Did you notice how they kept bringing up the point that Data couldn't use contractions, but at the very end after he disposed of Lore and they asked him how he was, he said "I'm fine". I always wondered if that was an intentional thing or not.

I remember during the episode The Big Goodbye when Data visited the holodeck with Picard and Crusher, he took on the character of the time period including using some of the vernacular which made use of a lot of contractions. For myself, this was one of the biggest violations of the "Data can't use contractions" rule. But yeah, that Lore. Must have been one heck of a problem child to have forced Soong to disassemble him.

In The Big Goodbye, he reprogrammed his diction to the "Film Noir cliche" setting.

@sukhisoo said:

In The Big Goodbye, he reprogrammed his diction to the "Film Noir cliche" setting.

Whereas in The Naked Now, his dick-tion was already pre-programmed.

Saying that an advanced android like Data cannot use 'contractions', is like saying that Data's linguistic programming is only at the level of a toddler.

It is as ridiculous as when future androids/computers can be disabled with Epimenides paradox.

Maybe it was a deliberate part of making Data appear different and non-threatening. Remember how Lore - who did use contractions - was said to have been "TOO human?"

Yeah it's not like the people will think that his rather pale yellowish complexion would scare the Hell out of them.

"The Simpsons (1989-)" aren't that scary.

They are!To me it looks like everybody in Sprinfield suffers from hepatitis.