Sanjana comments : This is a very well written piece. I want to congratulate GP on his thinking power along these lines. He has given me a whole lot to think about.
Meenakshi Madhur comments : A thought provoking piece. Society is indeed shaped by the collective. I agree that collective has a better chance of survival in 'co-operative' rather than 'competitive' mode. And as for 'winning of Borgs' by adjusting the environment to the needs...well.....such 'winning' is only a short-term one as this strategy is what has led to the mess in which our planet is today. The sooner we realize that every entity living and constituting the planet and its environment is closely linked and related to one another, the better it would be for us. We 'earthlings', then can hope to do even better than 'the Borgs'!
Nils comments : Very good piece - and one of the first (and I guess only) ones that are on the internet or anywhere. I wondered why noone ever treated this, maybe also scientifically - because it is a very serious matter: the most probable way mankind will exist one day. I like the thought of living in such a collective - as far as I see, this would be the first time we could say to be "human", and not animals like we are now. Now we are basically (and though we dont like it) driven by instincts we can not control (Food, Sex, Survival). If there was no individuality, this wouldn't exist. The problem is, that the "drones" would need a certain free will - to prevent that one node (a "borg queen"), or a central group of individuals will take over control. This could start harmlessly, just by a delay in delivery of information - but this delay would automatically leave inequality amongst the members access to ressources. Given the "law of the big numbers", this will amplify, and end in a dictatorship. The "drones"/members of the collective must have a way to control themselves, there must be a law that inequalities may not exist (only temporarily). I would really like to see an experiment that checks out how you must balance individuality and collective, so that its efficient but not a dictatorship. I hope someone will do that experiment soon, maybe in a simpler form, in a computer simulation, or maybe cybernetic rats (well, the poor animals... but its for the collective ;D ). It's all possible to do - already today
CN Ookami comments : Interesting but mislead theory on the concept that the Borg are viewed as the "big bad evil" in the Star Trek universe and that all Federation was viewed as "created by the hand of god and therefore good". If this was the case, all the alien races in the Star Trek Universe could be seen in this light, which we clearly see is not the case. They are people who are trying to live, just like us.
However, these points have been missed entirely!
1) The Federation is an COLLECTIVE OF INDIVIDUALS who work COOPERATIVELY to achieve their goals. The episodes are run with SCIENCE as the core, and theological questions are AGNOSTIC, because we can only guess the answers. Individuals are able to keep to the traditions in which they were raised, thus leading to beautiful tapestry of life. Because there is this variety, an individual can look at a problem that has been confounding their predicesors in a new light, thus solving the problem for everyone else.
2) COLLECTIVE behavior can be seen in several insect species, where they have a colony orientated mentality. The Borg were an illustration of the Psychological concept of the "Race Mind", which can be found in many esoteric belief systems today. I believe that Gene Roddenberry's portrayal of the Borg, was an illustration of what occurs with the homogenization of cultures and species, to the point where variety is lost. They also illustrate mankind's destruction of resources for short term goals, leaving the Universe a much less beautiful place.
3) In ALL of Gene Roddenberry's stories, we can see the epic stories of both modern and ancient cultures. He presents them to us in modern and futuristic packaging because they embody ethical lessons that have remained true throughout the ages. The Borg in a way can be seen as what occurs in a society where dictatorship is the norm (e.g. Adolf Hitler's Germany, Kim Il-sung & Kim Jong-il's North Korea, Mao Zedong's China & Joseph Stalin's Russia), where all news, music, lititure & art must follow the precepts of the dictator & their administration or face death. The precept of the Star Trek Universe, is that to loose one's freedom of individuality, is a fate worse than death.
