 The events of " Elementary Dear Data " led film professor Zoran Samardžija to suggest that Pulaski may have been inspired by the works of Friedrich Nietzsche . In Sherlock Holmes and Philosophy : The Footprints of a Gigantic Mind ( 2011 ) , Samardžija notes that Pulaski 's argument that Data lacks intuition is reminiscent of parts of Nietzsche 's 1878 work Human , All Too Human . The relationship between Pulaski and Data was further considered by Rhonda V. Wilcox in her article " Dating Data : Miscegenation in Star Trek : The Next Generation " ( 1993 ) . Wilcox notes that Pulaski " frequently challenges Data in terms of his machine nature , expressing scorn for his supposed insensitivity . " She compares Data 's emotionless state to slavery due to the reference in " The Child " to Maya Angelou 's 1969 work I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings . 
