Star Trek: The Next Generation, "The Measure of a Man"

"The Measure of a Man." Star Trek: The Next Generation. 11 Feb. 1988. Robert Scheerer, dir. Melinda Snodgrass, script.

Courtroom drama on the question of an android's rights. Is Mr. Data a person under the law, or Starfleet's property? (He's a person.)

See for general question of the rights of AI, androids, and robots; cf. I. Asimov's The Bicentennial Man.

Discussed and theologically contextualized by Gabriel McKee in The Gospel According to Science Fiction: From the Twilight Zone to the Final Frontier. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007. From a review of the book by L. Dianne King:

Beginning with St. Augustine and Descartes, he [McKee] explores the question of what makes us human. With the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Measure of a Man” as his touchstone, he examines SF concepts including sentience, artificial intelligence, the uploading of human consciousness into computers, and disembodied beings. Through these concepts he wrestles with questions of whether the soul exists, and what qualities actually constitute humanity. (SFRA Review #287 (Winter 2009): p. 14)[1]

Erlich, initial; augmented 21Jan21