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In the TNG episode Manhunt, we see that Lwaxana Troi can't read the mind of a hologram (as there is no mind there to read!), but her telepathic abilities are well-renowned. Hence, could she possibly read Data's thoughts? If so, would she read thoughts like those of a human, or would they be lines of code?

Paul D. Waite
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Often Right
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3 Answers3

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Not normally, but once he has the emotion chip it's uncertain.

From TNG 7x01, Descent, Part II:

Deanna Troi: Data, I can sense feelings in you.
Data: Yes. My brother has made that possible.

This means that despite their robotic nature, when Soong-type androids feel emotions it can be sensed by a half-Betazoid - the same as with regular biological beings.

However, Data didn't install the emotion chip until the movie Generations, so we don't know what a pure Betazoid, like Lwaxana Troi, would have been able to sense from him.

Izkata
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    +1| excellent point raised about the impact the emotion chip has on reading emotions, although I doubt it would impact the ability to read 'thoughts' as such from Data, merely just emotions – Often Right Apr 06 '14 at 01:35
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    That development always felt like a giant hack to me... No disrespect to artificial intelligence, but if normal positronic thoughts can't be sensed, then emotional ones shouldn't be able to be sensed either. Eh, who am I kidding? Telepathy! – Dacio Apr 06 '14 at 02:09
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    A wizard did it. – James Sheridan Apr 06 '14 at 03:41
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    @Dacio Emotions are instinctive, while telepathy is portrayed to use a learned language. They show up in the brains of us humans (in an MRI scan, for example) in very different ways, so a positronic brain may be able to mimic one but not the other, and/or the emotion chip could act as a bridge to allow Betazoids to sense both... Purely a guess, though. – Izkata Apr 06 '14 at 06:55
  • I have a hard time believing that classic telepathy is scientifically possible beyond say a few meters and would probably be limited by obstructions. – Mark Rogers Apr 06 '14 at 21:04
  • I disagree regarding the need for the emotion chip. It's not a 'hardware limitation' as such, as demonstrated in 'The Schizoid Man'. Ira Graves transfers his mind into Data's hardware, and his emotions are then detectable by Deanna: Episode quote: RIKER: Do you know what that was all about? TROI: Jealousy. Intense, burning jealousy. A human emotion, and it was coming from Data. – Baldrick Apr 07 '14 at 02:45
  • @Baldrick He didn't have the emotion chip in Descent, either. I barely remember that episode, but unless a full-blooded Betazoid was in it, Troi's limitations still stand. – Izkata Apr 07 '14 at 02:55
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    @Izkata: I believe a consistent interpretation would be that whenever Data is experiencing emotions (chip, mind transfer, whatever), they are detectable by Betazoids. But there's no evidence that any Betazoid (half or otherwise) is able to read his thoughts. – Baldrick Apr 07 '14 at 03:00
  • I personally have always considered these lines non-canon, since they don't make a lick of sense! – Kevin Laity Sep 14 '16 at 16:50
  • @KevinLaity Why not? As long as the electrical impulses were in a familiar-enough pattern for the Betazoid brain to interpret, I see no reason it couldn't work. See also How could Troi “sense” emotions in Data? – Izkata Sep 14 '16 at 18:24
  • It seems perfectly reasonable that Soong may be able to develop a thinking, rational "brain" that works nothing like a biological brain does (hence both providing Data his unusual abilities and characteristics while at the same time preventing him being "read" by telepaths) but that in order to provide emotions (which are at once a much more primitive and less understandable thing than the higher functions exhibited by Data) he may have to resort to biological mimicry to implement them, thus allowing the emotions to be detected by biological telepathy. This makes perfect sense to me. – Jules Aug 23 '18 at 15:00
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No. We see in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3. Episode 20 "Tin Man" that even the most powerful of Betazoids, Tam Elbrun, cannot read Data. Hence it would be extremely unlikely that Lwaxana would be able to read Data.

From the Wiki site:

"En route, Elbrun finds it impossible to filter out the thoughts of the Enterprise crew, but when meeting Data, he is puzzled by finding what he calls 'absence of mind', but also finds relief in developing a friendship with Data, who, being an artificial lifeform, has no thoughts to be read."

Wiki Tin Man Episode

Memory Alpha Tin Man Episode

beichst
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The basis of Betazoid mind-reading is empathetic reading, "feeling" another person's thinking, and is a purely biological empathy, sensing the psychic "expression" in the same way that we might "read" a person's expression and body language. On that basis, an AI life-form, having no psychic presence, would be therefore unreadable, regardless of any sophisticated emotion chips (which are, afterall, just a simulation).

Aragond
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    How would you explain the handful of instances when Troi did sense emotion from Data, then? – Izkata Apr 07 '14 at 04:03