Somewhere out of the tangled knot that is nature vs. nurture, siblings sharing the same environment and similar genetics can often be polar opposites. One theory suggests that because children within the same family are competing for similar resources and parental attention, they diversify in order to occupy a unique niche. Brothers playing against each other in the same sport would be a parental nightmare, but an athlete and a musician would not cross paths in a tournament. This specialization can then become identity, as we allow ourselves to be defined by the choices we make within the ecosystem that offers them.
While visiting the site where Data was originally found, the Enterprise crew encounter another identical android in the laboratory of Dr. Noonien Soong, Data’s creator. Data’s twin ‘brother’, Lore, claims to have been made after him, and as the more superior model. Later, Lore claims that he was made first and the colonists on the planet felt threatened by him. Either way, he is obviously proving to be the manipulative evil twin, and his cunning traits have served him in the past. The extreme contrast between the honest and naive Data and his trickster brother illustrate the traits necessary for the niches they occupy. The original ‘family’ environment to which both androids were trying to adapt themselves was the colony on Omicron Theta. The resource they were competing for was acceptance by the colonists, and the consequence was the termination of their programs. Lore adopted the selfish and evil aspects of humanity, using manipulation to survive, whereas Data chose to be more honest and kind. The latter traits helped Data advance in Starfleet, an environment which rewards years of slow, dedicated work instead of cheating and shortcuts. Overall, Data cultivated stability and strong social ties. One could argue that he was the more stable program, but it was more than programming. As the mind’s complexity grows beyond instinct and reflex (programming), actions are understood as choices, and one can use accumulated information and preference as the basis to distinguish them. There are several instances where Data makes choices: he wants to be more human, he chooses the emotion chip. In contrast, even when Lore is rescued by the Enterprise crew and offered a more stable existence, he still chooses to betray his benefactors.
The niche that each android occupies could be viewed as the good and evil within a society, or within each of us. It can also be interpreted as a strategy to navigate complex human interactions. Lore’s experience with the colonists may have taught him not to trust humans, there is no background on exactly who he was when he was first activated, and his narration is often unreliable anyway. Maybe it was the case that he had been too perfectly human, which concerned the colonists and turned them against him, and he therefore learned not to trust humans. The two strategies to navigate human interactions differ the most in their long term outcome. As long as there are open and trusting people, there will always be predators willing to exploit them, but a society of only predators will be difficult to exploit if backstabbing is what everyone expects from others as a norm. Likewise, even good willed people will quickly reject a predator. Lore can only occupy his societal niche for as long as he is not found out, then he must move on or be cast out. When the Enterprise crew find out that Lore planned to sacrifice them to the crystalline entity, the same life form that destroyed the colonists of Omicron Theta, they beam Lore into space. Lore and Data represent two beings who tried their best to cultivate a niche that would ensure their survival, the path of selfishness or altruism, and the long game was the better choice.
Hopeless Trekkie 