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[Star Trek] What is the Federation attitude to non-organic beings? (self.asksciencefiction)

submitted 2 years ago by T156 to c/asksciencefiction

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We already know that the Federation seems to struggle when it comes to things that are non-humanoid, and non-organic, especially if they originated from Federation technology.

But we also see that there are progressive elements. Both the Doctor and Data have a fairly healthy heaping of support, once some form of personhood was established for them.

But does that attitude extend to non-organics that the Federation isn't familiar with?

For the other side, Federation attitudes towards Data, the Voyager's EMH, and the ExoComps weren't all that favourable. Both the EMH and the ExoComp's burgeoning sapience were treated as simple malfunctions, that could be resolved be constant factory resets, or in the case of the ExoComps, lobotomisation/resetting of their control circuitry, effectively killing the ExoComp, and putting the Doctor back to a blank slate (in theory).

There have been some documented cases where the Federation meets some mechanical beings, which were treated as sapient beings in their own right, but does that treatment extend to other non-organic beings? Or do you have to be "acceptable" as a humanoid to be treated as one?

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[–] grantimatter 3 points 1 year ago

Well, TOS is full of "energy beings" like the Organians or Zefram Cochran's girl(?)friend, or the Medusans - one of which became a main character on ST:Prodigy. The question of their rights is interesting because these "energy beings" are always depicted as somehow superior, or at least awe-inspiring. And not quite killable....