Regeneration: Did those 2 revived Borg retain all tech knowledge of the Collective?

[at Quark's]

I've always assumed that the knowledge of the Collective is too vast to store in one single drone so that it is maintained in both computers and distributed over large numbers of drones - each drone knowing a (small) part, but with enough redundancy and distribution to ensure that no knowledge is ever lost. But perhaps I'm wrong in that assumption.

Now, Regeneration. Only 2 drones are revived, and as far as we know they didn't take any computers or databases from their original craft with them (though that of course could have happened offscreen).

So, how much technical knowledge did those 2 have? All the knowledge of the 24th century collective, or significantly less? Given time, could they have built a fully functional cube with all tech standard to the 24th century Borg?

 

[Turd Ferguson]

I would imagine they'd have the knowledge of the whole Collective. Remember in Voyager, anytime the ship would stumble on something, Seven would relate a similar circumstance/species encountered by the Borg. So the Borg don't lose their collective (lol) knowledge just because they're kicked out/removed from the Collective.

 

[Timo]

The construction feat in "Regeneration" is merely humdrum by Trek standards anyway - remember Keevan the Vorta's comment about Starfleet engineers who make replicators out of rocks? If these two Drones were merely the accodingly "scaled-up" version of, say, you or me without Wikipedia or Memory Alpha, they would retain enough tidbits to build FTL spacecraft out of available parts, perhaps having done like work for their entire lives and then some.

Some fine detail would be lost without access to that handy Wikipedia, and something might even go catastrophically wrong due to lacunae in the knowledge, but the Drones would have time to correct their mistakes while the heroes dragged far behind them.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[CommanderRaytas]

As a side note, I think it would have been smarter for Borg to draw their info from a cloud rather than have everything stored in their bodies. That would have made for better character development where Space Barbie's concerned (imho). As for Regeneration, I believe (as was said above, too) that some info would be there, but without access to the collective, the drones' knowledge would be incomplete.

 

[at Quark's]

I would imagine they'd have the knowledge of the whole Collective. Remember in Voyager, anytime the ship would stumble on something, Seven would relate a similar circumstance/species encountered by the Borg. So the Borg don't lose their collective (lol) knowledge just because they're kicked out/removed from the Collective.

I know Voyager tells us so. There's also this conversation between 7 and Kim:

KIM: "I was Borg". That's what you always say but what does it mean? You've got the knowledge of ten thousand species in your head?
SEVEN: Not exactly. Each drone's experiences are processed by the Collective. Only useful information is retained.
KIM: Still, that probably makes you the most intelligent human being alive.
SEVEN: Probably.

It's just that I never found it credible that a single drone could retain all that information. No human can retain all useful information known to human species, and that's just a single species, not 10.000.
Now, a drone might perhaps retain more than a human, because his capabilities have been enhanced, but after de-assimilation a lot of those enhancements would have been stripped, as well. So I still find it hard to believe 7 would retain all useful knowledge of 10.000 species.

Also, even if it were true, why doesn't Picard know all those things? Or, later, Janeway? Or Tuvok or B 'elanna? All have been assimilated at some point. Is that merely because 7 was assimilated a lot longer?

 

[Takeru]

Also, even if it were true, why doesn't Picard know all those things? Or, later, Janeway? Or Tuvok or B 'elanna? All have been assimilated at some point. Is that merely because 7 was assimilated a lot longer?

Seven and Icheb retained some cranial implants, part of that could be enhanced memory and data banks. Drones who were assimilated for a shorter time lost them, maybe they weren't as integrated into their biological functions and easier to remove?

 

[Kemaiku]

Isn't there some episode set in the future where they have her skull, and nearly everything in her head is mechanical? that she barely had any brain "tissue" left?

http://voy.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/5x06/timeless_168.jpg

http://voy.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/5x06/timeless_213.jpg

 

[Timo]

Not only is it likely that these ex-Drones retain memory doodads, it is likely despite all their protestations that they also retain a degree of connectivity to the Collective. After all, the Collective does succeed in hailing them, with direct "telepathy" - the Queen harasses both Seven and Picard with direct messaging, while Picard gets gimpses of Collective processes that allow him to defeat them in the battle above Earth in ST:FC.

Seven for one would be highly motivated to lie about where her knowledge comes from...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[at Quark's]

Not only is it likely that these ex-Drones retain memory doodads, it is likely despite all their protestations that they also retain a degree of connectivity to the Collective. After all, the Collective does succeed in hailing them, with direct "telepathy" - the Queen harasses both Seven and Picard with direct messaging, while Picard gets gimpses of Collective processes that allow him to defeat them in the battle above Earth in ST:FC.

Seven for one would be highly motivated to lie about where her knowledge comes from...

Timo Saloniemi

So it seems the link can be used voluntary by the Borg Queen, but there's also an involuntary element to it - at least, that's assuming the Borg didn't want to get defeated and their timetravel was plan B ...

 

[Timo]

Since the Borg always keep blowing up and the Queen nevertheless keeps smirking that "everything is going according to plan", we might do well to believe the contact with Locutus in ST:FC was part of a plan that ultimately succeeded to perfection. This would get an extra boost from this being a time travel adventure: surely the time travelers would keep on trying until their victory was complete?

Or then we might assume the Borg are merely sore losers who reinterpret every defeat of theirs as a victory after the fact... And certainly every word ever spoken by the Queen in the presence of one of our heroes should be assumed to be a lie, because what other reason would the Queen have for speaking?

With Seven, the Doc always knew there was lots of hardware remaining inside her. With Picard, Crusher initially claimed she had been successful in purging him - but later events might have proven her false many times over, and this wouldn't warrant comment in ST:FC any longer. Certainly her failure would be expected, considering general Borg finesse an stealth, and the failure of Julian "Positronic Brain Prosthetics In A Jiffy" Bashir to remove even the simple macroscopic Wire device from Garak's midbrain.

Both sides would thus know of the potential of link-up, and both sides are shown abusing it in VOY. But in ST:FC, the abuse would probably be by the Borg alone, as those heroes are much less experienced in Borg tactics and ways of thinking.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Strange Duck]

this was an interesing read. I dont think the retained all te knowledge of the collective but more like they remember that they had access to all the knowledge. Like waking up from a dream and the memory fades over time.

It sonds a bit philisophical but i think we have all had that dream were we can fly, or moe things with our mind or whatever. So when the borg get disconected the are for a while stuck in that "waking" momment where they know they had access to all this knowledge but cant connect the dots.

That to me explains the desperate need to reconnect with the collective. Its like a security blanket that shields them from insecurity and uncertainty. Look at "one" as an example.

just my .02.