In a message dated 5/7/2000 2:59:36 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
sentience@pobox.com writes:
>
> Death to 7 of 9, the Borg, Data, and Spock, proud upholders of the
> frickin' *stupid* tradition that intelligent people are supposed to be
> unable to understand emotions. Hail Gene Roddenbury, who managed to do
> more damage to American rationality than, well, just about anyone.
> --
Thanks E, for your vote for intelligent emotions. I agree that we need to
change that stereotype of the intellectual being divorced from their emotions.
You know, I am not sure that Gene Roddenbury was the originator of the meme
that emotions are incompatible rational thought.
But re Startrek: don't forget: What is most notable about the 'Data'
character is that he first needs to "upgrade" in order to have emotions. A
preinstalled emotion chip is automatically activated after a certain maturing
time. When he gets them at first he is confused and overwhelmed by them. Then
with time he masters them and becomes more "whole" and human, but he can
switch off his emotions, which is a neat trick.
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