>
>I have one dumb TNG question that I'm just going to ask here
>because I was embarrassed to ask my wife: was Data canonically
>different from all other synthetic beings in the series as
>well? or is that new information?

Data was always considered unique. At the time, he was the most advanced synthetic lifeform in terms of his ability to learn and adapt to others around him (technically there were a few others who were his relatives but we can ignore them for now).