From: matt@unidata.ucar.edu (Matt Hicks)
Subject: Re: I Borg question + a couple more(spoiler?)
Keywords: "Do I have a name?"
Organization: Scientific Computing Division/NCAR Boulder, CO
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 16:10:03 GMT

jverho80@ursa.calvin.edu (Jeff Verhoef) writes:

>I just watched the rerun of "I Borg," and I have a small question...
>  (possible spoiler though)












>Ok, I hope this works....anyway, I hope this hasn't been discussed before
>when it originally aired.  If it has, just e-mail the answer to me.

>When Bev and Geordi have the adolescent Borg in the lab and are asking his
>his "means of identification,"  Bev explains to him that humans have names.
>She says, "I am Beverly, and this is Geordi."  The Borg then says, "Do *I*
>have a name?"

This does seem to be a slip. However, we have to assume that the Borg is 
speaking english, rather than us hearing English through some translator
or something. Therefore, he knows english words and presumably their meanings.
He has already said, "We are Borg," so he knows what Borg are called. He
probably knows he would look stupid (and just possibly the writers thought
that it would sound stupid) if he asked, "Do we have a name?" when he just
got done saying what it is. They probably could have written the line as
something like, "Does this unit have a name?" if they really wanted to be
careful. The big issue of I vs. we doesn't come up til after this scene, so
maybe they just assumed most people wouldn't notice the "I" here.

In case you wonder how I can assume that the Borg is speaking English:
The whole "I" vs. "we" thing is a semantic argument, relevant only in the
context of someone saying something they understand. It would be pointless
to argue this in translation. In translation "I" would be a meaning imposed
on another culture's language; since the Borg don't possess "I" as a con-
cept, they couldn't have a word that translates as "I".

Now another question: Where did the Borg learn English? IMHO they must
have assimilated it, probably from Pickard, since I don't recall any of
them speaking it in the earlier Borg episodes. Which raises the further
and more pressing question: Haven't the Borg already assimilated individ-
uality and ignored it? Or were they somehow able to just pull English
out of Pickard's head without getting anything else? The only answer that
I've been able to come up with is that Hugh's individuality will be more
insidious because it is in his _programming_ and not in the rather more
messy structures of a human brain.

This was probably my favorite episode of the show. Not perfect, but some
great ideas introduced, some great teasers for future episodes, and the
possibility for some great discussion.














>--
>   ///\\\      Jeff Verhoef             "Sometimes I wish I could go where no
>  ///  \\\     Calvin College            man has gone before....but I'll
> ///    \\\ Grand Rapids, MI 49546       probably stay in Aurora."  --Garth

--
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