The Borg and Ants
"Restless aggression, territorial conquest, and genocidal annihilation ... whenever possible.... The colony is integrated as though it were in fact one organism ruled by a genome that constrains behavior as it also enables it.... The physical superorganism acts to adjust the demographic mix so as to optimize its energy economy.... The austere rules allow of no play, no art, no empathy."
The Borg are among the most frightening, and intriguing, species of alien creature ever portrayed on the television screen. What makes them so fascinating, from my point of view, is that some organism like them seems plausible on the basis of natural selection. Indeed, although the paragraph quoted above provides an apt description of the Borg, it is not taken from a Star Trek episode. Rather it appears in a review of Bert Holldobler and Edward O. Wilson's Journey to the Ants, and it is a description not of the Borg but of our own terrestrial insect friends. 1 Ants have been remarkably successful on an evolutionary scale, and it is not hard to see why. Is it impossible to imagine a cognizant society developing into a similar communal superorgan-ism? Would intellectual refinements such as empathy be necessary to such a society? Or would they be a hindrance?
Notes:
Krauss presents a quote about E.O.Wilson's book on ants and how it works perfectly to describe the Borg in Star Trek.
Folksonomies: science fiction star trek ants collectivism
Taxonomies:
/society (0.643409)
/law, govt and politics/government (0.478420)
/society/unrest and war (0.477911)
Keywords:
Star Trek (0.948224 (positive:0.861525)), Borg (0.915767 (positive:0.632942)), Star Trek episode (0.850211 (neutral:0.000000)), terrestrial insect friends (0.848840 (neutral:0.000000)), Edward O. Wilson (0.840282 (neutral:0.000000)), similar communal superorgan-ism (0.839759 (neutral:0.000000)), Ants Krauss (0.839010 (positive:0.861525)), genocidal annihilation (0.743411 (negative:-0.559412)), Restless aggression (0.700661 (negative:-0.613416)), territorial conquest (0.689234 (negative:-0.254310)), physical superorganism (0.675646 (neutral:0.000000)), austere rules (0.659705 (negative:-0.314372)), intellectual refinements (0.650041 (positive:0.565511)), demographic mix (0.637542 (neutral:0.000000)), alien creature (0.630688 (neutral:0.000000)), energy economy (0.625869 (neutral:0.000000)), apt description (0.615428 (positive:0.201375)), Bert Holldobler (0.612340 (neutral:0.000000)), television screen (0.611614 (neutral:0.000000)), natural selection (0.605765 (positive:0.650694)), evolutionary scale (0.599638 (neutral:0.000000)), cognizant society (0.576524 (neutral:0.000000)), empathy (0.437895 (negative:-0.590455)), hindrance (0.407187 (neutral:0.000000)), quote (0.362814 (positive:0.861525)), colony (0.361549 (neutral:0.000000)), paragraph (0.361271 (positive:0.201375)), E.O.Wilson (0.360570 (positive:0.861525)), book (0.360521 (positive:0.861525)), genome (0.359559 (neutral:0.000000))
Entities:
Ants Krauss:Person (0.863485 (positive:0.861525)), Bert Holldobler:Person (0.479809 (neutral:0.000000)), energy economy:FieldTerminology (0.476715 (neutral:0.000000)), E.O.Wilson:Person (0.434028 (positive:0.861525)), Edward O. Wilson:Person (0.433638 (neutral:0.000000))
Concepts:
Evolution (0.967340): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Star Trek (0.801084): website | dbpedia | freebase | yago
Organism (0.791637): dbpedia | freebase
The Ants (0.773957): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Natural selection (0.761284): dbpedia | freebase
E. O. Wilson (0.708037): dbpedia | freebase | yago
Insect (0.693321): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Star Trek: The Next Generation (0.686868): website | dbpedia | freebase
The Physics of Star Trek