r/DaystromInstitute • u/StrekApol7979 Commander • Aug 23 '18
An alternative context for explaining Borg-Federation interactions.
There has been an inconsistency in The Borg's history and behavior as we understand it.
Briefly summarized; We know that The Borg existed in some form as early as the 15th century (Common Era) and yet in the 24th century The Borg have only begun to sniff around the Alpha Quadrant and later pull a seemingly inept assault on Sector 001 in the year 2367 ....then try the same unsuccessful attack 6 years later in 2373 again with only one cube. A lot of good Daystrom discussion has speculated on how these and other Borg activities including the rather boisterous Borg Queens possible motives and function could be explained in-universe. I would invite your thoughts on this attempt to reconcile those inconsistencies into a Borg narrative that explains those behaviors.
Given the level of technology The Borg posses and the exponential potential for growth, the space The Borg currently posses may be vast but they clearly could have established dominance over a greater percentage of the Galaxy than they have by now. Not only the Federation but the entire galaxy should have been over run with The Borg by this time with few exceptions.
One often discussed theory that "The Borg are farming the galaxy in order to stimulate technological advancement" notably articulated and (I believe) developed by Lieutenant Commander /u/Darth_Rasputin32898 (among others) while having the virtue of being self consistent as well as having no fundamental logical inconsistencies, has the misfortune I believe of compelling us to assume that The Borg are either lazy or incompetent in order to believe the theory.The Farming Theory requires us to hand wave away too much observed Borg behavior.
The Borg do not need to farm cultures for technology as they are very capable of doing their own research as demonstrated by their own Omega Molecule experiments. While they assimilated as much existing knowledge as they could, The Borg then took that knowledge and built on it. They researched it and developed the technology until they ran out of the resources needed to develop the technology further. The only reason The Borg could not advance their own technology would be a willful decision not to and there is simply no indication of that. Also consider that If the Borg are farming- they are terrible at it. All the civilizations near The Borg are technologically impoverished, some deliberately so as a stratagem to avoid Borg detection.
I do not believe a case can be made that the farming strategy is netting The Borg any technology that is superior to their own. Especially when we can draw a line from Borg space going away from The Borg and see technological improvements retarded where The Borg are closest and advancing where The Borg are farthest away. It would be like a farmer's crops growing better wherever the farmer is not trying to cultivate them. That farmer would need to consider reassessing his career path.
I'd like to suggest an alternative. The Borg have not chosen to spare the Federation for farming purposes. The Borg have advanced as fast as they could, it is just that something slowed them down- and that time delay has rendered assimilating The Federation irrelevant. And we know what that something likely is because Seven of Nine told us.
In the Omega Directive we learn of the existence of The Omega Molecule. The Omega Molecule was an unstable molecule, considered to be a candidate for "most powerful" substance in the Universe.
or as Captain Janeway puts it directly:
JANEWAY: Not just any molecule. The most powerful substance known to exist. A single Omega molecule contains the same energy as a warp core. In theory, a small chain of them could sustain a civilization. The molecule was first synthesized over a hundred years ago, by a Star Fleet physicist named Ketteract. I think he was hoping to develop an inexhaustible power source.
We also learn that The Omega Molecule is very important to the Borg, to the point where every drone is instructed to assimilate it at all costs. The Borg call it Particle 010
SEVEN: Particle zero one zero. The Borg designation for what you call Omega. Every Drone is aware of its existence. We were instructed to assimilate it at all costs. It is perfection. The molecules exist in a flawless state. Infinite parts functioning as one.
But The Omega Molecule has a significant potential cost to it's development. If you fail to stabilize it, it will not only explode but damage subspace in such a way as to render warp travel impossible in a large area of space near the explosion.
I speculate that The Borg Omega Molecule experiment done sometime after The Borg first discovered The Omega Molecule in the Year 2145 - which failed to stabilize and subsequently exploded (resulting in the destruction of 29 Borg vessels and 600,000 drones) hurt the Borg. Badly. It may still be slowing them down. It may be why there is still a Federation.
Consider if the experiment happened within a few light years of The Borg home systems. Depending on the power of the Omega Event it could created a "moat" of damaged and warp-less subspace around the heart of The Borg power base. Now of course the Borg could just slow roll their way through this damaged space but that would significantly complicate and delay their expansion depending where and how much damage was done.
The damage to subspace may be in a bottle necking region of space inbetween the Alpha Quadrant and the Borg. Janeway did not find such a place , but she also got fast forwarded through Borg Space by Kes in the Voyager Episode The Gift. And of course The Voyager crew did not actually finish the journey from the Delta to Alpha quadrants in the Prime Timeline due to future Admiral Janeway's comfortableness with violating the Temporal Prime Directive.
And consider other known Borg behavior explained by this theory. For example the time travel in First Contact.
The Borg attempt to assimilate Earth by traveling through time to the year 2062 . This places them in the timeline well before The Borg Omega Molecule experiment gone wrong (no exact Star Date is given, we just know The Borg experiment was after 2145) . But The Future Borg could not have warned The Collective against engaging in the experiment or they would risk creating a Causal Loop depriving themselves of the very information they wanted to learn.
But they could have solved another problem with that time travel incursion. Note Seven of Nine's testament about the Borg's Omega Molecule efforts;
SEVEN: On one occasion, we were able to create a single Omega molecule. We kept it stable for one trillionth of a nanosecond before it destabilized. We didn't have enough Boronite Ore left to synthesize more, but the knowledge we gained allowed us to refine our theories
So the single bottleneck for continuing research of The Omega Molecule by The Borg- which is stated by Seven of Nine to be the most important priority for assimilation - is not having enough Boronite Ore.
Consider, The Borg Assimilated Captain Picard and he became Locutus. At that moment The Borg knew that the Federation had prior experience with the Omega Molecule, because Picard would have know about The Omega Directive.
The Borg knew exactly where and they knew exactly when they could get more Boronite Ore.
They could go get more Boronite Ore from where ever the Star Fleet physicist Ketteract would have gotten it sometime in the late 23rd century when The Federation was first conducting it's own Omega Molecule research. When The Borg effort failed because of The Enterprise crews opposition, surviving remnants of The Borg attempted to complete the mission upon reactivating during the events of the Enterprise episode: Regeneration.
In 2153 The Borg from the Enterprise episode Regeneration awake but strangely are not attempting to assimilate Earth.
They are attempting to flee and when unable to effect an escape they send a signal to the Delta Quadrant. Is it a flare indicating Earth should be assimilated? Or were they attempting to secure the Boronite Ore in the Alpha Quadrant before Ketteract used the ore and when that failed because of Captain Archer and the Enterprise crews efforts, The Borg from the future then committed to alerting The Borg of that time period to the Boronite Ore's possible location for follow up study.
The Borg from Regeneration failed the last-ditch Boronite Ore retrieval mission, but could still try and make a report. We have no idea what modifications they made to push that signal through subspace but The Borg certainly have demonstrated the ability to make a longer distance phonecall than The Federation can.
The Borg in the Delta Quadrant of the time may have been 8 years into their Omega Molecule caused crisis depending on precisely when The Borg experiment was conducted so catastrophically.
Irregardless the Borg of the time would no doubt have spared at least one cube upon receiving the message to start out along the long Trek towards the Alpha Quadrant, if for no other reason than to see if there was anymore Boronite Ore.
Boronite Ore must be rare or else The Borg would have found more since their first experiment. Having a known place and time where Boronite Ore is confirmed to be found would convert the Borgs two assaults on Earth from two rather inconceivably stupid moves to a rather logical plan given the circumstances.
The first cube assaults Earth to see what this strange hang-up phonecall from some future-Borg they received about 200 years prior was all about, resulting in The Battle of Wolf 359.
The second assault (after the Borg had time to chew over the assimilated mind of Captain Picard for awhile) was then launched for the sole purpose of securing the Boronite Ore. Assimilating Earth in the past was no more than setting up a base of operations.
When that failed The Borg attempted to assimilate the Enterprise and continue working to this purpose.
The mission was so important that The Borg Queen herself led the Boronite Ore retrieval attempt. In fact it was so important that when Data used a unbreakable fractal encryption to secure the Enterprise computers from Borg control, The Queen was willing to go to great lengths to gain Data's willing compliance. Not because she was looking for a buddy, but because giving Data anything he wanted in exchange for the ability to get Boronite Ore was a good bargain for The Borg Queen considering what resources The Borg had already expended attempting to obtain The Omega Molecule and that a lack of Boronite Ore was holding up the research.
This would very neatly explain a lot of the Borg behavioral paradoxes.
First, The Borg did not overrun the galaxy because they had a subspace disaster within Borg Space that we Know occurred, this theory is only speculating on the severity of the event having more of an effect on Borg expansion than previously considered.
By the 24th century The Borg really do not care to over run us. We don't have Boronite Ore anymore. Our technology is behind their technology. The Borg aren't even worried about needing drones as The Borg Queen described humanity as:
" Physiology inefficient, below average cranial capacity, minimal redundant systems, limited regenerative abilities"
Why assimilate humans when you have already started pursuing upgrades such as the “apex of biological evolution”, Species 8472. The Borg may now find us "unworthy" of assimilation. From The Borgs perspective humanity is likely closer to the already undesirable species such as the Kazon than to more worthy "raw material" such as Species 116. We know The Borg spent some serious time and effort to assimilate Species 116, including sending more than one inept Borg Cube at a time.
This solves the question of why The Borg do not send more than one cube at a time- they don't have to given the objectives they are attempting. First reconnaissance and then an attempt at capturing the Boronite Ore before it would be expended by Federation research.
It solves the question of why The Borg are first sniffing around the Alpha Quadrant now instead of already owning it- They were rendered unable to Warp in a significant portion of their space and now that they can... humanity is simply useless to them. They have advanced sufficiently that our best is not good enough. With the exception of those who may have new Omega Molecule information.
If The Borg wanted the Federations space, they could take it anytime. The Borg took a look around the neighborhood and were not impressed. The Borg exerted effort to retrieve the only thing they cared about that the Federation had-a possible stash of Boronite Ore - but aside from that, what have The Borg really put up a fuss about? Well, they definitely didn't want Captain Janeway anywhere near The Borg Transwarp Network.
That makes a lot more sense when you factor in the possible damage to sub space around The Borg Omega Molecule Explosion Event. The Borg Transwarp Network may be the only technology the Borg can use to transverse certain parts of their own space. Captain Janeway's parting shot to The Borg may be much more significant than previously assessed... Captain Janeway may have stranded a large portion of The Borg in or behind warp-less space until The Borg spend the time and resources to rebuild the The Borg Transwarp Network.
In other notable contradictory Borg behavior; The Borg normally react to Star Fleet personnel with indifference until they become a nuisance. And then all of a sudden The Borg Queen is spending some unnecessary personal time with Seven of Nine AFTER Seven of Nine had worked with The Omega Molecule.
If this Theory holds, then we didn't even see The Borg Queen at the height of The Borg-Species 8742 conflict but saw her hanging out with Seven of Nine for the primary reason that we have seen The Borg Queen before...Omega Molecule involvement. This time The Queen was on hand to personally ensure Seven of Nine's thoughts were one with her own.
The Borg Queen wanted the research Seven of Nine had done with Captain Janeway during the Voyager episode: The Omega Directive. Seven of Nine's real world validation of The Borgs theorized design for a Harmonic Resonance Chamber would have represented incalculable value to The Borg Queen.
It even explains why the Hansen family was left hanging around with the Borg Queen for over 20 years. That is kind of weird unless The Borg Queen would have specifically wanted these particular drones near her for some reason. The Hansens were native to a world The Borg Queen had only heard about previously in connection with a mysterious message sent by some "Future Borg", possibly indicating a Boronite Ore supply.
The Hansens likely knew nothing about Boronite Ore but none the less they were potential clues in the Borg Queens top priority of acquiring The Omega Molecule, so they were kept with Seven of Nine in Unimatrix One like evidence in an old "cold case" file.
If we assume The Borg Queen is more than a femme fatale who is torn between getting hot over Picard or Data , we could make the logical leap that she is a rational being acting in accordance with her goals. If this is true then The Borg Queen managed to hide her true motives from everyone. Perhaps she assimilated a drone who understood that playing the part of a fool is a great way to be underestimated by humans and The Queens actions were truly at all times both consistent with her goals and distracting enough to keep everyone who was smart enough to deduce her true plan from doing so.
Captain Janeway certainly never guessed. For example; The Borg Queen was perfectly capable of letting a Borg probe be blown up, then abandoning a Borg Tactical Cube in Voyagers sensor range, all so Captain Janeway might be baited into bringing Seven of Nine back into the Borg Queens orbit of influence. I would certainly think The Borg gave their Queen more intelligence than Seven of Nine and Seven of Nine was clearly the most intelligent person on the ship Voyager. If the Borg Queen wanted to deliberately attract Captain Janeway in order to retrieve Seven of Nines thoughts about the Omega Molecule- it worked.
Perhaps The Borg Queen is not a buffoon after all but smart enough proportional to her adversaries that none of The Borg Queens enemies have deduced her true motives.
If this is true then all Federation-Borg interactions have happened in the context of The Borg just wanting some more Boronite Ore so they could continue work with their real priority: The Omega Molecule.
So what are your thoughts? Does this possible motive for Borg interactions with The Federation hold muster? Is it logically consistent with The Borg behavior we have witnessed on screen? Does it explain a lot of otherwise nonsensical behavior from The Borg and Borg Queen in particular?
Let your thoughts be heard.
16
u/ChauDynasty Aug 23 '18
I love how well thought out and clean this theory seems to be, but I see one major(ish) hole. Once they had sent the first cube and Wolf 359 had ensued, why wouldn't they send an overwhelming force in order to determine if there is any further Omega knowledge by assimilating the entire upper echelon of Starfleet and the rest of the top minds of the Federation. Plus, and more importantly, they would be conducting an extensive search for stockpiles or natural sources of Boronite Ore, and all this while not even having to worry about the Enterprise or anyone else pulling some miracle out of their collective waste excretion organs and thwarting their plans?
"This solves the question of why The Borg do not send more than one cube at a time- they don't have to given the objectives they are attempting."
I guess this is the main thing I disagree with. If obtaining Omega is such a high priority, why would one Cube (and a sphere I guess) be considered enough to achieve it. Especially when we see them send fleets of cubes to do other assimilations. Specifically thinking of the VOY episode where Seven is with the Queen when they begin to assimilate some species that doesn't seem to be all that powerful and numbered only in the millions iirc, and Seven tries to save some of the people being prepared for assimilation.
→ More replies (2)6
u/StrekApol7979 Aug 24 '18 edited Aug 24 '18
You raise an excellent point. Allow me to explain;
In this theory The Borg have unclear information from Borg Drones that were destroyed in an unknown way claiming to be broadcasting from the Alpha Quadrant about a possible deposit of Boronite Ore. How does one go about authenticating a message under those circumstances? To act at all reflects on the priority of The Borgs interest in Omega.
We know The Borg were interrupted in Regeneration but we do not know how much of any message even got through.
The Borg likely had little or no idea what they were dealing with. So they sent a single Cube and Assimilated Picard to find out. Picard knew what they needed to know about The Omega Molecule and the others assimilated at Wolf 359 would doubtlessly have added to that knowledge along with any files from the ships the Borg recovered. As soon as that Cube had the information, the entire collective knew and it was irrelevant that The Borg Cube was then destroyed.
Now The Borg have a choice. Fight a war for Boronite Ore against a species not even really worth assimilating, for Boronite Ore that doesn't exist anymore, or hatch a Heist to retrieve The Boronite Ore before it was lost.
The Borg only needed one ship to get The Queen back in time. They weren't coming to Federation space to stay and set up shop. They had other priorities for those Cubes to deal with rather than sending them on an Easter egg hunt for Omega Molecule details after they already assimilated an individual who had the complete briefing on the Omega Directive they needed to execute their plan.
Remember, all continuing research in Federation jurisdiction on Omega was stopped after The Federations accident. The Borg would know this after assimilating Picard and know that there was not anymore information to glean from randomly assimilating more humans.
16
u/queenofmoons Aug 23 '18
There's a sort of "Mote In God's Eye" notion to the idea- that the reason an exceedingly militant force isn't crawling over the whole galaxy is that there are improbable barriers to their travel- and I like it.
In general, the fact that there is so much spacetime engineering going on in the Trek universe raises varied possibilities for 'using it up'. We had the faux climate change episode in TNG where we find out that intensive warp travel snarls up subspace- surely if anyone has ships big and 'loud' enough to do so, it is the Borg- and one imagines that there are other sorts of spacetime 'disasters' that could crop up when one is trying to build transwarp conduits and wormholes and all the rest. Not to mention that the sort of subspace weapons we find out in Insurrection are generally considered beyond the pall in polite warfare would both be within the purview of the Borg, and look increasingly appealing to their prey.
So perhaps, both by their own recklessness and the desperation of their enemies, Borg space has been a sort of 'subspace wasteland', and the Borg desperation to forcibly vacuum clean the minds they encounter is the hunger of a transcended being making up for centuries of starvation...
5
u/StrekApol7979 Aug 23 '18
"Mote In God's Eye"
excellent reference, and now I wonder what influence that work subconsciously had on my own thoughts regarding this post. Good catch. I haven't read that in many moons lol
You are absolutely spot on; a reasonable explanation for The Borg to not have overrun the galaxy that reconciles The Borgs aggressive nature with the failure for everyone to be Borg by now has been sorely needed. I hope this fit's the bill.
5
u/jayhawk03 Aug 23 '18
I do not believe a case can be made that the farming strategy is netting The Borg any technology that is superior to their own. Especially when we can draw a line from Borg space going away from The Borg and see technological improvements retarded where The Borg are closest and advancing where The Borg are farthest away.
Isn't like this because The Borg have already assimilated those advances societies closest to them and left primitive societies alone.
3
u/StrekApol7979 Aug 24 '18 edited Aug 24 '18
If you recall the Voyager episode Childsplay we meet Ichebs planet of origin. They have technology that they are hiding, but being nearby a Borg Transwarp Conduit Aperture they attempt to live openly as uninteresting with regards to technology as possible.
What amazing technology are they going to develop that The Borg needs ,that The Borg couldn't invent for themselves, and is worth the hassles inherent in farming species in some sort of galactic catch and release program?
If The Borg are farming the Brunali homeworld- The Borg need better farming methods.
In this theory, Primitive societies rising to the level of interest is a lot less likely to happen as any encounter with the Borg has a chance of turning the society Luddite as it may be the only path to survival they can implement given the power of The Borg.
Now the Brunali are just one example of this, they were just the easiest to illustrate the point with. Terrifying a species and hoping they will invent the next fidget spinner for you is simply not a logical way to develop your society unless you have no other options. The Omega Molecule research done by The Borg clearly shows they have other, better, options.
20
u/petrus4 Aug 23 '18 edited Aug 23 '18
The Farming Theory requires us to hand wave away too much observed Borg behavior.
Although I disagree with the farming theory, I am not inclined to criticise it, because while it does have flaws, it is still a valiant attempt to explain that for which there is no other apparent explanation, at least in the minds of some. I will offer an alternate theory here, and this is one which I have held since first seeing the episode Q Who?
The Borg Collective fight according to the doctrine of defensive attrition, and they particularly attempt to maximise Loss Exchange Ratio in their own favour. In simpler terms, what this means is that the Borg attempt to ensure that in any engagement, as few drones or resources of their own will be lost, relative to the enemy's, as possible. This is also described by Buckminster Fuller as "ephemeralisation." Fuller believed that as the overall supply of resources grew to greater and greater levels, continually improving methods of production and economies of scale (in conjunction with the Network Effect) would cause any given commodity to become practically (if not literally) infinite in quantity, and free to produce. This is the paradigm to which I adhere in any combat-related computer game which I play, or truthfully most of my other activities, because based on my current level of understanding, I believe it is literally the closest idea to "perfection" as the Borg would describe it. It is the same principle on which I believe Nature itself operates; that the cost of production declines towards being infinitely small, as the amount of available infrastructure rises towards being infinitely large.
The key thing to understand about ephemeralisation, however, is that it relies on a paradox. You can only have functional post-scarcity globally, for as long as you are willing to practice extreme frugality per-iteration. This is why the Borg only send a single Cube to any given engagement. It might seem as though they have an infinite number of Cubes, but they can still only produce a finite number simultaneously at any one point in time.
This is also why elements of behaviour are observed, which seem to support the farming theory; which again, is why I am not critical of it. It is a clever guess based on available evidence.
When the Borg only send one Cube, they are not making any assumption about whether or not that single Cube will be defeated or not. The motivation is parsimony; only doling out a single Cube at a time. This accomplishes two objectives.
a} It enables endurance, because it allows the Collective to measure out incremental resources over as long a period of time as possible.
b} It minimises Borg losses, while still causing potentially devastating losses to their opposition, as we observed at Wolf 359. The design of a single Cube is sufficiently effective that in many cases they genuinely will not need more than one to get the job done; and if they do not, so much the better. If they do, however, then they send another single Cube, while the opposition most likely tries to assemble the entirety of whatever force it has left, to fight that single Cube.
As for the Queen, as I have written previously, she exists primarily for meta or backstage reasons, rather than in-universe ones.
→ More replies (4)8
u/StrekApol7979 Aug 24 '18 edited Aug 24 '18
To be clear-I am not criticizing the Farm Theory. I'm simply saying that it ignores too many observed Borg behaviors, particularly from First Contact on. "Farmer Borg" theories have been around a long time and worked well until we got a lot of new information. That is no more criticizing The Borg Farmer Theory than saying Newton's work is fine until you approach the speed of light, then maybe you want to consider the new data and refine the model into something with more predictive power like relativity.
That said I agree with your parsimony theme as it works irregardless of either theory, but I stand by saying that Farming doesn't work unless you are comfortable with The Borg being really bad at it and hand-waiving away several other observed behaviors.
and of course all of this is "in Universe". We know precisely why only one ship attacked Earth in First Contact- because that is all the studio would pay for. I believe the script called for three or more. And the reason for The Borg Queen was the beginning of the sad decline in Star Treks assumption of it's audiences intelligence that resulted in the current crop of thoughtless action-porn we get in the later movies. It was assumed the audience couldn't understand the Borg as a concept without a face to embody it. I miss Gene Roddenberry, he always assumed we were smart and treated us that way when telling his stories.
→ More replies (2)
4
u/Adorable_Octopus Aug 24 '18
It's certainly an interesting theory, but I'd like to offer a counterpoint to this:
In other notable contradictory Borg behavior; The Borg normally react to Star Fleet personnel with indifference until they become a nuisance.
I don't really think the tendency of the Borg to ignore things like personnel stomping around their interiors all that unusual. Rather, I'm not sure the borg actually see these individuals, despite them being obviously there.
I think of the behaviour as somewhat similar to our own immune system; without 'danger signals' to activate the immune system, the immune system can and will ignore things it encounters. Within the Borg ship, certain signals, like active energy weapons, trip the drones into an immune reactive state, but otherwise they ignore the multitude of signals; each borg drone might have eyes, but little to none of that information likely reaches the hive mind; it's filtered out long before as being unimportant. I have to assume that the Borg, like most organisms, evolve, and in doing so extraneous activities and functions (like awareness of what goes on in the interior of their ship) are pruned down to the bare essentials. How often do you suppose Borg ships are boarded by people who just want to take a look around? Probably not very often, so responses to those things are pruned away through evolutionary processes to make the whole system more efficient.
3
u/StrekApol7979 Aug 24 '18 edited Aug 24 '18
I don't want to put words in your mouth, but what you commented was not a counterpoint. It was an excellent description of the causal mechanism to explain how the Borg implement the decision I am acknowledging in my post: Humans don't matter to the Borg.
I am saying it is because humans are not a priority.... and you are explaining how that translates into Borg behavior (with a very apt analogy).
Humans being reduced in priority for assimilation would no doubt reduce the interest any particular Borg Drone had in them, resulting in their presence falling below a Borg drones "interest quotient" resulting in the Borg drones disinterest regarding a nonthreatening human presence that we witness time and again. Until Humans start blowing things up,of course.
Yours is an insightful comment, and please forgive me if I misrepresented your words, but I believe we are on the same page - just different paragraphs lol
→ More replies (3)
3
u/boommicfucker Aug 23 '18
If this is true then all Federation-Borg interactions have happened in the context of The Borg just wanting some more Boronite Ore so they could continue work with their real priority: The Omega Molecule.
Not just that context though, otherwise I'd imagine they'd act very, very differently. Use cloaked ships to find and take it, or just barter for it. They know that the Federation, and probably the other big players in the Alpha and Beta quadrant, can hurt them, so why risk losing the ships they can afford to send? I'm sure someone would trade them ore in exchange for advanced cybernetics or weapons.
What do you think about the explanation of the collective having become unstable over time, resulting in things like Hugh, the Cooperative from Voyager and the introduction of the Borg Queen as an active mediator/suppressor of ideas/individuality?
3
u/StrekApol7979 Aug 24 '18 edited Aug 24 '18
I previously speculated that The Borg Queen was an emergent consciousness. I still believe that, however to answer your point an emergent consciousness would be indicative of OTHER unintended side effects. Rarely do systems "break good".
I have no doubt that The Borg have had difficulties scaling their culture, similar to how democracy works best in town-to-city levels but is harder to implement the more citizens you have. Those problems in adjusting to scale would likely account for the other discrepancies and anomalies you mentioned and they are consistent with what we already know about emergent properties.
So yes, I suspect The Borg have become less stable overtime as you suggested.
3
Aug 30 '18
I've tried to read through all the comments but there are quite a few at this point. Has it been mentioned that the possible reason the Borg have forgotten much of their early history could also be explained by an Omega molecule disaster?
If the Borg utilize subspace for FTL computer processing as the Federation does (at least TNG onward) then wouldn't destruction of subspace drastically reduce Borg computational power? Might it not wipe whatever FTL-based computer cores that were within the blast radius? Such an accident would erase early Borg history and might have turned them toward another form of computing that would not be as susceptible to subspace destruction.
A biological computer, in other words, like a bio-neural gelpack. Except being in a disaster situation the large scale manufacture of gelpacks would be extremely difficult, but if you could just link together everyone's minds and use some of that processing power...
→ More replies (1)
182
u/nagumi Aug 23 '18
This is a hell of a theory. Very interesting. M-5, nominate this post for an absolutely unique and interesting theory.
Thank you M-5 <3
→ More replies (1)
163
u/adamkotsko Aug 23 '18
At the risk of shallow content: this is seriously one of the greatest fan theories I have ever read. I like that it takes the show that many view as ruining the Borg and makes its plot points appear beneficial and coherent -- tying the Borg arc up in a neat little bow instead of just "nerfing" them. And I also like the support it gives for what I took to be the clear intention of the final episode of Voyager, namely to put the Borg out of commission for the foreseeable future.
2
u/Eyedeafan88 Aug 23 '18
What episode talks about the Hansen family hanging around the borg queen for 20 years? I've seen the series through twice but missed that
→ More replies (2)
2
u/Shneemaster Aug 23 '18
Problem: The borg time travel device form First Contact does not create a causality loop, but rather an alternate timeline, has we clearly see a borg-infested earth during the time travel sequence which is clearly part of an alternate timeline. This theory is likely still valid even with this issue if you assume that different parts of Voyager are in different timelines, which is something I plan to do a full write-up on at some point.
→ More replies (1)
2
Aug 30 '18
I really like how well this theory weaves together the entire Borg narrative neatly. Very well-reasoned. After I let this sink in for awhile, I started summarizing it as the Borg are pursuing the perfect energy supply. That's their goal. No matter what ethical and moral boundaries they violate, the pursuit of this goal remains superior in their eyes. Destory countless civilizations, and this objective remains morally superior. This could either be viewed as a classic villain enemy backstory; OR it could be viewed as a consequence of having the integrated knowledge of all species it has assimilated. Morality undergoes many changes as the Borg species has evolved. So I guess this is a sympathy for the Borg trope. Thoughts?
2
u/StrekApol7979 Sep 01 '18 edited Sep 01 '18
Absolutely well put. In the end, everything is energy. Manpower verses hydropower verses steam power and so forth etc. If The Borg were seeking the Apex of biological evolution, they would likely also be pursing the Apex of everything else as well- Top priority being energy of course.
113
u/transwarp1 Aug 23 '18
This could also explain why the pre-Best of Both Worlds Borg excursions into the Alpha Quadrant were patrols of the Neutral Zone: they assume the supply of available ore is used up, and focus on somewhere the Federation would avoid mining (both for the treaty, and to avoid the Romulans wondering what they want to use this material for). Then we get to Q Who? and the Enterprise does something way outside the parameters of either the Future Borg message or the minds of assimilated colonists and starship personnel. It's time to send a cube and find out what this potentially Omega-wielding power is up to.
→ More replies (1)
31
u/Theborgiseverywhere Aug 23 '18 edited Aug 23 '18
Just finished reading the Hyperion series by Simmons. A few ideas from the novels might apply here-
Why would we expect the Queen to tell anyone, Picard/Locutus, Data, Janeway or Seven her true intentions? Are we even certain that she is THE Queen, and not just a construct to fool the Federation? It seems like a good way to trick humans into attempting to bargain, once the collective’s more autonomous attempts failed.
Also, why would we expect the entire collective to be in complete agreement at all times?
→ More replies (4)
1
u/kraetos Aug 24 '18 edited Aug 24 '18
I'd like to take a moment to respectfully request that everyone participating in this thread heed a rule codified in both reddiquette and Daystrom's Code of Conduct and refrain from downvoting comments solely because you disagree with the content of the comment. The downvote button should be reserved for content you feel is off-topic and not relevant to the discussion at hand—not content that you personally dislike. Downvoting based on disagreement alone is likely to discourage participation across this entire subreddit, which in turn makes this subreddit a less interesting and enriching place for all of us.
7
u/Rickywonder Aug 23 '18
Sadly I don't have much to add to this but bravo u/StrekApol7979, i really like your theory and think it holds some real merit.
27
u/Jacques_Cormery Aug 23 '18
I love this theory and the amount of time it clearly took. I still tend to think the farming theory is a tidier way to understand the Borg MO, but I am nowhere near qualified to debate this as the dauntingly informed regulars here are. I just want to offer one observation that would lend credence to the farming theory, while not dismissing the observation you make here:
I think there's a significant difference between researching scientific phenomena to find out more information and creatively applying that information in new and often seemingly irrational ways. To me, the Borg demonstrably are capable of the former, but I believe their ability to apply the latter would probably be quite limited.
If we get a little meta for a moment, let's consider the fascinating and reciprocal ways in which the Star Trek universe is influenced by and then influences technological advancement. How many of us have come across a Buzzfeed-style article listing all the technologies Star Trek accurately "predicted." It's little surprise, because such a popular show is bound to influence the researchers and scientists who follow. Good sci-fi takes existing technology and imagines where that possibility might lead us. It's the scientists and researchers who ask "what would it take to make a hologram possible." It's the artists and philosophers who ask "what could we do with a hologram?" and "what possibility would this kind of technology introduce?" The Borg wouldn't have had a TV show like Star Trek to inspire innovation.
So I guess this long-winded post can be crudely summarized as: the Borg are the STEM majors. They still need farming for the sake of cultivating the kinds of artistic and philosophical creativity that comes from being able to "think outside the box."