What would be the Borg Queen's designation?

[USS Triumphant]

You're certainly correct, but the Borg were something special. My solution to what you're talking about would probably have been to use them more sparingly, and introduce a new threat to use in those other stories.

But also, Locutus and Hugh did not diminish the menace, nor did Seven, really, if her origin had not also had to involve the stupid queen. The only things I would really say diminished them were the existence of the queen and the way Voyager overused the heck out of her and the Borg in general. And even the queen could have worked if she had been an anomaly that was managing to control part of the Collective, a part that would have returned to normal function if she was gotten rid of somehow. She just didn't work as "The Borg". She seemed more like a Batman villain.

 

[Sci]

I don't think the Borg Queen would have a designation, any more than your neocortex has a name.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I don't think the Borg Queen would have a designation, any more than your neocortex has a name.

IRONY.

 

[Sci]

I don't think the Borg Queen would have a designation, any more than your neocortex has a name.

IRONY.

Only if you're being deliberately obtuse about the definition of a "name."

It has a "name" insofar as it is a distinct region of the brain and a term has been developed to refer to it exclusively. It does not have a "name" in the sense of a personal name, a middle name, and a family name; it does not have a unique identity separate from the person to whom it belongs.

Similarly, the Queen does not have a name in the sense of having a unique identity separate from the Borg Collective. She may have a description -- the "Borg Queen." But she has no name.

 

[USS Triumphant]

I don't think the Borg Queen would have a designation, any more than your neocortex has a name.

IRONY.

Only if you're being deliberately obtuse about the definition of a "name."

It has a "name" insofar as it is a distinct region of the brain and a term has been developed to refer to it exclusively. It does not have a "name" in the sense of a personal name, a middle name, and a family name; it does not have a unique identity separate from the person to whom it belongs.

Do "7 of 9" or "4 of 12" sound like personal names to you? Did you specify name, or personal name? You tell me I'm wrong, and then proceed to explain why I'm exactly right.

 

[Christopher]

But Sci, you yourself said up front that it was about whether the Queen had a designation. A Borg designation, which is what we've been talking about throughout this whole thread, is not a name, but a numerical descriptor of placement and function, such as "7 of 9, tertiary adjunct of Unimatrix 01." The question on the table is whether the Queen has, essentially, a "part number" like other drones do. Or maybe an IP address is the right analogy?

Triumphant's point is that "neocortex" is the designator for that part of the brain, the label that specifies its function within the whole. Just as "aileron" or "fanbelt" or "modem" is a designator of a component's function within a machine. The Borg Collective is a machine/organism in which the drones are the individual components, and those components are all labeled with numerical and verbal descriptors identifying their place in the whole. So the question is, what would be the descriptor for the Queen? It isn't "Queen," since that's an analogy to a component of an insect colony, which is in turn an analogy to a role within a human sociopolitical hierarchy. But it's not just "The Borg," because she's just the part of the Borg that focuses and channels the group mind's activity and gives it volition, much like the human frontal lobe.

What we do know is that the organizational substructure the Queen belongs to is called Unimatrix One. (Oddly, this is apparently not the same thing as Unimatrix Zero One, which Seven was part of.) So her designation might be something like "One of One, primary nexus of Unimatrix One." Or maybe just "Primary nexus of Unimatrix One."

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Or maybe just "Primary nexus of Unimatrix One."

That seems most likely. I doubt the Borg would waste time on long, rambling phrases - paragraphs, even - which get excessively technical. After all, the Borg have no ego which would compel them to continuously lord over others how smart they are.

 

[Vanyel]

..."Primary nexus of Unimatrix One."

I like that. I could agree to seeing that as her designation.

 

[Robbiesan]

How about Alice Krige?

Okay, that's snarky. Probably I would name her: One.

 

[Sci]

But Sci, you yourself said up front that it was about whether the Queen had a designation. A Borg designation, which is what we've been talking about throughout this whole thread, is not a name, but a numerical descriptor of placement and function, such as "7 of 9, tertiary adjunct of Unimatrix 01." The question on the table is whether the Queen has, essentially, a "part number" like other drones do. Or maybe an IP address is the right analogy?

Triumphant's point is that "neocortex" is the designator for that part of the brain, the label that specifies its function within the whole.

Let me put it this way:

You knew, from a very young age, that you had a hand. You knew what your hand was; you had a sense of your hand as being a part of you, but also as being a distinct part of you. Or a foot. Or a nose. These things were things you could clearly sense and distinguish within yourself. Some of the first words you ever learned were names for those parts of your body.

But you did not know you had a neocortex until you were told that it existed by someone else, likely years after you learned of your hand and your nose and your foot. Until someone told you about your neocortex, you had no idea it existed, no name for it. You had no sense of your neocortex as a distinct part of your body; your neocortex was seamlessly integrated into your self-identity, because it was invisible to you.

I am suggesting that the Queen may be the same way. That she, in other words, is as seamlessly integrated into the Borg Collective's consciousness as a neocortex is into a Human's -- to the point where they literally may not have a separate term for the Queen within their collective mind.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Until someone told you about your neocortex, you had no idea it existed, no name for it. You had no sense of your neocortex as a distinct part of your body

Except for that unfortunate incident with a massive overdose of cough medicine.

 

[Christopher]

Again, Sci, your analogy isn't particularly applicable here, because we already know for a fact that the Borg Collective does give numerical and verbal designators to its component drones -- Third of Five, Seven of Nine, and so forth. That might be implausible for the reason you cite, but it's an established fact of the universe. So it makes perfect sense in context to assume that the Queen also has a similar designation.

 

[USS Triumphant]

A related question: Did Locutus have a separate designation in the Collective, or was "Locutus" sufficient for their internal matters, too? I'm thinking it was, because in Descent, one of the Borg referred to him that way. In which case, maybe "Queen" is all the designation she needs for their purposes, too.

 

[F. King Daniel]

He was Snuggams of Queenie.

 

[Gov Kodos]

Ayesha, She who must be obeyed.