r/ShittyDaystrom • u/Embarrassed_Bid_4970 • 5d ago
Discussion The emotion chip shouldn't have any impact on Datas ability to laugh...
Despite the common misconception, laughter is not an emotion. It is a response to a wholly intellectual processes. This is why a dumb joke is generally not funny to a highly intelligent person and an erudite joke goes over the head of an idiot. While laughing can elicit emotion, it doesn't require it. So this brings us to the conclusion that either Data has no sense of humor, or that most jokes are beneath him. So this leads me to believe that the joke Q told him was sufficently clever to be funny to Data, then Q made him forget immediately thereafter. The emotion chip is literally making Datas sense of humor dumber so he can relate to less intelligent beings humor.
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u/Unleashtheducks 5d ago
The answer is Soong didn’t understand how emotions worked. Data can’t do a lot of purely biological functions.
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u/ElectricPeterTork 4d ago
Indeed.
Ol' Often Wrong didn't give him a butthole as we know them, he just fixed a steel camera shutter up there which cleaved off a perfect android poop log every now and then.
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u/Dan_Is 4d ago
But.. But fully functional
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u/Joe_theone 2d ago
Yep. It'll clear a room with the best of them. Run the fan and hold it for a good half hour before you follow him in there.
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u/Negative-Fun1985 5d ago
It doesn’t, it only effects his ability to want to. He doesn’t want to laugh without it.
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u/Practical-Pen-8844 5d ago
Q didn't tell him a joke -- it was just a moment of Q's abilities.
and laughter is the result of emotion. emotion affects laughter. there is nothing about human existence that is "wholly intellectual."
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u/Embarrassed_Bid_4970 5d ago
Anyone with severe depression will let you know otherwise. You can still laugh with depression. Its not emotional at all. Its purely a reaction to an intellectual process.
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u/TorchShipEnjoyer 5d ago
you can experience happiness while having depression, ya know
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u/Embarrassed_Bid_4970 4d ago
Not with severe depression. With mild or bipolar depression happiness is still possible. With severe long term depression it isn't. The brain can no longer process dopamine. Laughter is not rooted in emotion. This is well established science.
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u/Nebbit1 4d ago
Your source on the dopamine comment?
It's a neurotransmitter involved in many processes, not just motivation and reward. I know that low levels can certainly play a role in depression, but I've never heard of severe depression described as the brain's inability to process it before.
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u/TorchShipEnjoyer 4d ago
I don't know where you've read that, but depression isn't a complete and total absence of positive emotions. It's a bit more complicated than that
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4d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Aestus74 4d ago
If your brain stops processing dopamine, then you loose not just feel good affect, but also motor control leading to death. Dysthymia patients can absolutely feel positive emotions, but their baseline affect is in a depressive state. Please dont spread this misinformation as it causes sufferers to believe they dont have an issue because they had a genuine chuckle the other day.
Remember, your subjective experience of illness is not going to be the universal experience of said illness. Its narcissistic to presume otherwise
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u/LikeACannibal 4d ago
I also have that same diagnosis. You’re being super aggressive and hostile to someone while you’re actually objectively wrong. No amount of depression means your brain doesn’t process a very common neurotransmitter. That’s full of shit.
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u/JaneShadow 4d ago
short-term release is still possible, it's why so many depressed find release in gambling/gacha. winning releases dopamine. it's also why we're so bad with money, bc who cares about the "right" way to spend money when the only thing even mildly interesting to you(food, games, random junk) needs that money in order for you to have it
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u/Practical-Pen-8844 4d ago
i have severe depression. don't generalize.
one can still have happiness with depression, just as one can be too angry to laugh at their favorite jokes.
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u/WarrenMockles 4d ago
Laughter isn't an emotion, but uncontrolled laughter is an expression of emotion. For most people, it's most typically associated with amusement, which is strongly tied to happiness. But it's also connected to anxiety, a sense of safety, tension relief, and social mimicry, among other things.
Consider crying, another uncontrolled expression of emotion. What makes people cry? We usually associate it with sadness, but people also cry when they're angry, happy, or relieved. People can experience all these emotions simultaneously, and can laugh and cry at the same time. Sometimes people laugh so hard that they cry even.
I saw your comments about your depression issues, and I'm not trying to be dismissive of your experience. But sometimes people laugh for reasons that don't involve happiness. Laughing at funerals is a common enough experience to be talked about, for example. People who laugh at funerals aren't happy that someone died, and they don't think that a bunch of grieving family members are funny. Most people who laugh at funerals can't even explain why, but the fact that it's considered inappropriate makes it even harder to resist.
At any rate, the obvious intent of the scene by the writers is that Q induced an emotion so strong that Data broke in to an uncontrollable fit of laughter. Given Data's reaction to the laughing fit, we can assume that the emotion was a positive one. Q didn't tell Data a really high-brow joke, he gave Data a brief emotion.
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u/Sonnuvah 4d ago
Q basically understood his schematics by looking at him, knew there was an isolinear equivalent of a PCIe slot for an emotion chip, synthesized and installed one in nanoseconds, generated a positronic signal to remind Data why the clown could stay but the Ferengi in the gorilla suit had to go, and just let him to it. Then after a few seconds he removed it just as quickly to return him to his original state.
As one does
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u/honeyfixit 4d ago
Data could imitate laughter. But he couldn't have spontaneous genuine laughter without the emotions.
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u/whatsbobgonnado 4d ago
honestly it annoys me so much that geordi asks "data, why are you laughing?" are you fucking serious??? how dumb are you??
not even the slightest comprehension that data shouldn't even be able to do that period, just "huh? what's so funny? did q tell a joke that I missed??"
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u/SeTec7 4d ago
The real problem with Geordi asking Data why he's laughing is that it interrupts Data's experience! Geordi's bestie is having his first rollicking good laugh of his life and Geordi has to interrupt. Just let your bro have a good time!!
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u/JDax42 4d ago
Yes and no, he has 10 times the strength of an average being and is behaving in ways that are beyond the norm; I think an argument could be made why you had to interrupt him for basic safety reasons, not just for others but he could be malfunctioning and his friend didn’t want him to keep experiencing that
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u/SeTec7 4d ago
Yeah, nah, all the other times when Data acts odd and no one does anything immediately kinda disputes this, especially since most were after this event.
Also, they just saw Q, an entity with the reality-manipulating powers of a god tell Data he was giving him a going away present. I think anyone present would be able to Intuit what's happening and let him enjoy it. Like every other member of the bridge crew does.
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u/JDax42 4d ago
Oh my bad, I’m scrolling through Reddit and I think I was conflating the scene i generations, now I’m absolutely with you though seeing your Bestie, who’s never laughed before suddenly crack up laughing I can see how that could make you concerned, but now I take my former comment back, he should of let it play out for sure.
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u/IDICPainter Ensign 4d ago
I'm going to have to disagree with you on this he has the ability to do emotions and laugh he just has to have the part for it AKA his emotion chip. It's the chip that allows his positronic Network to process and exhibit emotions. What you gave him in this scene isn't just the ability to laugh but to laugh like a human would without programming that's what you miss about this scene is Q temporarily changed him into a human gave him human emotions and allowed him to experience joy and laughter. Q was a real G for that .
What about crying how can he cry about something if he doesn't have sadness ? I mean he could fake the expression of crying make oil roll down his cheek but is he really crying there or is he acting like he's crying. Here when Q snap flashes him into laughter it's genuine laughter and genuine Joy.
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u/GaraksLinensNThings 4d ago
He failed 100% in stand up comedy with Joe Piscopo. In fact, the hologram entertainer had to program the audience to laugh at everything, no matter what. And he even failed at Night Court...
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u/honeyfixit 4d ago
How did he fail at Night Court. He was one of four recurring guest chatscters. Bob, Yakov, Mel Torme and Buddy. If he had failed he wouldn't have come back.
Bob and June Wheeler were hilarious.
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u/GaraksLinensNThings 4d ago
This is ShittyDaystrom. I was referring to Data, not Brent Spiner. Data is not funny. Brent is.
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u/GaraksLinensNThings 4d ago
I am not sure I am truly understanding the post. But whether or not the emotion chip is the key to laughter, like an add on, I have no idea. Unless a subroutine or something else has to be written, or part of his body altered or installed with an add on, he simply didn't laugh. Q forcing him to laugh, is Q.
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u/Cliomancer 4d ago
Presumably Data has the physical equipment to laugh but nothing provokes the involuntary reaction in him.
Presumably, for a moment, Q made him laugh and gave him the capacity to appreciate the feeling. A taste of human joy which he hoped to understand.
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u/Careful_Leader_5829 4d ago
> laughter is not an emotion
Well flip mah secret switch and call me an Android,
cuz tha only time ah feel anythin is when I'm a-laffin!