life: Local reversal of entropy.
it is hypotheticaly possible to havea local reversal of entropy without it having charakteristics of being alive so this statement ist wrong
Idk. I feel like Data would have access to a ton of scientific and philosophical writings on the question, What is life? It’s not really an especially difficult or controversial topic. At least compared to other things both he and Dr Crusher have faced. Great scene from both actors, regardless.
Ok i immediately take it back. Data is in his own grey area. It makes sense for him to ask Dr Crusher, someone he greatly respects.
@@Otis151 And, this actually _is_ a difficult and controversial subject.
Further, I would add to what you are saying that just reading what has been written about something so complex can be inadequate.
Sometimes, one must interact with the intelligence that is the source of such a definition to gain an understanding of it.
If you see what I mean. That may be confusing.
I loved how when Dr. Crusher first took a breath to try to answer his question, Data turned his head abruptly towards her to pay attention. It was like his way of saying, "Please proceed; I am listening."
Strong influence on 'Rick & Morty' episode on the small robots
I don’t really understand the creator of the exocomps objection to the thought that they might have created life. I personally would be overjoyed that I just stumbled onto something that almost everyone in the universe hasn’t figured out.
Because now you have to give a blowjob to a machine so it does what it's suppose to do. i honestly doubt you would the same if your life's work now says "no", no you would be pissed off just like she is.
"...there's a big difference between you and a virus..."; whadda hoot...cracks me up..
Here is the best definition of life (taken from one of the trek novels!)
Life is,... A persistant, localized reversal of entropy.
I know she comes across as the villain of the piece but I get where Farallon is coming from. She created a somewhat glitchy tool to help with a failing project and somebody shows up while she is trying to save her project and announces that she has accidentally created a life-form. That would probably seem absurd, especially when I seriously doubt that these are the first artificial intelligences that she has programmed.
"Pinocchio is broken. Its strings have been cut."
Ironically, Data is the most human member of the crew.
TNG was so much more based than I ever realized
There is a corridor in this scene behind beverlys office which you don't usually see in most other episodes. I wonder if its a secret corridor
Who the hell are you to ask Data about a basis for a conclusion. Of course he has a bloody basis!
Data really hasn't learnt much from humanity, until learned for himself.
He's incorrectly and dangerously considered to be alive.
Life seems to denote awareness of some sort otherwise we would be just chemical reactions no different than fire. Likewise awareness seems to imply feeling such as pain or pleasure.
The definition of life is a temporary state of suck. Immortality is undesirable. Its eternal suck.
I dunno. It all depends on how an immortal spends their time. Douglas Adams' Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged, an accidental immortal, spent _his_ time and energy insulting each and every living being in the Universe one by one.
Oh, that exocomp totally committed suicide
narc bosses can have that effect.
I Loved this the first time it was on!
Julie and I watched every one, sure miss her but, the reruns we're good too. And now, we can watch these at will; apologies to Will Wheaton
Lmao Professor X and Cyclops both made an appearance in Star Trek
Fantastic writing. Nuff said!
I watched this recently on Netflix
after that little meeting in the senior staff meeting room over Data's theory about those little toys having lives of their own and the captain decided to settle this with a test run and it failed that test
I had a gut feeling that hovering little toy realised it was a test and seen right throw it
1:49 Dr. Crusher mentioned that scientists and philosophers have long been wrestling with this question, but she did not include the clergy in her statement. Perhaps all those who follow religion are also a subset of those who follow philosophy. However, for some reason, that's not an easy conflation for me to accept. Therefore, even as a child, I found it very unsettling that she did not mention the clergy. The oversight could be considered a self-censorship, even something offensive. My ideas about religion are not always very clear, but they are always very intense.
Bev looks super hot sitting in that chair.
Data should have slapped more people.
Just kidding.
He should have punched more people.
Rages is Tholian.
Actually, on rechecking the episode order, I just realised that "The Offspring" (season 4) was 2 seasons BEFORE "The Quality of Life" (season 6), which just makes it a really weird coincidence. I got mixed up because I was sure "The Quality of Life" was in one of the earlier seasons.
Dude I think crystals are alive because I have a broad definition of life
I love this episode.
So if the Exocomp is alive & haves some form of sentience aren't they supposed to break off all communication with them because of the prime directive?
I believe by strict definition they would be Federation citizens.
@@oldtwinsna8347 ah ok.
Crystals are alive. And human dna has a crystaline structure. In esoteric study, fire represents life. The higher vibratory state of fire, lighting, is constantly used to refer to life. ('spark of life'; lightning that brought Frankenstein's monster to life)
Data dose grow and reproduce. Remember Lal?
This is the kind of dilemma a space scifi show is supposed to have.
0:51 Please continue with the de-cloaking Dr.Crusher, i am taking notes.
We should REALLY talk about our offspring and how they will have fire-colored hair.
A great episode. One of the best.