I am just still kind of floored by how long it took me to realize that the Soong brothers were named Lore and Data.
Remember that although they look alike, and sometimes sound alike, Lore is not Data.
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Well, if you’re a scientist and you care about all the individual datums, sure. Computer scientists know that every datum isn’t sacred and data is an uncountable noun like people.
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Huh? My understanding was
Datum : Data :: Person : People
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“Has anyone written…”? One of my friends has been snark-review-blogging every Star Trek franchise for a few years, and she’s currently on TNG, and does touch quite often on how different its early stuff was.
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Awesome! If you’ve not seen this other trek blog, you should read it - basically the guy wrote a comic where the cast of TNG did a Deep Space 9 RPG:
You have to start at the last page at the bottom and work your way to page 1 to read the whole thing.
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As a Computer Scientist…
Data is both singular and plural. Datum is also singular and plural, and means the exact same thing as Data; but it is less frequently used.
(Most CS people will roll their eyes a bit if someone uses the word “Datum” because it has heavy “rube” vibes; it feels like the person is trying to sound more sophisticated and is putting on airs. I don’t suspect this of you; just letting you know that this is kind of the perception…)
The phrases “Data Set” and “Data Point” are sometimes used to get around the English language issues with Data being both singular and plural (or uncountable). A Data Point contains information about an object; with one or more properties. A Data Set is a collection of Data Points. An Object is a logical object of interest, which can be a virtual or theoretical object, a physical object, a living creature, or even a person; unlike in general English.
ETA: less eye-rolling if someone is from a different culture; there are other languages where datum is still the preferred version; and if someone is coming from one of those cultures it’s much more accepted.
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“That beverage has not been programmed into the replication system.” my Alexa, just now
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Yes, but then there are also peoples – are there datas?
While we’re at it…
mouse->mice
louse->lice
spouse->spice
house->hice
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I pretty much say “ant” unless, because of context someone might thing I mean an actual ant, in which case I say it the other way.
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Holy shit, that’s not even the only one:
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Dear Lord. Ouch. facepalm
I believe you mean
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The real bit that no-one seems to have written much about is how desperate they were to incorporate Geordi’s visor as a plot device at first. I rewatched season 1 not that long ago, and more than once their version of ship sensors was to literally ask Geordi to look out a window at something.
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Oh, holy crap, I thought this was gone! I read it originally off the creator’s website and he took it down a few years back. This has some of the best Riker gags out there and I was severely disappointed in myself for not saving a copy. Thanks!
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This is useful and thank you especially from those of us who are not computer scientists.
I sometimes catch “day-tuh” and “da-tah” differences in pronunciation when I talk with older vs. younger American English speakers, or regionally distinct American dialects.
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Fascinating, Captain. Although I think we might all be overthinking this a bit. In my mind, I recall the term ‘data processing’ as the common parlance, but after TNG, I wonder if it was more common to use the word data by itself. Before computers, was data a fairly common term? I’d need to see some statistical data on the subject. Oh wait, never mind. I don’t think it really matters.
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It was for a while, but it’s archived at the tumblr now!
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The supposedly emotionless Data seem to take exception to the way Dr. Pulaski pronounced his name.
Iv’e always used both pronunciations. Day-tah when used as a name, Daa-tah when talking about information gathered. So I’d ask the Day-tah center to give me the Daa-tah. Also I’m from Boston MA so that’s why the h at the end.
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From a writing style guide point of view, data is increasingly treated as a singular mass noun:
Guardian style guide
Grammarist article
Grammar girl article
(Though I’m sure I could find articles going the other way pretty quickly). We changed our style guide at work about 4 years ago to make it singular in all our communications.
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