Borg Collective
- "In their collective state, the Borg are utterly without mercy; driven by one will alone: the will to conquer. They are beyond redemption, beyond reason."
- - Jean-Luc Picard, quoted by Kathryn Janeway (VOY: "Scorpion")
The Borg Collective is the term used to define the collective intelligence comprising all members linked together into a Hive Mind via subspace transceivers and calling themselves the Borg. It is the de facto governing power, as the term is considered by individuals, over all Borg civilization.
Society and government
The Collective makes decisions as a single entity. However, the Borg Queen plays an as yet not totally understood role in ordering the chaos of the Collective and the information flowing in from its trillions of drones.
The voice of the collective has a multi-track resonant quality, the sound of the trillions of drones that comprise it speaking as one. (VOY: "Scorpion", et al.)
The collective form of organization allows for tremendous efficiency in action and deliberation. With each drone functioning separately according to its instructions, it may at any time be processing information, performing physical actions, or focusing its energy toward other collective goals. The vast resources thus presented to the collective organization allow for simultaneous execution of a nearly infinite number of tasks as well as nearly limitless calculations. This in turn allows the Borg to consider multiple courses of action before committing to any one course. The best example of this is the Borg ability to "adapt" nearly instantaneously to any type of attack or threat. By focusing its resources on the threat at hand all possible outcomes and responses can be explored within an extremely short period of time. The result is that the Borg are able to bring a tremendous amount of force, or computational power, to bear on any single problem and overwhelm any opposition by sheer volume of numbers. The collective state of organization also greatly decreases the chance of error that exists with the decision making of individuals or the conflicts of opinion that are a factor in hierarchical organizations. (TNG: "Q Who")
One consequence of the collective state, noted by Jean-Luc Picard who had more dealings with the Borg than anyone in the Federation excepting Kathryn Janeway, is that the Borg are utterly without mercy or compassion. In a collective society only the needs of the group as a whole are considered, and in this utilitarian calculation the needs of the unrivaled number of Borg will nearly always override any other considerations. (VOY: "Scorpion")
Collective organization
The Collective is subdivided organizationally. The Borg Queen may act as a central processor or nexus for the Collective; information or instructions disseminated throughout the Collective flow toward the subdivisions. The unimatrix is the highest level of collective organization; the Queen herself resides within Unimatrix 01. Unimatrixes may be broken into several "trimatrixes". Drones within a unimatrix or trimatrix are designated in groups known as "adjuncts", with the individual drone's identification serving to designate their position within the adjunct. (VOY: "Dark Frontier", "Unimatrix Zero", "Endgame")
Linking to the Collective
A drone's link to the Collective can be severed many ways, including, but not limited to, the following:
- Intentional termination by the Borg Queen (VOY: "Dark Frontier", "Unimatrix Zero")
- Disruptive natural phenomenon (electrical storm) (VOY: "Unity")
- Physical/traumatic damage (TNG: "I Borg")
- Separation by time (24th century Borg were unable to contact 21st century Borg) (Star Trek: First Contact)
- Security force field, dampening field (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II", "I Borg"; VOY: "Scorpion, Part II")
The Borg Queen can also re-establish a drone's connection to the rest of the Collective at will, however, this has only happened when the drone is in close proximity. (VOY: "Unity")
However, if link is severed to the collective, drones have also "secondary objectives" listed to their command structure to command the drones actions for quite a long time. (VOY: "Survival Instinct")
This does not logically seem to be the limit of her reconnect/disconnect abilities, as she is able to input commands and control entire Borg ships from vast distances, though it may be reasoned the Queen is unaware of a severed drone's existence.
A Drone's mind is connected to billions of drone minds simultaneously, but a processor inside the Link Node filters out any irrelevant information not needed to complete the task drone is assigned to perform.
The Borg Collective can also be cracked and invaded via cyberspace by using an existing drone's connection as a conduit for uploading benign and potentially destructive data as well as transmitting a command to the local Vinculum. Such data can also be configured into and tagged with a level of priority as to be a paradoxical process-consuming puzzle to be solved. (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II", "I Borg")
The collective link not only allows the Borg to share thoughts and communicate but also provides Neurogenic Healing powers across the collective. According to Riley Frazier, this is akin to a Neurogenic Transfusion across Subspace only with the ability to have thousands of simultaneous donors. (VOY: "Unity")
Minor collectives
Subsidiary or ad-hoc collectives between several individual drones can also be established with and without need for a vinculum or other repeater-type device so long as the drone's Subspace Transceiver is strong enough to reach the other drones or substitute vinculum. (VOY: "Unity", "Survival Instinct", "Unity"; TNG: "Descent", "Descent, Part II")
