From: Ziana Astralos (ziana@extrotech.net)
Date: Thu Dec 21 2000 - 13:14:12 MST
On Thu, 21 December 2000, Anders Sandberg wrote:
> Exactly. One of the interesting ideas ST had about
> the Borg was that it was a highly adaptable
> "species". In guess the Borg would be extremely
> flexible if what any unit learned would be
> transferred to the whole collective - which was of
> course why ST then ignored the whole thing except
> for some silly talk about phaser frequencies.
Well, of course-- this *is* Star Trek we're talking about here! :-) The whole Borg concept, [as portrayed in Star Trek] already a contrived metaphor for technophobia, wasn't even used according to the show's own definitions... the most obvious example being the introduction of the "Borg Queen", which disregards any previous "group mind" descriptions of the Borg, as *she* is now supposed to be the one controlling them all. ~sigh~ They could at least stay consistent with the original fallacies instead of introducing ones which contradict themselves! :-)
> A Borg that changed strategy, used clever ambushes,
> exploited the know-how about the enemy newly
> assimilated units had and moved fast would not make
> a good enemy, since Enterprise wouldn't have a chance
> :-) Sasha described something like this collective
> learning in his Networking in the Mind Age paper.
Exactly, they wouldn't have a chance! I read a great book recently, _The Computers Of Star Trek_ by Lois H. Gresh and Robert Weinberg. It discussed what the "Star Trek" future would actually be like if the technologies incorporated (such as what must be a very high level of nanotech) were accurately projected, but also said that the reason why Star Trek's tech is so off-kilter is because, after all, it is a TV show, and a more realistic/accurate portrayal of the directions of future technologies would make for a far less commercially viable TV show. And the Borg wouldn't be the enemy ;-)
> You don't need a group mind to create a learning
> organisation though. As Greg pointed out, the legal
> system acts as a very slow one. (Hmm, maybe that
> would be a suitable opponent in Star Trek: "Captain,
> our scanners detect a Litigator Cube ahead! It has
> caught us in a subpoena beam!").
lol... The scriptwriters could have Greg fill in the spots for "legalbabble" (like the infamous "technobabble"). :-)
Aumentar!
Onward,
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