Because they were concerned about leaving a "back door" that would allow the villianous species of choice to hack into the system ... the way James T. Kirk hacked into the Klingon ship in one of the movies. ;-)
ETA: replaced "Klingons" with "villianous species of choice"
Data would have been considered a security risk if he were directly connected in some form to the Enterprise's systems. He was a foreign body, not built or specced by Starfleet, and therefore a source of potential harm to the systems.
See, I think they did have wireless connectivity though. Look at the medical tricorders. They hold up a small object in one hand and run it over the body, but they look at their medical tricorder, which is in the other hand. They've got to be wirelessly connected.
It would have been a waste of his abilities. As a sentient, autonomous android, he could function in any capacity they needed him. Why tie him down to just one ship?
The real reason is because Brent Spiner not interacting with the scenery doesn't make for interesting television.
In-universe, it's entirely possible his positronic brain wasn't built to allow for that sort of thing... either because he was a prototype without that capability or because it would run counter to his purpose of emulating human experience. Being a unique individual, they may not have even tried upgrading him in case doing so would damage an architecture they barely understood to begin with... this all assuming Data would have wanted such an upgrade in the first place. He did seem to prefer tactile experiences like painting with actual paint and owning a cat as opposed to digital art and owning a holographic representation of a cat.
The real question is why didn't anyone save Barclay's plans for the telepathic machine interface that he built in the holodeck?
Actually, the closes they got to integrating an Artificial Crewman with the ship's systems were: a: The Interface device that Dwight Schultz's character Barkley developed after being exposed to a higher order technology, and b: the Emergency Command Officer Hologram feature Doctor Joe devised on Voyager (Joe being the name the EMH finally chose in the last episode's future.
Hell, Data took over the Enterprise, what, 3 times. Imagine if he could just directly drive the thing with his positronic mind? Data yawns while imitating humans and the damn saucer section decouples at warp speed.
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jpskewedthrone) wrote2010-10-01 08:07 pm
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I will never see it without thinking of your post.
;)
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ETA: replaced "Klingons" with "villianous species of choice"
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Now, if they gave him his own ship, THAT should totally have wireless access.
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My other theory: in the Star Trek universe, wireless connectivity was never invented.
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In-universe, it's entirely possible his positronic brain wasn't built to allow for that sort of thing... either because he was a prototype without that capability or because it would run counter to his purpose of emulating human experience. Being a unique individual, they may not have even tried upgrading him in case doing so would damage an architecture they barely understood to begin with... this all assuming Data would have wanted such an upgrade in the first place. He did seem to prefer tactile experiences like painting with actual paint and owning a cat as opposed to digital art and owning a holographic representation of a cat.
The real question is why didn't anyone save Barclay's plans for the telepathic machine interface that he built in the holodeck?
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You Did Ask
a: The Interface device that Dwight Schultz's character Barkley developed after being exposed to a higher order technology, and
b: the Emergency Command Officer Hologram feature Doctor Joe devised on Voyager (Joe being the name the EMH finally chose in the last episode's future.
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