Some thoughts on the Borg from the Star Trek franchise...

[WistfulD]

What you say about their motivation for assimilating the human species sounds possible, but I would appreciate a reference to some official source which stated that. The only species I can recall a Borg stating they passed over as too unremarkable to add its distinctiveness to theirs, is the Kazon, as mentioned by Seven of Nine.

How insulting would that be? "Hi, we're in a series where species are just rubber-faced humans with one defining feature, yet you are deemed too boring to conquer."

[Lord Liaden]

Guinan in the episode claimed that humanity wouldn't have had to deal with the Borg for centuries had it not been for Q drawing their attention to humanity.  Given that it was apparently the Borg who grabbed the Neutral Zone border colonies and it was definitely the Borg who took Seven, it's not that they were unaware of humanity that was keeping us safe.  

 

You've reminded me that asking for sterling continuity consistency from Star Trek screenwriters is probably a bit much.

[Steve]

As I recall, the Borg took Seven from her parents' ship, which was following one of their vessels doing research. Not exactly a very smart thing to study up close, especially with a child along.

[WistfulD]

Bringing children along to be exposed to weekly threats to their existence is part and parcel of the post-TOS Trek.

[薔薇語]

I find the Borg to be quite logical; but being logical isn't the same as being reasonable. Logic proceeds from an initial premise, but that premise may not be something you agree with.

 

The Borg's premise seems to be: the Borg are a perfect state of being, and all other beings must be brought to this perfect state. Everything they do is based on that.

 

 

I could be wrong here, but as I recall the Borg have stated that they are not a perfect species. Indeed, it is that imperfection that leads them to assimilation of others. Through assimilation they achieve greater awareness of the universe and of themselves. And as such they help move themselves towards a possibly ever changing goal post for perfection. 

 

 

And their strong dislike of diplomacy probably has to do with the fact that few species will simply allow themselves to be assimilated. But if the Borg don't assimilate people then the true and deepest thoughts of that species will remain out of reach. No matter how eloquent you or I may be at speaking and expressing ourselves, it pales in comparison to the original thoughts themselves. Those thoughts, that distinctiveness, is what the Borg seems to be after. 

 

You've reminded me that asking for sterling continuity consistency from Star Trek screenwriters is probably a bit much.

 

 

As to the Borg passing over humans, I believe they make that clear in their first appearance. Originally the Borg only sought after the tech that they could steal from the Federation. Assimilating the population was a second thought that came later. I don't really recall the impetus for that change, though. 

 

----

 

Moving onto the subject of the Borg in general, though, I know that some of my knowledge is going to be out of date since it has been some time since I watched the shows but I think we are missing a few things here. First, I think the shows (after the first movie) tried their best to imply that there are actually several queens and that while the Borg is governed by one voice, that voice isn't necessarily singular in form or opinion. Even we the queen's form is cut off and destroyed, it doesn't destroy the queen, it just destroys a single avatar.

 

Next up, the queens existence is actually just an emergent property of the 'collective'. Indeed, it operates much the same way these boards and other much larger social media sites wherein access to all content is open to all (as opposed to FB wherein your access to content is limited to your social circles). When everyone has access certain basic governing rules. Certain basic rules are able to be agreed upon widely and decisions are made. The way the various Super Draft games are conducted is a good sign of that on these forums. The queen is the emergent thoughts of the collective given the base framework they are told to operate under. That is to say, that whoever created the Borg probably dictated what issues and methods of conflict resolution were given weight but that from that framework the collective created an avatar of its basic will. 

 

Next, I think it is fair to say that the Borg should have actually conquered all of the known universe (minus things like the Q) long ago. They have access to Time Travel and are not limited in their ability to span the universe, so there was never really anything that should have stopped them from going back 100,000 years and just assimilating everything in the Delta Quadrant before it could ever pose a threat. Then, after they caught back up, go back in time again and assimilate the Beta quad. Then The Gamma, and then the Alpha. Each time they go back they go back to a past that supports even great levels of expansion as they are able to maintain the collective over extreme distances. And they could inform their previous selves of any obstacles that got in the way the last time they went back. Indeed, given the McGuffin of time travel in Trek, the Borg should be just about the only living species in existence. 

 

I do agree that the Borg are really quite foolish to allow intruders onto their ships ever given that they know what happens as a result.

 

 

Also, when it comes to adapting to weapons and such, why must they? They are bound to have assimilated at least one Star Fleet Engineer who could easily inform them of the total range of possibilities that any phaser could operate under. It isn't like the weapon has infinite capacity. So shouldn't they be protected from everything possible long before the Federation could change things up? And heck, it isn't like they aren't being hit with similar tech from all around the known universe all at once anyway. There is no reason to assume that they aren't able to adapt. Indeed, the only plausible reason would seem to be if the collective does undergo thought-strain and thus they self regulate into cells wherein each one has a defined avatar queen that acts as both boss and conduit for info exchange. But given the task of controlling the borg is massive, the ability to communicate with the other queens is limited and thus trivial matters such as "The Fed started to use Frequency xyz today to kill us" might get left out. 

 

As to other species teaming up to overthrow the Borg - that is unlikely. While there are tons of civilizations that border the Borg, there are probably very few that actually border each other. And while those civilizations may have a common enemy, there could be countless reasons for them to not trust each other. And then taking all of that shared knowledge they do work on together and getting it out to every other civ posses such a logistical nightmare. Especially since it doesn't take but one bad encounter with the Borg in order to cause all your efforts to be in vain. 

 

---

 

The thing that annoys me most about the Borg is the Federation. The Fed has a true and dire threat on their border. One that has made it to Sol at least once. Yet they still cling to stupid treaties with other groups that prevent them from developing tech to stop such threats. One full cloak phasing battleship would be able to fend off a lot of Borg and Dominion threats. It would also give the other empires something to rally behind. But the Fed is too stuck up to use what they have to actually, you know, survive. 

 

La Rose. 

 

[Old Man]

Bringing children along to be exposed to weekly threats to their existence is part and parcel of the post-TOS Trek.

To the point of letting them drive Galaxy-class dreadnoughts. Seriously, was he even old enough for a driver's license?

[Lawnmower Boy]

I give you William Smith, the discoverer of the South Shetland Islands at the age of 29 and Nathaniel Palmer, second mate of the first American sealer to visit the archipelago, at the age of 21 --probably not the only precocious Antarctic sailors/explorers I could find if I spent long enough at Wikipedia. 

 

So Federation staffing policies are fairly easy to understand, just as long as you remember that it's a primarily rural society in which families are large, and parents often die young, so that great burdens are thrust on people at a very young age. 

 

Call me James Tiberius. My parents did, when they named me, some years ago, in the little village in Iowa where I was born. I shall tell you a tale, of star lanes and systems, and planets, Type M and otherwise, and the men and women (I guess --but they have to wear miniskirts) who ply their trade in that expanse. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having few or no credits --quatloos? Latinum? Do we even have money? I can never keep this straight-- in my account, and nothing particular to interest me planetside, I thought I would sail about a little and see the voidy part of the universe. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen, and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before men in red shirts, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to space as soon as I can. This is my substitute for  a double-fisted punch followed by a knockdown kick. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship.

[Steve]

Well, young Mr. Crusher was already a teenager when the series started, but Seven (Annika I think was her human name) was brought by her parents into deep space when she was only four. They met the Borg when she was seven or so. A child that young had no business being there.

[Nolgroth]

'Tis almost sad that whenever I think Borg, I immediately start thinking tactics to destroy them in STO.  (Gravity Well to pull that clump together, Cannon Spread and Torpedo Spread to affect the most numbers of them, Attack Pattern Delta to reduce their defenses. Watch the surviving ships caught in the residual blasts from the ones I destroyed. Clean up as needed. Collect the Omega marks.) 

 

As a literary construct, the Borg are one of the few things that make me distinctly uncomfortable. Anything designed to rob me of free will give me the shivers. They are like the ultimate socialist society meeting the ultimate conformist society. I despise both concepts very strongly and the Borg don't give you a choice. So there you have it, Star Trek successfully managed to create one enemy race that seriously creeps me out. Not many intellectual properties can say that.

[massey]

I think you can find a decent enough explanation for most of the things Borg (and Federation) related.  You just have to work at it.

 

Now the writers got a little lazy with the "changing the frequency" aspect of fighting the Borg.  They carry some sort of personal force field, but it only works after a few guys get killed?  And then it can be countered by changing your gun's frequency?  Why not just have your gun do that automatically?  Bah.

 

What would make more sense is for your security guys to carry multiple weapons, possibly ones that had competing defenses.  To stop a phaser, you modulate your force field at blah blah blah level.  To stop a disruptor, you need more anti-protons and you reverse the polarity, etc.  So your security team is running around with some phasers, a disruptor, a shotgun, one of those Ferengi energy whip things, a flamethrower, a maser, a couple of hand grenades, and a big rock.  The Borg can adapt to any of those, but not all at once.  At least, not for a while.

 

But the Borg don't particularly care about any one guy.  They don't even care that much about any one ship.  They don't have any sense of individuality.  Joe the Borg doesn't think of himself as Joe the Borg.  He has an individual designation, but when he's plugged into the collective he doesn't have any sort of survival instincts.  If I get the flu, I don't worry about some white blood cells that are being killed off.  I'm concerned with the health of the whole being.  That explains why Borg let people run around on their ships.  As long as they aren't planting bombs or something, it isn't worth 5 of 17's attention.  That's some other guy's job.  That's one of the problems with the collective.  Sometimes they can be slow to react to something if they don't recognize it as a threat.

 

The Borg won't ever fight the Borg.  Even though you could sort of have two different collective hive minds operating at once (due to communication speeds and distance), and you could have multiple groups operating with their own agendas, as soon as they get back into communication range, their nature is that they'll promptly form up into one collective again.  That larger hive mind will then decide whatever it wants to do.  They don't really have an ego, they aren't going to get mad that "their" plan isn't being followed.  They immediately merge into one shared consciousness again.  This lets you have individual Borg cubes that go off and do their own thing, making decisions and operating independently. And that's why you'll sometimes see a weird plan that the Borg don't use again later -- such as Star Trek: First Contact.

 

In First Contact the Borg use a time travel weapon to go back and assimilate the Earth in the past.  The reason they don't normally do this is simple.  They want new technology, and if they assimilate everyone while they're cavemen they can't get that.  They go for a Terminator-style decapitation attack against humans because... some reason or another.  Perhaps that particular Borg cube decided that humans were more trouble than they were worth.  Probably had something to do with Picard's connection to them and his knowledge of how they operate.  But just because one Borg cube decided once to use that maneuver in a particular set of circumstances does not mean that it's standard operating procedure.

 

--

 

As far as the Federation goes, the phased cloaking device didn't work right.  But ultimately the reason they didn't pursue it is simple -- for every technology, there is a counter.  There have been a lot of "wonder weapons" that have appeared in different Star Trek episodes over the decades.  I remember the long range teleporter that went through shields that the Ferengi guy used to kidnap Picard.  And everybody watching the episode went "Ooh!  They should use that to transport photon torpedoes onto the enemy ship!"  But they've had a lot of those things that show up once, and then are never mentioned again.

 

Seriously, what happened to the Genesis project?  That should be your planet-killer.  Shoot the changeling homeworld with that sucker.  But they don't.

 

There are two possibilities -- bad writing, and that the counter for those technologies is relatively quickly developed.  You have your phased cloaking device, and it's really cool once you work the bugs out of it.  But it's a big time treaty violation, and unless you're willing to restart your war with the Romulan Empire right now, then you better not use it.  It's hard to keep secrets in Star Trek, at least as far as keeping the fact that you have a particular technology on your ship secret.  If you start putting it on Federation ships, the Romulans are going to find out about it soon, because somebody out there is going to use it.  And once you start using it, it's only a matter of time before they develop a countermeasure.  Can you destroy them in that time frame?  Once it becomes a war of annihilation, will your cloaking device keep them from blowing up your worlds too?

 

Any specific technology is never quite as dominating as you might think it is.  That's how Star Trek works.

 

The Borg are a threat to the Federation, but they're not an immediate threat.  You've got Romulans and Cardassians (I'm always confused by those) to worry about.

 

 

The Borg may show up once every 10 years or so.  Or they might not.  They don't seem to be in that big a hurry to attack the Federation.  Yeah, after Wolf 359 everybody was scared of them and they seemed a high priority.  But then you've got the Dominion War, and all kinds of other fights.  And the Borg still haven't shown up.  They're really dangerous, but they're apparently content to screw around with someone else out there and leave the Federation alone.  They'll get to you... eventually.  But that might be a century from now for all you know.  No point in starting a massive war with your neighbors because you think you might want to use some weapon against the Borg someday.

[Christopher]

It is somewhat hard to nail down a specific interpretation of "the collective". In thier original idea they were supposed to be an insectoid species. They just lacked the budget for the masks. So they became cyborgs that cloned thier "next generation". They had (explicitly) no interest in assimilation, only in raw material and technology.

By the time of Wolf 359 they had added Assimilation to thier portfolio. And went ahead and became the trope codifiers of "the assimilator".

 

 

As I understand it, the collective is not really a hive mind. At least not in the classical sense of hive mind of individuums.

You see, every borg drone is "emotionally dead". As such there are purely logical in their decisions. Even the vulcans are not that purely logical (otherwise they would accept assimilation in favor of individualism).

A drone is little more then processing power and storage (brains), for the hive mind. Basicalyl the hive mind has a mind of it's own, unaffected by who it assimilates. It assimilates knowledge, but the presonality is wiped out.

 

 

On the other hand, thier decision making is comparatively "dumb". They operate more like a really, really dumb (but powerfull) AI.

 

Actually, a lot of stuff about them reminds me of Zombies:

Simple decision making/ignoring everything not fitting a profile.

Slow walking.

Grey skin.

Immunity to mordern (energy) weapons, wich makes melee preferable.

"Infecting" people they get in contact with. Even ships by the time of Voyager.

Saying kinda the same stuff over and over.

In star trek online you can shoot them with a Shootgun, for Zombies sake.

 

Literally they want to add more Brains to the collective processing power. It is just the hive mind trying to get more CPU power. The collective must have the best porn collection in the Universe...

 

About the reason behind the borg queen:

Actually that follows from thier being incredibly dumb and one tracked. They are unable to make decisions that do not fall into pre-existing patterns.

By the time of Wolf 359 they were incapable to just disconnecting Locutus from the collective. They had to try to destroy the enterprise to get rid of the assault vector. And even then they did not just blow up the ship with full power. In retrospect it felt like they were reluctant to actually hurt him despite the clear and present danger.

 

Compare that to the Borg queen during the Unimatrix Zero double episode. She had the autority to order self-destruct on whole ships on a whim. Yet still she did not do so casually.

It was the borg queen that spearheaded the assault into the past during First Contact.

 

As I understand is she is allowed to make hard decisions (like removing drones) and try "unconventional tactics" (time travel).

It might even be that only the presense of her copy allowed the mini-collective on the Enterprise in first contact to work effectively.

But in turn her continued existence is dependant on the wellbeing of the Continuum.

 

 

When they had no contact to the queen, the Borg in ENT were only able to follow a simple pattern:

Fly home. Re-establish connection. Assimilate as fitting on the go.