Emotional Tribbles for Data

How to Describe an Emotion

Descent – S6E26

In this episode the Borg attack the Federation, but this time they’re acting as individuals rather than a collective. Data experiences his first emotions while fighting them. Since studying and writing about emotions is my specialty, I will not attempt any summary of the episode, and, instead, comment on the dialogue that focuses on emotion.

This episode opens up with Data playing poker with Stephen Hawking playing himself, Isaac Newton, and Einstein. The scene portrays the personalities of each of the characters; Stephen as amiable, Isaac as an arrogant boor, and Einstein also as amiable. The point of playing, as Data says, was, “When I play poker with my shipmates, it often appears to be a useful forum for exploring the different facets of humanity. I was curious to see how three of history’s greatest minds would interact in this setting. So far, it is proved to be most illuminating.”

The next scene shows the Enterprise being attacked by the Borg. In defending themselves from the Borg attack, Data, with his hand around the neck of one of the Borg, repeatedly says, “Stop it.” and is scowling. Shortly thereafter, we see his closed fist slowly releasing and Riker says, “Data, are you alright?” Data responds with a yes, sir. Riker asks: “What happened?” Data says with a confused look on his face, “I got angry.” He asks to be relieved of duty. In the next scene Data and Geordi attempt to describe emotions.

Data: I believe I’ve experienced my first emotion.

Geordi: No offense, Data, but how would you know a flash of anger from some odd kind of power surge.

Data: You are correct in that I have no frame of reference to confirm my hypothesis. In fact, I am unable to provide a verbal description of the experience. Perhaps you could describe how it feels to be angry. I could then use that as a reference.

Geordi attempting to describe anger: When I feel angry, first I uh first I feel hostile.

Data: Could you describe feeling hostile?

Geordi: Yeah, it’s like feeling belligerent, combative.

Data: Could you describe feeling angry without referring to other feelings?

Geordi (faltering): No. I guess I can’t. I just (sic) feel angry.

Data: That was my experience as well. I simply felt angry.

This dialogue portrays that we (human beings, as well as emotional androids) just ‘know’ what our feelings are even though we may not always be able to describe them.

Sensations and Interpretations

In another scene with Counsellor Troi, Data explores trying to experience emotion at will. He chooses everything but anger. Troi asks why.

Data: Anger is a negative emotion. I wanted to concentrate on something more positive.

Troi: Data, feelings aren’t positive and negative. They simply exist. It’s what we do with those feelings that becomes good or bad. For example, feeling angry about an injustice could lead someone to take a positive action to correct it.

This is a concept that most of us have difficulty with, including me. Feelings aren’t positive and negative? A distinction here: The experience of emotions may be pleasant or unpleasant and the judgment of feelings may be positive or negative. What I have discovered is that experiencing a basic emotion can be pleasant (joy) or unpleasant (anxiety). How we judge ourselves in light of having an emotion is another matter. 

Both pleasant and unpleasant emotions give us information that is useful to guide us in making decisions. They tell us what we need or want, what to move towards or away from, what our values are, what gives us meaning, about how we perceive ourselves or others, and understanding our beliefs about life. Emotions 'drive the bus' or the Enterprise or our body. We can let them drive us without being conscious or we can develop recognition of the information they contain. Understanding the messages in emotions and acting on them appropriately is described in my first book (Vanderpol, 2005). According to a neuroscientist, Candace Pert, emotions are chemical messengers of information (Pert, 1997).

Rumi says, Let yourselves be quietly drawn by the deeper pull of what you truly love. How would you know what you truly love? Why, emotions, of course! When something excites you or inspires you, when it is a pleasant feeling, that would be a clue that you are headed in the direction of your calling, your gifts, your talents, and what gives you purpose and meaning, what you value. And I agree with
Troi. It’s what we do with those feeling that becomes good or bad. How we act on our emotions have consequences that help or harm you.

Decoding the Message

Data and Troi continue...

Data continues: But my study of humanity indicates there are some emotions that are harmful, such as jealousy or hatred.

Troi: Those are very strong emotions and you’re right. Very little good can come from them. But I don’t think that an exploration of anger need necessarily to hatred or malice.

All emotions have a function. Emotions in their pure form are messages, signals. Anger signals boundary violation. Fear signals danger, psychological or physical. Sadness signals loss. Joy signals fulfillment. All emotions have valuable information.

I disagree with Troi that very little good can come from jealousy. My personal experience of jealousy that I didn’t listen to in my marriage revealed longstanding infidelity. I had a feeling but couldn’t believe it of him and doubted me, so I ignored it. A decade of my life and health went down the tubes. I could have been writing this book! It was a message that said Listen. Something is not right here. Protect yourself. I paid a high emotional cost for not listening.

However, jealousy (and its close cousin envy) can also be a message of low self-regard breeding insecurity and thinking that the 'other' doesn't think you're good enough and you will lose them. In that case, the message may be saying that you do not own your inherent worth and your good qualities. And envy may be telling you that you are not following your calling. I think that much good can come from jealousy and envy if we decode the message. And this leads right into the next part of Data's curiosity about emotions.

Data continues, But what if it does, Counsellor? What if those are the only emotions I am capable of experiencing? Would that not make me a bad person?

Ah, here we are again. At the crux of the matter. I think this is where we shy away from looking at ourselves and what our emotions are telling us. If they provide information about ourselves that we don’t like, or that they make us feel like a bad person, this is where denial sets in. Here is where removing self-judgment and replacing it with self-compassion allows us to look more honestly at ourselves. A practice worth well, um, practicing, especially to counteract cultural messages of harsh judgment and shame if we are not 'a certain way'.

What if we operated on the premise that we are all noble human beings just growing into our nobility? Our growth and nobility begin with embracing who we are as we are right now with compassion and kindness.

The Geek Emotional Code

But aren't we geeks supposed to be cool? Doesn't that mean we're not supposed to show emotions, or maybe even have them? That we're detached, that we can handle it all? Bullshit. We're human. We have emotions. We may push them away to look cool, to remain true to our logical nature. But we're missing half the picture. Okay. So, here's the vision. What if the geek emotional culture said we're bright, quick, logical AND integrated. Whatever emotions we have, we allow ourselves to have them, listen to the information they have for us, and express that in who we are. Would you be willing to use feeling words in your vocabulary. On my website (www.johannavanderpol.com) I compiled a list of more than 400 feeling words. What if we used them?

What if it was cool in our culture to have a geeknacular that included the recognition and expression of emotions, straight up, the other half of who we are? It is a culture change, I grant you that. But I think we would be way cooler if we could honor more fully this important part of what makes us human. There is much creativity, innovation, and deeper connections to be had with our fellow geeks and other humans as we expand into our emotional nature.

I wonder, what are the things that hold us back? What are the things that hold you back? These are the questions, that, onced aired, open the pathway to moving forward. Please post your comments to this question at the bottom of this post. I am curious.

Your Emotional Nemisis (mohaha)

And another morsel of worth:

Data: When I think back on the incident, I realize that I was also experiencing another sensation. It was not the same as anger. But I think it was an emotion.

Troi: When exactly did you feel this other emotion?

Data: It was just after I had killed the Borg. I looked down at his body. I felt something.

Troi: If you had to give this feeling a name, what would you call it?

Data: I believe it was (sic) pleasure. (du, du, dum music).

When have you felt pleasure at causing pain to another because of what they had done to you? What does it do to you when you see that in yourself? How do you feel about yourself? Personally, I have seen this quality in myself and I don’t like it. I used to feel ashamed, but now that I am more compassionate with myself these days, I look at it as information. I still feel uncomfortable that I want to cause another human being pain, when they have caused me pain, because it is in conflict with my principle of wanting the best for others. I want to think of myself as more enlightened or evolved than someone who takes revenge on another, or manipulates them through punishment. However, by being able to be compassionate with myself, I am able to look more deeply and more honestly at myself and see where I would like to grow or change something about myself. And, I just notice these qualities in myself. I am not gripped to act on them. It just serves as information to me that inspires me to continue to work on myself. I am sure that we all have these places in our psyche that morph into a thousand different forms.

All this dialogue in Star Trek about emotions touch on very important points about the messages that emotions have for our learning and growth.

Now, geeks get to mine the depths of Star Trek in this book for the dialogue that exemplifies the knowledge coming from the latest research in positive psychology (the study of what’s right with us) and emotional intelligence.

Understanding your emotions

Understanding your emotions is part of the RHUME model that I describe in my first book (Vanderpol, 2005). Star Trek gives us a dialogue here about the experience and understanding of emotions. This is a great spring board for us geeks to use to start understanding our emotions and looking more closely at the information they are trying to convey.

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Pert, C. (2003). Molecules of emotion: Why you feel the way you feel. Toronto: Scribner.
Vanderpol, J. (2005). Honouring Your Emotions: Why it Matters. Cowichan Bay, BC: Nine Lives Publishing.