For this blog analysis we watched Marjorie Prime and “Measure of a Man” from Star Trek: The Next Generation. While both of these deal with memories they both deal with them in different ways, making them unique compared to one another.
In the movie Marjorie Prime we initially follow Marjorie who’s deteriorating health and mind has caused her daughter and Son-in-law to give her a “Prime” who Marjorie makes into a younger version of her late husband. This “Prime” is an AI who Marjorie has to speak to and teach in order for it to become more like her husband. She tells him stories of their past so that he can become more like her husband and gain these same memories. Later when she passes her daughter obtains a Prime version of Marjorie and does the same thing. Until finally the son-in-law obtains a prime and creates a version of her. Throughout the movie the cycle of creating a prime continues throughout, with the characters creating the prime version of their loved ones and using their versions of the memories to teach them. I say their versions of their memories because even though they may have experienced the same things people always remember events and small details differently. The version of events that these characters are teaching these primes are the versions from their point of view. So they can leave certain details out and accidentally add things in and since these primes have no mental connection to the person that they are supposed to be they will never be able to tell the difference.
In the episode “Measure of a Man” from Star Trek: The Next Generation; Maddox wants to examine Data and take him apart to do so. He expresses to Data that the memories that he currently has will still be there; however, Data believes that while the memories will still be there, the feeling from those memories will not be. And so Data rejects this idea before being told by Maddox that he is just the property of Starfleet and will be transferred so that Maddox can examine him. And so believing Data to be a person of his own rather than just the property of Starfleet they have a hearing about what it means to be human and whether or not Data qualifies as more than just an “It”.
