I think it's what happens in IT when you have to pull an all nighter. But it's like Sisyphus and his rock, you discover that night never ends it goes on forever. We'll have to fix that up real good! Long story short, if you value your down time only trust technology to do so much, and don't go head to toe cyborg.
Other. The borg are a possible future. As computers and other technology advances, contributions from current or future humans become less and less necessary. In order to compete future humans will have to augment their own abilities with technology. It is a process that has already begun. Hive mind is a more efficient method of communication. If we can learn to plug our minds into the internet we might keep our separate personalities for a bit, but as groups form and interact the boundaries of each individual are likely to be crossed. The premise in star trek is that this hive mind creates a kind of euphoria which overwhelms a persons individuality. In the meantime, as the consciousness is sublimated into the whole, the body is augmented with various technologies and weapons. Many futurist see the borg as a very dark and imperfect glimpse into what humanity might become. If artificial intelligence, genetic science, neuro-technology and micro technology continue to advance, the borg future may be tame compared to reality.
The symbolism in Star Trek was never as direct as so many people like to imagine, even in the early days. By the time The Borg were being conceived, the writers were drawing on a whole range of different sources and inspirations. I'm not convinced Communism or (modern) America are significant factors to be honest. I suspect the main inspirations were existing science fiction, not least Cybermen from Doctor Who.
Yep, if you buy it. No one can really track the future though. We may just devolve into couch blobs, attended to by unintelligent robot mechanoids.
Exactly,humans don't exhibit a hive mind,no matter what their politics are They were meant to be mankind's ultimate foe...
As any literary symbol, it's whatever you want to make it a symbol of. What really surprised me about the Borg were that they had a hierarchy. How can you have one person in charge and others not if there are no individuals? And obviously, there were individuals. "I am Locutus, a Borg" Who is I?
huh. these are by far the two most common comparisons I've heard made of the Borg. But, anyways, to better put it in context, the famous statements of the Borg like "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile" seem somewhat Americanesque. There was another one like, "you will be assimilated. Your unique traits will be absorbed into our own. Resistance is futile." That one actually particularly struck me of America. The Communist one is usually just more of a snipe comment.
The USS Enterprise... where nobody gets paid and just does their job for prestige. Healthcare, housing, food, clothing, and every other physical and psychological need is taken care of. Despite all of this, they still choose to work. Starfleet resembles a socialist state more than a capitalist state. Meanwhile, the Borg seem to be a true collective that far surpasses communism -- it's more like an absolute collective with all member sharing the same goals, beliefs, information. "We are one." In a communist society, the state may own the means and mode of production, but the people may have highly individualized ideologies.
Could be combination of Orwell 1984 and communism, big government sees all controls all...I always enjoyed startreck for its analogies I'm surprised none of the writers ever revealed their intention...have they?
I agree. The Federation (at least on earth) is the ultimate socialist state. A world without money (financial need) where everything essential to life is free, releasing human creativity and altrusim in its finest sense. OTOH, the collective represents the dangers of universal conformity where individual identity is subsumed by purely technological apparati.
I read somewhere that, since the Klingons had gradually developed into being the most interesting characters on TOS, they were trying to make a villain with NO redeeming qualities whatsoever. However, they failed miserably if that was their intention. Who could possibly not love Seven of Nine?
Who said nobody got paid? I can think of at least two episodes in just TOS where the crew are in situations where money would be necessary, and that's more than a lot of military based shows I've seen.
More precisely, they would be a possible result of the singularity (like the Terminator). By definition, the technological singularity will produce results that cannnot be accurately predicted.
I always saw it as an example of what happens when people place productivity and beneficial consequences above individual consent. Nothing so radical as fascism or communism - just normal people trying to help the world.
I think it was pretty clear Roddenberry had in mind a communist society. But they had money, "Credits" in the original series. Their economy apparently evolved away from it by the time of Next Generation.
I don't know if "by definition" the results are not predictable. But I think Borg/Skynet are the most likely outcomes of a merging of man and machine. I don't see us coming out on top.
I agree that some sort of dystopia are the most likely scenarios. But yes, it is by definition unpredictable. That's why it's called the singularity, because like a singularity (black hole) in space, it is impossible to know what lies beyond the event horizon. As the technological singularity is the point at which human intelligence is exceeded (by A.I., cyborgs, or whatever), human intelligence cannot possibly predict what a "greater than" would do. It is simply beyond our mental capacity to predict. Even in the case of a "benevolent" superior intelligence, we could get a situation where that intelligence understands our failings better than we ever could, and could attempt to "fix that for ya", such as in the scenario envisioned in "I, Robot".
I thought the species was created just to show off Jeri Ryan's body [video=youtube;H8gkmebN1tc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8gkmebN1tc[/video]
The borg could represent any society where there is pressure to conform to the rules of behaviour for that society, the borg just takes conformity to the extreme... If all borg females were jerry ryan clones I'd sign up...
