Those Illogical Human Emotions
I’ve been a fan of Star Trek since my teen years. Recently I was watching the move “Star Trek: Generations”, the one where Captain Picard seeks the help of a supposedly dead Captain Kirk to stop Dr. Soran from destroying a star system so he can enter the Nexus, a mysterious energy ribbon.
One of the storylines takes up where the series left off about Lt. Commander Data's endeavor to become more human. As usual, when Data makes an attempt to tell a joke, nobody except him finds it funny. So, when Dr. Crusher encourages Data to get into the spirit of things at the celebration for Worf's promotion, he shoves her into the ocean. When no one is amused, especially Dr. Crusher, Data decides it's time to give his emotion chip a try.
Much to his delight, Data can experience genuine emotions. However, it's not long before things go terribly wrong because he is unable to control them. On a mission with his best friend Geordi La Forge they come under attack and the once rational and logical Data is curled up in a corner whimpering in fear.
Later, back aboard the Enterprise, Data begs Picard to deactivate him until the chip can be removed. Picard refuses, telling Data that learning to control emotions is part of being human.
Despite the fact of what Spock often said of his race the Vulcans, they do have emotions. In one episode of Star Trek: Voyager, Tuvok explains that Vulcans' natural emotions are "erratic and volatile"; if Vulcans do not strongly repress emotions, they can get violently angry in an instant.
Learning to control and deal with emotions is a lesson I keep having problems with. Many times I've wished that I could just deactivate my emotions and not feel anything. At times I have really envied Mr. Spock and Data, but emotions are part of what makes us human and as Picard told Data, we have to learn to live with and control them.
If a person was truly unemotional, how could he relate to anyone? How could he care about anything? Where would be the joy of falling in love? The delight in seeing a baby's smile? How could we find pleasure in watching children grow up? How could we even care about them?
As Captain Kirk said in Star Trek V, "Damn it, Bones, you're a doctor. You know that pain and guilt can't be taken away with a wave of a magic wand. They're the things we carry with us, the things that make us who we are. If we lose them, we lose ourselves! I don't want my pain taken away! I need my pain!!"
Thanks Captain Kirk for that lesson in those illogical human emotions!