Borg Designations

[c0rnedfr0g]

They seems to be random, don't they? Is there any rhyme or reason to them?

It seems they are numbered according to when the Borg first encountered them (Kazon and Talaxians have lower designations while Earthlings and Vulcans have higher designations), yet some things disagree with this (Ferengi with a very low designation and a mention of Species 10026 in Dark Frontier -- hard to believe that the Borg have encountered 1500 species between Species 8472 and the events of VOY: DF).

Any Borg out there know the answer? Jeri?

 

[Haytil]

(Ferengi with a very low designation

It's likely that somehow the Borg encounted a small number of Ferengi (or a lone individual) who had traveled to their space hundreds of years ago - this may have involved space-time rifts (allowing travel not only via great distances, but back in time as well, contributing to the relative early point in Borg history in which they were encountered). This wouldn't have been the first time (consider the three Ferengi that travelled through the Barzan Wormhole).

and a mention of Species 10026 in Dark Frontier -- hard to believe that the Borg have encountered 1500 species between Species 8472 and the events of VOY: DF).

To be fair, as the Borg's domain grows, the surface area of its controlled territory expands at an increasing rate - they will find more species faster and faster as time goes on, which provides more raw materials and individual drones to fuel even further expansion - it is a vicious cycle, like a disease.

Also, as the Borg gain more experience dealing with more and more species, their prepared tactics and increasingly enhanced technology means that other advanced species can put up less of a fight than previous species - so they fall quicker, and the rate of Borg expansion continues to increase.

 

[jgdst]

and a mention of Species 10026 in Dark Frontier -- hard to believe that the Borg have encountered 1500 species between Species 8472 and the events of VOY: DF).

To be fair, as the Borg's domain grows, the surface area of its controlled territory expands at an increasing rate - they will find more species faster and faster as time goes on, which provides more raw materials and individual drones to fuel even further expansion - it is a vicious cycle, like a disease.

Also, as the Borg gain more experience dealing with more and more species, their prepared tactics and increasingly enhanced technology means that other advanced species can put up less of a fight than previous species - so they fall quicker, and the rate of Borg expansion continues to increase.

Isn't there a mention early on in season 4 of Voyager that the Borg have also dabbled with extra dimensions/realms and even different galaxies on their travels? If that was the case, a completely unprepared region of space that hasn't got anything like the Borg would be over-run fairly quickly, meaning the Borg could conquer a species and move on to the next at a fairly quick rate.

A cube or two per new region, moving outwards, with an unknown number of new regions being explored, could reasonably add up two 1600 new species in a little under 18 months...

I'm assuming that the designations are given once a species is encountered, rather than assimilated, just to make 1600 a more justifiable number. I could be wrong.

 

[Timo]

It's likely that somehow the Borg encounted a small number of Ferengi (or a lone individual) who had traveled to their space hundreds of years ago

Either that, or the Borg traveled to Ferenginar a long time ago.

Perhaps a Species designation is only given to a sentient, technologically oriented species. The Ferengi could have reached that stage long, long before humans, Vulcans or even Bajorans did. "Little Green Men" mentions how the Ferengi were slow to develop their technologies after getting started; the species might thus have shown promise tens of thousands of years before humans did, but would still have only barely reached parity by the time of Star Trek.

Timo Saloniemi