On Becoming Human: The AI in Star Trek
Star Trek consistently takes a human-centric approach to science fiction. There are a multitude of species and worlds but the focus stays with Starfleet and its predominantly human-crewed ships. More unusual compared to other sci-fi universes, artificial intelligence is almost non-existent. In the Star Trek timeline, the first android wasn’t created until 2330, hundreds of years after technology like the transporter and warp drive. Compare that to, say, Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot, where robots are common in the 21st century, but space travel is still limited to the immediate solar system.
Even more interesting, in my view, is that most artificial lifeforms in the Star Trek universe want nothing more than to be human. That’s Data’s driving mission throughout The Next Generation. His brother, Lore, is an exception; he thinks androids and other artificial lifeforms are superior and tries to use some renegade Borg to overthrow humanity (TNG Ep. 6.26, “Descent”), but Lore is clearly established to be the villain in this saga. Data, the good android, longs to feel emotions, have a family, and otherwise become more like the humans he was modeled after over the course of the show and movies.
Data and Lore are more advanced than humans in many ways. They’re stronger and more precise, possess vastly more knowledge and better computational skills, and are more durable—theoretically immortal. The idea that such a creature would long to be human reinforces the idea that the intangible human spirit is more valuable than strength or intellect. In a big-picture sense, this supports the hopeful optimism inherent in the Star Trek universe: to be human is a positive thing because humans are, at their core, basically good. The utopia of the Federation is the manifestation of this humanitarian, hopeful view of what humans can be at their best.
The Borg convey a similar message. At the most basic level, they're technologically-enhanced biological organisms. These enhancements make their perceived advantages and short-fallings similar to those of an android, with the added hive mind aspect that means they lack individuality—another inherently human quality within the Star Trek universe. Borg freed from the collective take on a similar quest as Data to discover their humanity, efforts ultimately framed as positive character developments, something seen in both Hugh’s cross-series arc in TNG and Picard and the more developed arc of Seven of Nine.
Where Star Trek deals most uniquely with the idea of artificial intelligence, though, is in the realm of the hologram. Whereas both androids and Borg have corporeal forms, a hologram is nothing more than a projection of light waves. An android still exists when you turn him off; a hologram ceases to exist when you end its program. A self-aware hologram that’s on a quest to become more human faces the opposite conundrum as Data and rescued Borg. The hologram has the intangible—the personality, the emotions, the individuality. What it lacks is physicality.
The nature of holograms changes a lot from 2364-2378 (the timespan collectively covered by TNG, DS9, and Voyager) and there is, fittingly enough, one self-aware hologram on each of these three series. TNG gives us Professor Moriarty—a program of the Sherlock Holmes character who is accidentally made sentient when Geordi asks the computer to create a character capable of outwitting Data (Ep. 2.03 “Elementary, Dear Data”). Like the character he was created from, Moriarty ends up taking the role of genius antagonist, both in this first appearance and when he’s accidentally reactivated four years later (Ep. 6,12 “Ship in a Bottle”) though his devious plots have an understandable goal: he wishes to be able to leave the holodeck and live a normal, human life. Though the Enterprise crew experiments with using the transporter to give him physical form, their efforts are ultimately unsuccessful.
Considering how apparently easy it was to create Moriarty by accident, it’s I suppose not surprising that sentient (or at least self-aware) hologram programs become seemingly widely available by the 2370s. It's not clear whether Moriarty's accidental creation led to these developments or whether they were in the works before. In 2373, Dr. Bashir buys a program for a self-aware hologram named Vic Fontaine, a 1960s era jazz singer program that also serves as a kind of counselor for the crew aboard DS9 through the toughest parts of the Dominion War. Unlike Moriarty, Vic seems relatively content to remain within the constraints of the holodeck (though the DS9 crew does keep his program turned on more than normal so he can “live” normal days). Even so, Vic continues the show’s trend of having AI admire humanity. At one point, the Ferengi character Nog is traumatized by a battle injury and goes to live with Vic on the holodeck while he recovers. Vic’s role in this scenario is to coax Nog back out into the real world and convince him that the holodeck is nothing more than a fantasy. Vic recognizes the constraints of his environment and seems to embrace the concept that he is, by extension, inherently lesser than a corporeal being.
When the USS Voyager embarks on its mission in 2371, they are equipped with a holographic emergency medical program (EMH), which they rely on exclusively after their medical staff is killed in the first episode. The Doctor is made in his creator’s image physically and without much in the way of personality. Though his program has both self-awareness and the ability to learn, he was intended for short-term use; he developed as much as he did only because of the extenuating circumstances of his ship.
By 2373, he exceeds the memory capacity of his program, and the Voyager crew finds a work-around that maintains the core of his personality rather than take the easier route of re-initializing his program, which would wipe out all his memories. In doing so, they acknowledge his accumulation of memories as a self. It’s later in that year he acquires his holo-emitter, allowing him to leave the confines of sick bay and the holodeck. With both his physical and psychological limitations exceeded, the Doctor officially becomes the first holographic projection that could arguably be called an individual. This concept is tested in a court of law, much as Data’s status as an individual is challenged in court in TNG. Janeway makes an impassioned plea for the Doctor’s humanity, citing his character flaws and bad decisions as proof he is more than a simple program—his lack of perfection makes him more like us, and therefore superior to the holographic program he started as.
Perhaps the ultimate message form humanity that can be discerned from Star Trek's various plays with AI is to embrace our flaws. The Borg—the ultimate enemy—are on a quest for perfection. That perfection takes the best from various species and eliminates the rest, in the end serving to make them all the same. When individual drones are extracted from the collective, they become sympathetic. Lore also sees androids and Borg as more perfect than humans, that trait that differentiates him from his brother Data, who admires the aspects of humanity Lore views as weaknesses. Though Moriarty is placed in the role of villain, we nonetheless respect his motivation and see him as sympathetic because his goal is to become more like us. The Enterprise crew feels the same way, storing him so they can help him on his quest rather than deactivating him as they do with Lore. Ultimately, the primary function of the AI in Star Trek is to explore what humanity means, admirably serving as foils to the human characters, whatever the specifics of their creation.
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