Sambeg Raj Subedi
ENGL 21007-S
Prof. Jesse Rice-Evans
Weekly Assign#3
02/18/2019 

The Measure of a Man, Star Trek, Episode 9 was interesting to watch as it mainly focuses on an issue related to human and technology. Data, a unique character in this movie, is a machine which completely looks like a human and is constructed in such a way that, it is capable of learning, responding and making decisions. These capabilities drew the attention of Maddox and his friend Riker. They aimed to disassemble that creature and make a study in order to recreate more of such machines. This episode moves around a central idea, which is to whether allow machines to have the freedom to use their rights or not, but finally ends up providing them rights, allowing him(Data) to refuse the proposal to disassemble and make an experiment on him.
Though in this movie, a machine was given the full freedom of its right, I don’t believe in the real world, we should allow machines to make the decision of their own. These machines are operated by software and algorithms, which is developed by humans. So, it’s not necessarily true that an operation performed by machine will be 100% correct and reliable. For example, in a newspaper article published in 2016, It was mentioned that predPol, which is an algorithm designed software used to predict when and where crimes would take place, was found intentionally targeting black communities. This shows how software, algorithms and AI are being sexist and racist. Now, the AI system has conquered almost everyplace. Developers are using several algorithms in software to silently withdraw the personal data and information from the user and use in an AI system for their personal interest. For example, we might sometime wonder how Facebook is able to display ads of our interest such as a shoe, phone and bags brand we like the most. Its all because of the AI system which is able to read our brain and, displaying such ads will unknowingly lead the user to buy that product.