star trek - Data being intimate with Tasha Yar - why was Data built with this capability?

Pardon the inherent ickiness of asking how an android and a human...become intimate, but this has genuinely puzzled me since I watched the Next Generation episode "The Naked Now." The summary for the episode on Memory Alpha states:

She asks how "functional" Data is; he replies he is fully functional and is programmed in many "techniques," a wide variety of pleasuring. She leads him to her bedroom, where Data gives a programmed smile. The door closes.

I'm not asking for specific details because, honestly, ick-factor, but:

What does "fully functional" really mean?

Why was Data built to perform a "wide variety of pleasuring"?

Also, I will not be offended by close votes. This question is insane.

Answer

It is addressed again:

From Wikipedia,

Although stories about Yar are not normally connected to Data, the issue of Data's sexual encounter with Yar amid a ship-wide intoxication during the episode "The Naked Now" is recounted in stories about Data. Data carries a hologram of Yar with him and during the trial regarding his rights in the second season episode "The Measure of a Man," he admitted to the incident with the words "We were intimate."
_Wikipedia

As far as why he was built in this way, Dr. Soong made sure everything else worked (hair growing, et cetera), it makes sense that he would also supply Data with his own "special purpose."

It's also possible that it's part of Dr. Soong's attempt to make an android so realistic that he does not know he's an android, as referenced in the Season 7 episode "Inheritance."

Comments

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