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Jan. 6th, 2017 11:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moonflower77taken from here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/2av947/if_the_borg_were_to_cease_all_offensive_action/
i really liked the exploration of what the borg may have become like if they began to develop a gestalt-type group consciousness.
besides, in a nutshell, this is a good description of our T'elX. :)
[–]flameoflokiLieutenant 22 points 2 years ago
I think that the answer to this question depends heavily on why the Borg have ceased being aggressive.
In the scenario I'd like to see a new master composite personality arises from the Borg that truly represents the sum of the Drones. It recognizes the contribution of all the Drones to its uniqueness and feels protective of them and can manifest through any Drone at random. It decides the Borg Queen (or Queens) are something like troublesome parasites that have been getting Drones (pieces of itself) killed with bad planning and narcissistic scheming. In one move it isolates and destroys all the Queens.
So what happens next would be that the new Composite wishes the tiny bits of itself to be... "Well". It isolates and determines which involuntarily assimilated individuals would like to be free and then does exactly that. It creates copies of their culturally related space vessels that can travel at the maximum speed the Borg can produce and returns them to where they came or to a similar environment that supports their type of biological life. All clones remain and all assimilated individuals that express the desire to stay remain as well.
Intensive work begins within the new Collective. A kind of semi-autonomy is slowly rolled out to all Drones so that they can continue to feel close as a whole and contribute but also have quiet time and unique thoughts. Borg implants are furiously modified to be as aesthetically pleasing, inoffensive and small as possible for Drones and many heavier duty implants are discarded in favor of handheld tools easily available in all locations. The Borg Cubes are polished on the outside to become eerie mirrored Cubes that reflect mostly the void of space. On the inside the Cubes becomes a strange, changing combination of utilitarian function and relaxation. Much of it may even be purely holographic to reflect the shifting whims of the now evolving Drones.
The New Collective and the Composite take steps to signal to all the other powers and even lesser powers that it no longer wishes to have conflict with them. Perhaps it even proposes the free back and forth voluntary exchange of information, offering medical and relatively harmless technology to improve the quality of life for the other species.
In my scenario the Federation and other societies would probably be able to make appeals to the Collective for individuals that it knows or believes to have been assimilated to see if they still exist (weren't blown up in a Cube or Probe somewhere). If the assimilated Drone expressed a desire to leave there's not much reason for the Collective to make them stay as the Composite would be aware of and have to experience their suffering itself. The Federation would be in the position of being unethical if they attempted to remove Drones from this environment and refused to allow them to return if they wished. It might be unethical to even try to remove them if you take into account the release of other assimilated individuals and officially "accept" the New Collective's claims of how Drones now exist.
Lots of people would not be able to forgive the Borg that came before though. Lots of people wouldn't be able to accept that these were not just the same Borg but somehow less stupid and they would believe that this is all an elaborate act. It would be interesting to see how the New Collective/Composite balances its desire to protect itself (all Drones) against continued aggression from outside entities. Full retreat, trying to minimize loss? Full attack, trying to damage the aggressive society's infrastructure (surely sacrificing some Drones in the process) so that they could no longer attack? Continued negotiations?
Imagine people having to interact with these strange new Borg. Their odd, now possibly organic looking but vaguely artistic metal implants, their strange hybrid communal and individual perspective, knowing that the Composite is technically always there and just by asking any schmuck could literally talk to the sum of all Borg.
[–]KaneinEncanto 2 points 2 years ago
Could see them still out and exploring, but upon finding a new race the greeting would be different for sure... a request for those who "feel compelled" to join them in their quest for perfection (or whatever they now consider their new goal) in exchange they would assist in the improvement of some technologies that said race has already developed, as not to introduce anything too radically different from what they're using already, with emphasis on assisting in the medical technologies, to help show the other races around galaxy that they really do mean to be different than they were, and help others to survive now as a route of penance of a sort.
[–]flameoflokiLieutenant 2 points 2 years ago
I don't see my proposed New Collective being explorers at first. The Composite would spend some time initially coming to terms with the new state the Collective is experiencing, contemplating the potential deaths of Drones (since the proposed Composite would be aware of the Drones as what creates the Composite) and figuring out some goals. We would see the New Collective/Composite become exploratory again, maybe after they/it come to terms with the inevitably of death and loss balanced against the benefits of risky behavior. The first vessels of the New Collective to become really active would likely be staffed by or influenced by people who had been assimilated but decided to stay after the Composite deleted the Queen(s) who've managed to spread their desire for knowledge and innovation through some Drones that were originally clones.
For a long while, a majority of the vast Borg population would be confused and anxious Drones trying to make sense of and find purpose with their new hybrid lifestyle. They would be able to maintain their infrastructure through their link, of course, but it might take years or even generations before the majority of Borg could be described as completely comfortable with their new existence. Many older cloned Drones may even voluntarily throw themselves completely into the work of just being Drones for the security, stability and predictability it offers them.
In this scenario I can see that the New Collective may very well continue to get a significant trickle of outside members. You might see people who seek the New Collective out who are influenced by a development agenda they latched onto, people afflicted with physical ailments without any known cure, elderly people who hope that their life experiences or scientific knowledge will be preserved and continue to contribute when they eventually pass on in spite of the New Collective's medical might.
You might just get lots of people whose curiosity has overwhelmed their fears and concerns. People often don't like being forced to do something but if you leave something out in the open that passers by can choose to ignore or stick their noses into despite not knowing what they might be getting into a good number of people are going to poke around at it.
The Borg even already have the capability of hooking someone into the Collective with not very invasive technology. They could take in and partially assimilate people so that they could decide whether they were comfortable staying and the New Collective would still receive their scientific knowledge if it didn't work out. They might even offer some kind of distant partnership with people in which they get a transmit-only implant in exchange for things like brain enhancing implants and medical modifications and education/instant training that other governments simply can't provide.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DaystromInstitute/comments/2av947/if_the_borg_were_to_cease_all_offensive_action/
i really liked the exploration of what the borg may have become like if they began to develop a gestalt-type group consciousness.
besides, in a nutshell, this is a good description of our T'elX. :)
[–]flameoflokiLieutenant 22 points 2 years ago
I think that the answer to this question depends heavily on why the Borg have ceased being aggressive.
In the scenario I'd like to see a new master composite personality arises from the Borg that truly represents the sum of the Drones. It recognizes the contribution of all the Drones to its uniqueness and feels protective of them and can manifest through any Drone at random. It decides the Borg Queen (or Queens) are something like troublesome parasites that have been getting Drones (pieces of itself) killed with bad planning and narcissistic scheming. In one move it isolates and destroys all the Queens.
So what happens next would be that the new Composite wishes the tiny bits of itself to be... "Well". It isolates and determines which involuntarily assimilated individuals would like to be free and then does exactly that. It creates copies of their culturally related space vessels that can travel at the maximum speed the Borg can produce and returns them to where they came or to a similar environment that supports their type of biological life. All clones remain and all assimilated individuals that express the desire to stay remain as well.
Intensive work begins within the new Collective. A kind of semi-autonomy is slowly rolled out to all Drones so that they can continue to feel close as a whole and contribute but also have quiet time and unique thoughts. Borg implants are furiously modified to be as aesthetically pleasing, inoffensive and small as possible for Drones and many heavier duty implants are discarded in favor of handheld tools easily available in all locations. The Borg Cubes are polished on the outside to become eerie mirrored Cubes that reflect mostly the void of space. On the inside the Cubes becomes a strange, changing combination of utilitarian function and relaxation. Much of it may even be purely holographic to reflect the shifting whims of the now evolving Drones.
The New Collective and the Composite take steps to signal to all the other powers and even lesser powers that it no longer wishes to have conflict with them. Perhaps it even proposes the free back and forth voluntary exchange of information, offering medical and relatively harmless technology to improve the quality of life for the other species.
In my scenario the Federation and other societies would probably be able to make appeals to the Collective for individuals that it knows or believes to have been assimilated to see if they still exist (weren't blown up in a Cube or Probe somewhere). If the assimilated Drone expressed a desire to leave there's not much reason for the Collective to make them stay as the Composite would be aware of and have to experience their suffering itself. The Federation would be in the position of being unethical if they attempted to remove Drones from this environment and refused to allow them to return if they wished. It might be unethical to even try to remove them if you take into account the release of other assimilated individuals and officially "accept" the New Collective's claims of how Drones now exist.
Lots of people would not be able to forgive the Borg that came before though. Lots of people wouldn't be able to accept that these were not just the same Borg but somehow less stupid and they would believe that this is all an elaborate act. It would be interesting to see how the New Collective/Composite balances its desire to protect itself (all Drones) against continued aggression from outside entities. Full retreat, trying to minimize loss? Full attack, trying to damage the aggressive society's infrastructure (surely sacrificing some Drones in the process) so that they could no longer attack? Continued negotiations?
Imagine people having to interact with these strange new Borg. Their odd, now possibly organic looking but vaguely artistic metal implants, their strange hybrid communal and individual perspective, knowing that the Composite is technically always there and just by asking any schmuck could literally talk to the sum of all Borg.
[–]KaneinEncanto 2 points 2 years ago
Could see them still out and exploring, but upon finding a new race the greeting would be different for sure... a request for those who "feel compelled" to join them in their quest for perfection (or whatever they now consider their new goal) in exchange they would assist in the improvement of some technologies that said race has already developed, as not to introduce anything too radically different from what they're using already, with emphasis on assisting in the medical technologies, to help show the other races around galaxy that they really do mean to be different than they were, and help others to survive now as a route of penance of a sort.
[–]flameoflokiLieutenant 2 points 2 years ago
I don't see my proposed New Collective being explorers at first. The Composite would spend some time initially coming to terms with the new state the Collective is experiencing, contemplating the potential deaths of Drones (since the proposed Composite would be aware of the Drones as what creates the Composite) and figuring out some goals. We would see the New Collective/Composite become exploratory again, maybe after they/it come to terms with the inevitably of death and loss balanced against the benefits of risky behavior. The first vessels of the New Collective to become really active would likely be staffed by or influenced by people who had been assimilated but decided to stay after the Composite deleted the Queen(s) who've managed to spread their desire for knowledge and innovation through some Drones that were originally clones.
For a long while, a majority of the vast Borg population would be confused and anxious Drones trying to make sense of and find purpose with their new hybrid lifestyle. They would be able to maintain their infrastructure through their link, of course, but it might take years or even generations before the majority of Borg could be described as completely comfortable with their new existence. Many older cloned Drones may even voluntarily throw themselves completely into the work of just being Drones for the security, stability and predictability it offers them.
In this scenario I can see that the New Collective may very well continue to get a significant trickle of outside members. You might see people who seek the New Collective out who are influenced by a development agenda they latched onto, people afflicted with physical ailments without any known cure, elderly people who hope that their life experiences or scientific knowledge will be preserved and continue to contribute when they eventually pass on in spite of the New Collective's medical might.
You might just get lots of people whose curiosity has overwhelmed their fears and concerns. People often don't like being forced to do something but if you leave something out in the open that passers by can choose to ignore or stick their noses into despite not knowing what they might be getting into a good number of people are going to poke around at it.
The Borg even already have the capability of hooking someone into the Collective with not very invasive technology. They could take in and partially assimilate people so that they could decide whether they were comfortable staying and the New Collective would still receive their scientific knowledge if it didn't work out. They might even offer some kind of distant partnership with people in which they get a transmit-only implant in exchange for things like brain enhancing implants and medical modifications and education/instant training that other governments simply can't provide.