Trekkin' in the 90s - Spirit Folk and Artificial Sentience

We take a break from the world of video games to launch a new Pilot that's all about Star Trek series from the 90s. In each episode, we'll take one episode from either The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, or Voyager, break it down and use it as a launch pad for for an interesting discussion about some topic related to the episode.

We're starting with an episode from what's arguably everyone's least favorite Trek of the three, Voyager. And we're starting with an episode that's not particularly well-liked with "Spirit Folk." While the episode is not great, it does give us a chance to explore the ways in which Star Trek has recognized the person-hood of artificial life forms and the ethics of using technology that seems capable of mass producing sentient beings at will. 

This is a series we'd like to continue doing in the future. We'll let you know the next episode we're going to tackle on the show and all of these Star Trek series are available on Netflix if you want to follow along.