all 12 comments

[–]Femaleisnthateful 14 insightful - 2 fun14 insightful - 1 fun15 insightful - 2 fun -  (8 children)

As a kid watching Star Trek, I always thought the Borg were the ultimate embodiment of dystopia - a race without individuality. Turns out a sizeable part of the human population sees this as a guiding principle.

[–]Alienhunter糞大名 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Modern Trek missed an opportunity to have the Borg rebrand as a benevolent force and assimilate through the alleged promotion of unity. You'd have people willingly sign up to join the collective. Hell it's basically kinda what social media is if you think of it. Different levels of tech integration forming an increasingly centralized social will.

The Orville did have an episode of a society run by Reddit style upvotes and downvotes which was pretty entertaining. Funny when the crass comedy version of the show consistently churns out more relevant and entertaining social commentary than the actual show it's supposed to be spoofing, but maybe that's the joke.

[–]Musky༼⁠ ⁠つ⁠ ⁠◕⁠‿⁠◕⁠ ⁠༽⁠つ 🐈 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Modern Trek missed an opportunity to have the Borg rebrand as a benevolent force and assimilate through the alleged promotion of unity

That sort of happens in Picard, the borg queen melds with this other bitch and then the borg are the good guys and actually are trying to save everyone.

[–]Alienhunter糞大名 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

See after the first season was a disaster I refuse to watch any more of that.

I heard that basically season two started strong but went shit very quickly. So it sounds like most of the made for streaming stuff to me. Make a strong first episode to get people onto the service and past the free trial period, then fail to deliver.

[–]Musky༼⁠ ⁠つ⁠ ⁠◕⁠‿⁠◕⁠ ⁠༽⁠つ 🐈 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

The hive mind can be good although the hive mine is usually bad and awful. As humans we have the capability to network our minds into a singular, often shitty purpose. Even while mostly used for evil, it has remarkable potential.

[–]Alienhunter糞大名 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The Borg are modeled after an insect colony, individual drones have no initiative and function essentially as limbs or tools of one guiding intelligence. The difference being that they're using scifi voodoo space magic or whatever to link them all through some kind of computer brain link where insects basically have individual self determination but are driven by instinctual drives so strongly that their colonies function and mini complex societies, I doubt that the queen on an insect colony is making any administrative decisions and is simply engaged in the process of procreation. The question is quite fascinating as to whether or not there is any intelligence behind the movements of an insect colony at all, or whether they function more like a computer albeit a biological one when their instinctual instructions cause them to carry out certain tasks without any central input. Bees especially are truly fascinating as they've discovered some means of communication although it appears purely functional in nature with no real artistic potential. Humans have many features in common with insects when we observe them from a very distant perspective so there's definitely some kind of underlying biological drive that results in emergent behavior without any concious decisions being made.

The Borg in Star Trek have been interpreted by some as a commentary on communism or corporate capitalism by others which is interesting. I think they're simply the question of "what if we model society like an ant colony" the Borg values of seeking perfection, seeking out new world's and civilizations to learn from (assimilate) actually parallel the Federation as well. Both are expansionist powers that seek to spread their society to all others. The only difference between them is one values individual agency and the other does not. Yet both could be described and Xenophilic Egalitarian regimes.

[–]Musky༼⁠ ⁠つ⁠ ⁠◕⁠‿⁠◕⁠ ⁠༽⁠つ 🐈 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'm just saying people can literally do a similar sort of hive mind as insects, we see it on the internet, and in crowds/mobs.

[–]BISH 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Borg were the ultimate embodiment of dystopia - a race without individuality. Turns out a sizeable part of the human population sees this as a guiding principle.

Which episode has the reckless degeneracy, and the androgenous Borgs eating ass.

Also, did the Borgs leave their Borg suits on, or did they work around the edges?

Also, something about, "Hey! Seven of Nine... Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

[–]LyingSpirit472 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

But, the Borg is still evil because individuality is key even in the hivemind.

The viewpoint that humanity wants is somehow WORSE than the Borg, since the viewpoint the human population wants is an individual hivemind built around them getting special treatment: Your own personal individuality is key, but no one else in the world is allowed to disagree with you, dislike you in any way, shape, or form, or like you TOO much [unless you like them in that way too much, in which case they're required to].

[–]LordoftheFliesAmeri-kin 2.0. Pronouns: MegaWhite/SuperStraight/UltraPatriarchy 6 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

I envision a true utopia that celebrates being: Free, Unique, Caring, Knowledgeable, Intelligent, Nice, Generous, Fun, Androgynous, Good, Gracious, Obease, Trans & Superior.

You misspelled "obese," get in the woodchipper fatphobe!

[–]Adventurous_Ad6212[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Its okay a little bit of DN should fix it.

[–]Musky༼⁠ ⁠つ⁠ ⁠◕⁠‿⁠◕⁠ ⁠༽⁠つ 🐈 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

So very, very hard.