Pre-Conscious Humans May Have Been Like the Borg

Does an alien race from Star Trek tell the story of human consciousness?

Photos: CBS

By Jacob Lopata

Captain Picard: “How do we reason with them, let them know that we are not a threat?”
Guinan: “You don’t. At least, I’ve never known anyone who did.”

With this brief, ominous exchange, the heroes of Star Trek: The Next Generation are introduced to one of their most formidable enemies: the Borg, a race of cyborgs whose minds are linked to a collective “hive mind” through sophisticated technology. The collective expands their civilization through a process of mental and physical “assimilation”: They find new intelligent beings, like humans, implant them with Borg technology, and integrate them into the hive mind, erasing their previous identities.

AWESTRUCK: With human-type consciousness, an adolescent Borg named Hugh gains human-type wonder, after he is separated from the collective consciousness of the Borg.

Individual Borg are not conscious in the way humans are, and they have no sense of individuality. The hive mind is a dictator, an unquestioned voice that commands each individual. The Borg nature is split in two, an executive called the collective and a follower called the drone.