Are the Borg just robotic Zombies?

[Trekker4747]

They have something of a hive mind.

They have no individual drive or goals.

They seemingly exist on to proliferate their own kind through direct contact and then puncturing of the skin.

They move rather slowly.

To an extent injury has no real impact on them short of a rather severe injury (not quite brain-stabbing, but almost close considering their armor and resistance to phaser fire.)

The Borg are basically zombies, TNG was just way ahead of the curve on the craze.

 

[jazzstick]

They have something of a hive mind.

They have no individual drive or goals.

They seemingly exist on to proliferate their own kind through direct contact and then puncturing of the skin.

They move rather slowly.

To an extent injury has no real impact on them short of a rather severe injury (not quite brain-stabbing, but almost close considering their armor and resistance to phaser fire.)

The Borg are basically zombies, TNG was just way ahead of the curve on the craze.

You are dead on sir!


Don't forget what Eddington said to Sisko about the Federation being like the Borg, which I think applies!

"I know you. I was like you once. But then I opened my eyes. Open your eyes, Captain. Why is the Federation so obsessed with the Maquis? We've never harmed you. And yet we're constantly arrested and charged with terrorism. Starships chase us through the Badlands, and our supporters are harassed and ridiculed. Why? Because we've left the Federation, and that's the one thing you can't accept. Nobody leaves Paradise, everyone should want to be in the Federation! Hell, you even want the Cardassians to join. You're only sending them replicators because one day, they can take their rightful place on the Federation Council. You know, in some ways, you're even worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You're more insidious, you assimilate people - and they don't even know it."

The Borg are wonderful because they are the opposite of the Federation but still very much the same. They both use technology and want to move foward and grow, one through cultural and dipolmatic channels and the other through a lack of indiviuality and military conquest. Both organizations have an agenda but are opposites!

The Borg are so wonderfully written!

 

[Praetor]

Agreed with the OP. I don't think the original intent was exactly zombies, but by First Contact they had been basically turned to this. I've always wondered if they weren't intended to be an extreme take on Communism and the like.

And this...

The Borg are wonderful because they are the opposite of the Federation but still very much the same. They both use technology and want to move foward and grow, one through cultural and dipolmatic channels and the other through a lack of indiviuality and military conquest. Both organizations have an agenda but are opposites!

Is quite well stated.

 

[Melakon]

The best analogy I read came from one of the writers in an interview. He said the Borg were sort of like America, assimilating other cultures and homogenizing those aspects that make those cultures unique.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Y'know, America is a bit beleaguered these days, but being the Borg seems a bit much.

 

[PhoenixClass]

I think there are significant differences between the Borg and zombies (although the answer to this question depends on how you imagine zombies).

I've never thought of zombies having a hive mind; they don't have much of a mind at all. Zombies don't think or talk or adapt.

The Borg do communicate and are very intelligent. Adaptation is their hallmark, of course.

As for proliferating through direct contact and puncturing, that could be said about any sexually reproducing species.

 

[The Librarian]

The Borg only wish to increase quality of life for everyone.

 

[Avon]

the borg are like zombies, except when sometimes they're not.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Zombies, by definition, have no intelligence whatsoever. The Borg are intelligent - collectively so. (Plus, it is possible to leave the Collective and become individual again.) Therefore, the Borg are not zombies.

And for the last time, the Federation is nothing like the Borg, because (among other things) the Federation never forces worlds to join. They have the right to make their case, so to speak - to convince a world of the benefits of membership. But the ultimate choice is up to that world. If they don't want to join, they aren't forced to. You don't see the Borg offering a choice, do ya?

 

[bbjeg]

^I agree, plus zombies are dead, you can free a Borg and convert them back to normal.

 

[jpv2000]

^I agree, plus zombies are dead, you can free a Borg and convert them back to normal.

I'm in agreement with both you and Mr. Laser Beam's comments.

 

[Trekker4747]

Zombies, by definition, have no intelligence whatsoever. The Borg are intelligent - collectively so. (Plus, it is possible to leave the Collective and become individual again.) Therefore, the Borg are not zombies.

And for the last time, the Federation is nothing like the Borg, because (among other things) the Federation never forces worlds to join. They have the right to make their case, so to speak - to convince a world of the benefits of membership. But the ultimate choice is up to that world. If they don't want to join, they aren't forced to. You don't see the Borg offering a choice, do ya?

Well, I wasn't talking about "literal" zombie just sort of... "in spirit" I suppose and even then just for fun.

 

[Makarov]

I definitely think of them as a type of zombie. There's a lot of zombie movies where they possess some intelligence and also a few where a person is either cured or comes back.

Speaking of zombies I'm trying to imagine Picard in an actual zombie outbreak, trying to argue for their rights and being diplomatic about it xD

 

[Trekker4747]

...I'm trying to imagine Picard in an actual zombie outbreak, trying to argue for their rights and being diplomatic about it xD

Depending on the "type" of zombie we're talking about I doubt Picard could argue for rights. Though you've just given me an idea I might knock out for some Halloween "fan fiction" with zombies (classic Romero type) invading the Enterprise.

But on the bent of "largely mindless drones mostly only bent on propagating their species through a form of contact" Borg fit a very wide definition of "Zombie."

Sure the Borg *do* have "an" intelligence and a means to their end in what they do (where as Zombies typically have neither) but they're both still gray, slow-moving, beings whom you don't want touching you.

 

[Pondwater]

Cybernetic Zombies with a purpose. To assimilate and conquer.

 

[jpv2000]

Speaking of zombies I'm trying to imagine Picard in an actual zombie outbreak, trying to argue for their rights and being diplomatic about it xD

Good one!

 

[jimbotron]

The Borg weren't zombies to begin with. They were bees. Technology was their pollen. And like bees, they will ignore you unless you swat at them or threaten their hive.

However, with the repeated changes to the Borg, they became zombies, starting with First Contact. They use those arm tubules on you and you eventually become a Borg, much like a zombie would bite would eventually make you a zombie.

Though the writers could never keep things straight. Once the Borg were changed to assimilate people en masse, there's no reason why they should ignore people who "don't pose a threat." That idea is a relic from an obsolete definition of the Borg.

 

[Captain_Amasov]

And one more change that was irksome:

From The Best of Both Worlds:

Locutus: "We only wish to raise quality of life, for all species."

From Mortal Coil:

Seven of Nine: "The Kazon. Species three two nine." "Their biological and technological distinctiveness was unremarkable. They were unworthy of assimilation." "Why assimilate a species that would detract from perfection?"

 

[Trekker4747]

Voyager was a mess. It was always my idea the change to assimilating cultures came from the Borg cube's interaction with the -D. They captured some humans, made them into Borg and those Federation humans "infected" the Borg with the idea of assimilation. (On a very jaded look, it's essentially what the Federation DOES. Maybe not quite so severely as to make such a bland culture but still...) But Voyager screwed that up by suggest the Borg have ALWAYS assimilated beings for centuries and that it wasn't a fairly new development.

 

[Makarov]

I thought TNG already established they previously assimilated other cultures with "We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own"