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[–]ebookitChief Petty Officer 2 points3 points ago


First you would have to define what 'death' means to a positronic brain based android like Data or Lore. It would have to include destroying the body and the mind/memories, because if the body is destroyed, the memories can be copied to a new body like B4, and then Data or Lore would be alive again in B4's body.

If it is not death or an execution, what is it? Possibly an attack that disables the body, even one that dismembers it. But is it possible to put that body back together and turn it back on, so it can function again? If this is the case then it is not dead or disabled or destroyed at all. It is simply turned off or in a state of suspended animation like a human might be placed into. So that Lore can be reactivated and then stand trial if this is the case. It is basically like an android jail to be deactivated and put into an 'off' mode and disassembled and put into storage.

Now if Data destroyed Lore's memory and destroyed the body, then it would be an execution and Lore is now dead. How can you reactivate Lore if there is no body left to activate and all of his mind is deleted and destroyed so it cannot be fully recovered.

[–]gettinsloppyin10fwdEnsign[S] 2 points3 points ago


But what if they have no intention of ever reactivating Lore? Surely, if he could be reactivated but is never reactivated, that's more than a prison sentence? If a human was put into stasis and never brought out of it, would you consider that a prison sentence or what is essentially a death sentence? We're never given any reason to believe Lore is ever reactivated.