In Star Trek, the Borg are not a race as such, they are an amalgamation of races. But how did the Collective get started? Machines don’t design themselves; they must be designed by sentient life-forms – or by sentient machines, which must, ultimately, be designed by sentient life-forms. I would imagine there was some one sentient species that developed mechanically-assisted telepathy and decided, just as an experiment, to start hooking themselves together in a stable group-mind, and then the whole thing just got out of hand . . .
Did any of the episodes of any of the TV series deal with this?
(In Spider Robinson’s Deathkiller series, mechanically assisted telepathy also leads to the incorporation of humans into a group-mind – but this is presented as a good thing.)
No. There is no Star Trek canon that explicitly states the origin of the Borg. There are some theories, but they never get much more significant than “Maybe the same aliens that built V’ger also built the Borg.”
There’s a fanfic that explains how the borg came to be, although it’s not canon. I can’t remember the URL, so here’s a synopsis. Keep in mind that this is from memory, and I might be getting some details wrong.
Basically, about 1.2 million years ago there was an alien civilization (what the borg would later call species 001) that just discovered FTL travel and made first contact with another race. The princess of species 001 was engaged to marry the prince. However, she found out that her fiancee was ploting with the leaders of the other alien civilization to enslave species 001
The princess got mad, and used the nanoprobe technology that was being used for peaceful purposes to assimilate the prince. Her thought process was along the lines of “if our minds are linked, there will be no more painful secrets, and there will be peace”. Then she assimilated the rest of the population, becoming the first borg queen. Later, she assimilated the second species, and then the borg existed.
Well…there’s two possibilities:
One, overintelligent AI which seeks out to better itself, realizing that perfection lies in the balance between biology and machines, and starts combining the two.
Two, as has been stated before some culture seeks to create a hive mind which goes out of control.
Oh, yeah, and a third possibility which somehow involves Opal becoming the Borg Queen.
Quite frankly I think it’s better the Borg be left unexplained, as it is a well known fact that mystery adds to machismo
“It’s perfectly harmless, my friends. This will just make it soooooooooooooo much easier for me to give you my thoughts for the day, and you’ll be informed up to the nanosecond on the latest evil schemes of dem liberals…”
And as **SPOOFE ** said, there’s no canon explanation of the genesis of the Borg although the most common fan wank does include V’ger being one of its drones. Spock too, sometimes.
My theory is that it’s a kind of wireless internet run amok.
Start with the internet we have now. Advance technology to the point where computers are cheaply enough produced that a large portion of the population has them.
Second, advance networking technology to ultra-high wireless bandwith–any computer can talk to any other computer located anywhere instantly.
Third, advance interface technology to the point where an interface module can be directly implanted into the brain, or the computer itself has been miniturized to the point where it can be implanted in the brain.
From this point, we can speculate that one of several things happen. First, the connectivity from one mind to another gradually strengthens to the point that the hive-mind is created through a kind of techno evolution.
Second, a virus or bug accidently aligns all of the brains connected to a single control program or mind.
Third, somone creates a virus for the purpose of controlling the world, and it either has unintended consequences, or the hive-mind is the intended result.
I’ve always seen the Borg as a parody of internet groupthink created by insular sites like Stormfront, Star Wars, or John Byrne forums.
I thought it was more along the lines of a self-help book loving culture running totally amock. Eye-upgrade here, super-strong robotic arm there, a “fricken” laser beam for your head and the next thing you know your assimilating your neighbors. . .
While I was writing it, I knew it wouldn’t be bought because I was tinkering with the things that one was specifically told to avoid in Trek spec scripts (time travel, revealing huge things that should be left to writers, etc), so I just basically wrote to show my ability.
In my version; basically, it was a human working with Cochrane who traveled back in time and engineered the Borg. There’s more, but I’ll have to dredge up the script to find the details since I haven’t read it in years.
Well, in the Borg’s first appearance, Q described them as the “ultimate users…They’re not interested in humans. They just want your technology. They’ve identified it as something they can consume.” I kinda got the idea that the Borg originated from a planet of technophiles, to whom actually merging with technology was like Nirvana.
Of course, they’ve changed the Borg so much over the years, I don’t know what to think about them…First, they just wanted technology. Then, they wanted to “improve the quality of life” in the galaxy, via assimilation. Then, they were trying to acheive “perfection,” and would actually ignore species that they didn’t feel were “advanced” enough to warrent assimilation…
Not to mention the changes in the “structure” of the Borg mind—at first, it seemed that the Borg only had one consciousness, one “self.” In effect, there was only a single “Borg”, spread over billions of bodies. Nowadays, that concept seems to have been watered down a bit, to more of a “hive of insects” analogy. (Don’t get me started on the whole “Queen” thing…Ech.)
There was an episode of Star Trek: Voyager in which Chakotay plugged himself into a “miniature collective” – 8 or fewer people that used Borg technology but were totally independent from the Borg (and who regularly unplugged themselves from said collective).
He experienced the ultimate in intimacy with the population’s token Hot Chick by sharing thoughts with her. The experience almost seemed … addictive.
I’ll bet that’s how the Borg got started. The experience of suddenly receiving all the thoughts and emotions and life experiences of another is the most thrilling thing in the universe. But once it’s over, you come down from that “high” and your joined-mind life starts to become boring again. More boring than before, in fact, because now you’re not acting as an individual any longer. Once you’ve plugged that first person into your Collective, you want more. And more. AND MORE. It becomes an insatiable hunger. You have to get more people plugged in, whether they want to be or not. The Borg are the ultimate junkies.
