What next for The Doctor?

[thelordharry]

After Endgame, I mean. I've always wondered if, on arriving home, because of the sheer amount of medical knowledge both pre-programmed AND accrued through the journey, along with honed, 'soft' skills as well (compassion/bedside manner/humanity etc) if Star Fleet considered a way to duplicate the Doctor en masse? It seems as if a resource like that is very, very storage space/resource intensive and therefore, you could only really afford to have one per starship. Creating duplicates wasn't an option as that would require double the storage space etc....but now he's back, presumably he could be duplicated at will? Surely he'd be infinitely more capable than both any biological or artificial doctor, regardless of what 'mark' they were (Don't even get me started on that 'thing' on the Prometheus).

[Tsukiyumi]

...(Don't even get me started on that 'thing' on the Prometheus).

Yeah, when we weren't watching, I'm sure he was off snorting some holographic cocaine...

[Aaron]

Are you expendable, Commander
Maddox? Never mind. A single
Data is a curiosity, a wonder,
but a thousand Datas, doesn't that
become a new race? And aren't
we going to be judged as a species
about how we treat these
creations? If they're expendable,
disposable, aren't we? What is
Data?

[Teaos]

I would imagin he became a spokes person for holographic rights.

He may not want to be copied. Takes away from his individuality.

[Aaron]

Creating exact replicas of the Doctor brings up the exact same issue as with Data in The Measure of a Man, your creating a race of obviously sapient machines to be your servants. Which is just going to be pointless, as the precedent was already set that they'd have to be set free.

[Mark]

Well, with his mobile emitter.........I just naturally assumed he would join Dr. Zimmerman on Jupiter Station.

[Teaos]

They'd drive each other crazy.

[colmquinn]

They'd drive each other crazy.

Great idea for a sitcom, "The Oddly similar couple"

[thelordharry]

Fair enough about effectively cloning. I think we all know the UFP's views on this subject but how about putting it this way then. It just seems a shame to me that every EMH on every star ship has to effectively start from scratch and be nowhere near as 'good' a doctor as VOY's doctor. That being said, I guess The Doctor on VOY was an unusual case as all other starships have biological doctors and the EMH is just that, for emergencies. I just can't help thinking that in some way, the Federation is missing out on a trick to effectively make it's artificial Doctors more effective.

[Teaos]

Maybe they could just download a bit of medical information out of his programme with his premision.

It would be like him writing a book, but instant.

[thelordharry]

Maybe they could just download a bit of medical information out of his programme with his premision.

It would be like him writing a book, but instant.

One way of looking at it! It begs the point, if by then it were possible to tap into a person's brain and download 'useful' information, would it be allowed? Teaching is one thing, downloading and uploading another! I guess even Vulcan mind melds are an example of this...

[Tsukiyumi]

They'd drive each other crazy.

Great idea for a sitcom, "The Oddly similar couple"

[Mark]

Wow, the wheels just started turning in my head on that one. I bet the right writers could ALMOST make that work.

[Mikey]

Medical knowledge isn't the issue. That can be transferred in databases. The Doctor is unique in that his extended operation allowed him to develop a personality (several, in fact.) There's no need to copy that into any other EMH, much less a right to.

[Sionnach Glic]

You know, just once I'd like to see the Feds creating a robot or computer program that doesn't become sapient.