Modern-Day Pinocchio: Exploring our own humanity

“If being human is not simply a matter of being born flesh and blood – if it is instead a way of thinking, acting, and feeling – then I am hopeful that one day I will discover my own humanity. Until then … I will continue learning, changing, growing, and trying to become more than what I am.”

– Data in Data’s Day, Star Trek: The Next Generation

As is obvious by now, I am a huge Star Trek fan – closely bordering on obsession, really. I just don’t feel the need to watch anything else. For me, Star Trek does to television what Shakespeare does for literature. It attempts to explore humanity and human behavior and does so through elegant screenwriting and the skills of its actors.

To demonstrate, there have been quite a few episodes that have literally moved me to tears and have kept me up half the night. Other episodes, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. If I haven’t hammered the last nail on my sanity’s coffin by now, I’m sure this will do it. But I just don’t care – it’s that good to me.

It’s pronounced ‘Day-ta,’ not ‘Dah-ta’…

One of my favorite characters in Star Trek is Data, the world’s only fully functional android (aside from his ‘brother,’ who is a rogue). Now, to me this isn’t shocking because I tend to like shows and movies that center on androids and robots. I-Robot, Bicentennial Man, Artificial Intelligence, Wall-E, you name it – I’m a sucker for it.

Now Data’s biggest dream is to be human. While he can walk, talk, and generally act human, his designer didn’t give him the ability to experience emotions. Nonetheless, he’s constantly on a quest to discover human emotions, relationships, and other nuances that are uniquely human. He has this great sense of wonder and a never-ending curiosity that drives people crazy at times and gets him into silly situations, but makes him all the more loveable.

And despite all of his strengths as an android and his ability to be logical, not having emotions that cloud his judgment, he’d give it all up to be human. This is in spite of other’s reassurances that he is indeed sentient and has every right to be there as everyone else.

There was even an episode where Captain Picard took another scientist to court and fought for Data’s rights as a sentient being – another episode that also leaves me bawling every time. In another episode, Data desired to procreate so he created his own offspring, a daughter named Lal, who unfortunately failed (died) shortly after. Yep – more tears.

By the way, I swear I normally don’t cry that much. It’s just that Star Trek seems to have this extraordinary grip and control of my tear ducts.

Pinocchio, Reincarnated

In a sense, Data is like a modern-day Pinocchio. Instead of wood, he’s made of a bunch of circuits and heavy metals. Instead of strings, he’s limited to what his positronic, computer brain can do.

As is shown in the quote at the beginning of this post, Data strives to grow and overcome his limitations. But ironically, in his effort to do so, Data actually becomes human. In his quest to become “more than he is,” by his own admission, there is the makings of emotion – desire, faith, sadness, happiness, disappointment.

It makes me think, isn’t that what being human is? Isn’t that what sets us apart from other species?

Anything can learn how to walk upright. Anything can have an instinct and blindly follow it. Anything can breathe and circulate nutrients around. Anything can have a “brain” in the loosest sense of the word. For what is a brain, except a network of [insert any word here] firing “messages” at each other?

Redefining humanity … or maybe that’s what it was all along

Being human isn’t about having your skin look a certain way and what your bones are made of. It’s about moving beyond our base behavior and exploring altered states of mind. It’s about having the ability to creatively push ourselves beyond our perceived capabilities. It’s about learning to adapt to our environment and then adapting our environment to suit us.

And that’s what we do. We’re just like Pinocchio. Just like Data. Not better than him. Not less than him. Just like him we don’t understand emotions – no matter how hard we try to break them apart and rationalize it with logic. And yet, we’re still entirely fueled by them.

Every day we strive to be better than what we are. Sometimes we fall far short of our expectations. A lot of times it doesn’t turn out the way we’d like. Often we’re temporarily set back and other times we want to give up completely (and do). And all too frequently we leave even more confused than ever. Just like Data.

At the end of the day, that’s what matters – that’s what makes us ‘human.’ That we dreamed. That we showed up. That we gave it our all.

Does it make him any less human than us? Does it make us any less ‘android’ than him? What’s the difference?

Does it matter?

Readers: Thoughts? Ideas? Random spurts of creativity? Share!

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