Until recently, I didn't understand why Data wanted to be more human. His human-like appearance only magnifies the differences: he takes words literally; humor eludes him; he is deprived of pain, pleasure, and emotions; he does not understand human behavior. When put in such negative terms, these qualities make him seem defective and incomplete. It's as if his creator didn't have time to finish the job. Maybe Data feels insecure about these inadequacies. But he can't feel insecure; that's a human emotion!
Data tries to remedy his condition by putting himself in social situations, usually with awkward results. In the episode "In Theory", he engages in a romantic relationship with crewmemeber Jenna, but never feeling any real connection with her. "In regards to romantic relationships, there is no real me," he admits, only a compilation of different cultural sources.
Why does he even try? He goes around to various colleagues for relationship advice. He devotes many processing cycles to write himself a romantic subroutine (which he promptly deletes after Jenna breaks up with him). In the bigger scheme, he struggles to be more human. But there are many other fictional androids who are perfectly comfortable being who they are: the replicants in Blade Runner, the cyborgs in Terminator, the robots in Asimov's stories. Why can't Data accept who he is, and consider his emotionless rationality to be a personality quirk rather than a deficiency?
Data's real struggle, I realized, isn't to become more human; he aspires to become more than he is. The goal is merely a product of the culture he lives in. He wants to exceed the limitations that he was created with. Ironically, that restless longing makes him more human than any emotion can.
When we look at our own lives, and ask what motivates us, maybe the destinations don't matter as much as the journey itself.
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