this post was submitted on 31 May 2026
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TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name

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[–] tensorpudding@lemmy.world 57 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I believe a lot of the reason people hate LLM chatbots is that we are being actively, knowingly misled by corporations into believing that they, like Data, have the capacity to reason and learn and to understand what they know and what they do not know, when they are just word salad bots. These tools are being pushed on us even though we largely do not want to use them and they produce shoddy lower-quality work while putting actual people out of work, in order to justify the capital expense, because it makes more profit for them, while all friction and risk of using these tools is assumed by the user.

Pulaski's prejudice against Data doesn't make sense in the show because Data is decidedly not a clanker, but it is forgiveable if we believe that she has had past run-ins with fraudulent LLM-like AIs that do a good job of looking like Data but lack these capacities, and perhaps were pushed by similarly unethical entities.

But on the other hand, a lot of the issues with AI in 2026 would not apply in the Federation of the 24th century, because there is no capitalism or scarcity-based economy that would justify compelling people to use such a flawed tool. Also, the ship's computer in the Enterprise is already far more capable and useful than an LLM chatbot, and no one ever marvels at its capabilities in-universe. So given these things, her hostility towards Data is still puzzling.

[–] r3g3n3x@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Doesn’t she eventually come around to him? I really think she’s just a moral lesson in character form. Even in trek people aren’t perfect when expressed to new things but have the opportunity to grow. If everyone behaved perfectly at the introduction of every new stimulus then there would be no growth and that is not good storytelling.

[–] tensorpudding@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oh I agree 100% with this being good writing with this very intent, was strictly trying to justify her prejudice purely in-universe.

[–] r3g3n3x@lemmy.zip 2 points 20 hours ago

Ah gotcha. I get the whole trying to explain in universe motives but sometimes I feel like that sort of thing needs too much detail and feels like it reaches too far. But for that exercise… hmmm… my Worfs razor would be that she is genuinely, to her core, all about life and healing it. Maybe just humans but that would introduce another personality flaw, but we’ll say just life. But it needs another angle because it’s not enough to simply be so pro-something that you become anti something else (without negative personality traits like racists), so maybe she had an experience when younger that really showed her that the computer that talks to her wasn’t alive and over time those two perspectives created the riff that we see when she meets Data. So close to your explanation I guess lol

Mind you it’s been a minute since I watched tng.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

There’s still scarcity in the Federation, just not for the basic necessities of life (food, shelter, clothing, entertainment).

Not everyone gets their own Château Picard! Not everyone gets to be a starship captain!

Starfleet examinations are brutally hard. There is plenty of incentive for people to cheat to get ahead.

[–] Blibly@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Maybe she's just robophobe. Can't fix that shit

[–] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Building her entire personality around being a biological entity... echoes of TERFdom.

[–] mx_smith@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

And actually she is a closeted robosexual.

[–] texture@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

shes so mean *cries

[–] BillyClark@piefed.social 36 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Honestly, refusing to call a person the name (and pronouns) that they wish to be called by is very much a big thing in society today.

Dr. Pulaski thinks Data is a lesser being who is not worthy of the same consideration she would give to her human colleagues, and I think that about sums up why everybody hates her.

[–] Wataba@sh.itjust.works 15 points 2 days ago

It lasted all of this episode, which seems to be the only one people remember.

Her criticism of Data in Elementary was that he was effectively playing a game with the whole script memorised, and needed something actually new to be challenged by.

And then in Peak Performance, she's the one encouraging him to take a shot at challenging Kolrami in his game.

Like Bones, she's the negative reinforcement, except people seem to forgive him for constantly hurling racial remarks at Spock. When again, the disdain Pulaski had for Data lasts all of one episode.

I was legit happy when she got that contagious progeria disease. >.>

[–] shyguyblue@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago (2 children)
[–] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

It really bothers me that we've landed on the phrase clanker when toaster was already available.

[–] 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 days ago

Listen here you little shit...

[–] Sxan@piefed.zip 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I love she's still using a Vic 20.

[–] SharkWeek@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 days ago

This series was released in, what, 1988? So that would be an Amiga, the superior computing platform of the last century.

[–] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Truly, the progenitor Karen.

[–] SarahValentine@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

What we have today, what we despise, is not AI. It's not people or anything close to it, no matter what the marketing BS says. Data is people. Pulaski is just being a bigot.

Data is people.

Just like Soylent Green!

[–] 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Data is people

How many people?

[–] SarahValentine@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

At this point in canon? At least three.

[–] 14th_cylon@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 days ago

i am not sure multiple androidality disorder counts, but i'll still give you point for clever answer 😆