A question about Borg adaptation in TrekLit...

[Christopher]

^As a rule, any attack against the Borg only works once. They don't anticipate unforeseen possibilities, so you can always get in one or two hits with an attack they haven't faced before. But once they've seen it, they can adapt to it and it can't be used again. That's been the standard pattern for Borg engagements from the very beginning.

The problem with that idea, though, is that it tends to be portrayed as though the first time Starfleet attempts a particular maneuver against the Borg is the first time anyone has ever tried it. Realistically, if the Borg have been around for millennia, assimilating thousands of civilizations, then anything Starfleet tries -- certainly something as obvious as beaming a torpedo aboard -- should've been done already, and the Borg should've already adapted to it.

 

[Sci]

^As a rule, any attack against the Borg only works once. They don't anticipate unforeseen possibilities, so you can always get in one or two hits with an attack they haven't faced before. But once they've seen it, they can adapt to it and it can't be used again. That's been the standard pattern for Borg engagements from the very beginning.

The problem with that idea, though, is that it tends to be portrayed as though the first time Starfleet attempts a particular maneuver against the Borg is the first time anyone has ever tried it. Realistically, if the Borg have been around for millennia, assimilating thousands of civilizations, then anything Starfleet tries -- certainly something as obvious as beaming a torpedo aboard -- should've been done already, and the Borg should've already adapted to it.

To be fair, when the Delta Flyer is able to use Magnus Hansen's stealth technology without the Borg figuring it out at first, "Dark Frontier" seems to imply that if a particular technology that the Borg have adapted to isn't encountered in a very long time, the adaptation itself is de-activated and stored in their databanks until they next encounter something requiring the adaptation again.

 

[Deano2099]

Q & A addresses the "don't provoke the Borg" line brilliantly I thought. To say anymore would spoil it.

 

[21Spike65]

Q & A addresses the "don't provoke the Borg" line brilliantly I thought. To say anymore would spoil it.

I've read Q&A, but I don't recall it addressing that. Do you happen to have a page number handy? Or if not, could you put it in spoiler codes?

Thanks.

 

[JarodRussell]

I think he means that Q feared that if they are provoked, they would find that certain something he wanted a certain Starfleet officer to find first in that novel.

 

[21Spike65]

I think he means that Q feared that if they are provoked, they would find that certain something he wanted a certain Starfleet officer to find first in that novel.

Ah, gotcha.

Thanks!

 

[Sci]

Though Before Dishonor by Peter David also features a sequence suggesting that the Borg may have posed more of a potential threat to the Q than one might think.