Starting with Encounter at Farpoint, at the very start of the series, when Riker first meets Data in the holodeck, Data, when asked if he considers himself superior to humans, says, "I am superior, Sir, in many ways, but I would give it all up to be human."
He has a desire, a want, and a longing to be human. Isn't this an emotion in itself? There's no reason or need for him to have such a desire. If it's programmed into him, he would be able to find it somewhere in his memory and perhaps (if it's not read-only) re-write it.
Where could this desire come from if it's not from envy or longing or some other type of emotion? Is it possible he had this and some other simple emotions all along?
Answer
This has always bothered me. It is clear that Data does not experience immediate emotional states (fear, anger, sadness etc.) like we do. But he does appear to have long term motivations: a need for companionship (Tasha, Geordi, Spot), a need to live up to an ideal (humanity), self preservation (the Maddox trial), curiosity etc.
He also uses words such as "rewarding" and "distressing/disturbing". When he once lost his memory of being an android while attempting to recover a radioactive fragment, he exhibited behavior that could easily be labeled compassionate, sans his usual android-like expositions.
The long term motivations appear to be part of his programming that is meant to drive him to learn and develop, without which he would always remain as he was first programmed by Soong. The rest are simulations meant to lubricate his interactions with humans (such as the "modesty subroutine").
But until the emotion chip came along, Data never perceived emotions like we do. His programming merely suggested the actions/dialogue appropriate to the situation and he performed them; the intermediate step of feeling was absent.
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