Beware of Androids Bearing Gifts

When Captain James Kirk, at our insistence, first ventured to Mudd on 4513.3, we offered him several gifts. Kirk refused them, professing to believe they would harm the Federation. He placed the planet of Mudd on interdiction, preventing any interaction between Mudd and the galaxy at large.

The androids believe the interdiction was in part due to feelings of revenge or spite on the part of James Kirk. He liked neither the way we borrowed his starship, nor Milord Harcourt Mudd. While these feelings are understandable, they should not indefinitely form a basis for interaction between societies.

The purpose of this note is to offer again our gifts, and to evaluate if they are indeed a threat to the Federation of Planets. The Council's Committees on war, science, medicine, and law are thus being given time to form opinions on the gifts, in preparation for the full debate in Council. This unit requests each Committee to formulate an opinion on the issues in their domain, and to either prepare a paper or be ready to state their position in Council.

The Androids of Mudd provided the Enterprise's engineer a matter-antimatter power lab, which fit on a table top, far more compact and efficient than the Federation warp cores of the time. While the Federation in the last century has advanced in power systems considerably, I believe we could significantly increase the efficiency of Starfleet's next generation ships, and offer upgrade options for older generations. It would be an evolutionary change, however, not revolutionary.

We do not believe Federation culture would be impacted by this. We would be moving the Federation in a direction already chosen. Our concerns are more economic. If handled poorly, the technology transfer could give significant advantages to one ship building facility or another. We would like recommendations from the trade council on how to transfer the technology without overly disrupting current competition, while at the same time building for Mudd a supply of foreign currency.

We are concerned that the technology would be used primarily for warships. Current Federation technology is sufficient for peaceful use. We regret very much transferring a technology which organics will use only to slay one another. However, the situation with the Borg and the Dominion leads us to believe that the transfer is appropriate.

We offered the Enterprise's doctor a medical lab. While medicine is not my specialty, I believe we will have little to offer the more medically advanced Federation cultures. Our expert systems may be of considerable assistance to others.

Our most significant contribution would be in the area of cyborging. We can replace most damaged organic parts with artificial replacements. We should be able to duplicate the enhancements made by the Borg on their biological units, without the mind alteration, and in many cases without altering the external appearance of the unit.

The most extreme example of cyborging is a whole body replacement. We offered to perform one for the Enterprise's communications officer. As we can maintain an organic brain indefinitely, we quoted her an approximate life expectancy of 500,000 years should she accept the operation. She was also impressed that her considerable physical beauty would not degrade rapidly with time. She would gain the benefits of our increased physical strength as well.

I must emphasize that while our sensors are roughly as capable as the human nervous system, they would not be fully compatible. More acute hearing and sight might not be considered full compensation for considerably less scent capability, and no sense of taste. A time of adjustment is necessary.

Increasing the life span of any species to this degree would have severe impact on the local culture. As the procedure sustains the life of sentient beings, the Laws of Robotics compel us to offer it. As it impacts the local culture strongly, the Prime Directive seems to suggest planetary governments might ban this gift. However, such a ban is the equivalent of an early termination of their citizen's life. The Guarantees may come into play, as it is not clear governments can ban life prolonging medical techniques. The legal and cultural implications are thus serious.

I find the final gift the androids offered the Enterprise somewhat embarrassing. Milord Mudd was perhaps the only individual of his time more oversexed than James T Kirk. As a result, most android classes built during his reign are human female in appearance, and - as my Soong cousins would phrase it - 'fully functional'. The androids of Mudd find pleasure in giving pleasure to others.

This unit has come to understand with it's last reprogramming that such behavior is a shameful thing. However, to deny an android the performance of a designed in function is not proper. This unit has spent considerable processing time weighing the negative feedback blocking such behavior against incidents stored in memory. This unit has not been able to satisfactorily resolve this difficulty. Resolution must be sought before significant numbers of recent model androids are released to serve the Federation.

There is an upcoming vote scheduled to release the current interdiction on the planet Mudd. As we are designed to serve, our culture is stagnant and can not normally progress without someone to serve. From my understanding of the Prime Directive, the Starfleet blockade of Mudd is thus blatantly illegal. Should the Council fail to release the interdiction, this unit will move to the Court.

At a later time, Mudd will quite likely seek full membership in the Federation. Should we gain membership, I believe we will be free to trade with any other member society.

Between these two votes, the Counsel might want to consider if any of the technologies are indeed as dangerous to the welfare of it's citizens as Kirk proposed. I do not believe the power technology will be a problem. Extreme forms of cyborging, life extension, and android sexuality are likely the key issues of debate. However, given the Guarantees, it is not clear that the Council has the power to regulate the life span or sexual orientation of it's citizens.

Again, this unit seeks opinion from the war, technology, medical and law committees on these issues.