posted
I've kept track of the Borg numerical designations for various species myself for several years now, but in my personal database I simply included an annotation on the species' alphabetical listing.
Bernd's new list instead puts them in numerical order, which is perfectly logical since his list is focusing on the numbers rather than the names.
And then it struck me -- since the Borg are assigning numbers sequentially, and therefore chronologically, it might be possible to read something into the Borg's history.
First example: Species 3259, Vulcans; Species 5618, Humans
The first theory this debunks is the previous belief that the Enterprise-D was the first time the Borg had ever encountered someone from the Federation. If they'd first "met" both Vulcans and Humans at the same time when they took that core sample of the Enterprise, then the two species should have had numbers that were much closer together.
Supposedly, the Hansens were the first people from the Federation to encounter the Borg. But what if, instead, the Hansens were only the first Humans that the Borg encountered?
I hate to use evidence from "Enterprise" because so much of its background does contradict previous canon, but in this case, the fact that Vulcans have been a spacefaring race for longer than the Humans gives them more of an opportunity to meet the Borg themselves,
(I'm talking about a lone ship that's far from home, of course, not a nearby encounter. For instance, a Vulcan ship tossed several thousand LY from home thanks to an unstable wormhole or whatever.)
Second example: Species 6339, Unnamed; Species 8472; Species 10026, Unnamed
Species 6339 was explicitly stated to have been first encountered by the Borg about four years before the episode "Infinite Regress" (in VGR's fifth season). Round that up to 5 years for safety, and we get an approximate anchor point of 2371.
Everyone's favorite nonhumanoids, Species 8472, were first encountered (and given their designation) in late 2373.
And finally, in "Dark Frontier" we were introduced to Species 10026, who had probably been found by the Borg only recently.
Now, using these two pairs of values, we can project an approximate rate of the number of encounters of new species the Borg had in TNG times and just before. Like this:
Based on the (unfortunate) events of "Dark Frontier," we must set 2355 as the absolute latest date that the Borg could have encountered Humans for the first time. As the graph shows, if they'd encountered Humans sooner, the graph would be even more distorted.
It seems that the Borg made a sudden and drastic increase in the number of new species right around the time of TNG. It might be interesting to speculate on the reasons for such a remarkable increase in activity.
(Disclaimer: Yes, I know that the writers of "Voyager" probably didn't pay too much attention to the numbers they were assigning. But they're canon, so we might as well try to rationalize them before ignoring them.)
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posted
I rationalize them by acknowledging the fact they're imaginary.
Registered: Nov 1999
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quote: since the Borg are assigning numbers sequentially, and therefore chronologically
This strikes me as an unwarrented, or at least not unchallengable, assertion. The numbers could mean anything. Distance from Borg space. A hive mind answer to the Dewey Decimal System. Anything. And, as such, it doesn't seem all that fruitful to derive anything about their history from them.
Though I have to respect that you made a graph. We should see more of those. And pie charts!
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posted
I would tend to agree that they could be used.
The Borg designations have been shown to refer to assimilated species. The second Borg Queen even told us the species she originates from. Calling a species by a name, (as we do), is less precise than numbers and therefore not used by the Borg.
I think the Species Designations is in fact a chronological "unique identifier" number for assimilated species.
posted
Can we extrapolate that graph backwards to see when the second Borg Queen's species was assimilated?
And how long did Guinan say they had been around for? I'm guessing for a long time they were in just a few star-systems - maybe due to the speed at which they could assimilate species? Maybe by the time they reached the Federation their assimilation speed increased. Maybe due to such a concentration of various species in the one area) i.e. One starship with lots of species on it.
Then we suddenly get the 'probes' in First Conact - which again sped up the process.
I don't know if you've gotten the Borg Enterprise episode yet - but it'd be interesting to see if they look less evolved - indicating they were FROM that time - or more evolved like the FC/Voyager borg.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
Ah the counting sheep approach, its simple, efficient, sounds Borg-like to me.
What would be interesting is if you projected that chart backwards to get an approximated date for their origins and see if it corrosponds with the line from ("Dragons Teeth"[VGR]). [EDIT: Damn you Andrew!]
What was the designation for Arturis's people? and how long had they been fighting the Borg?
Also it might be interesing to mark the dates of the major Borg engagements. (359, Typhon, 8472, UM-1)
posted
The line form Dragons teeth was "The Collective's memory from 900 years ago is fragmentary" or something close to that.Artuis people had been resisting the Borg for 'Centuries'.
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posted
That graph looks almost like the one for Starfleet ship registries.
There are also the Species 262 and 263, assimilated 229 years ago. Well, it would be daring to extrapolate the graph that far.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I got the impression that in TNG, the Borg Transwarp conduits where fairly new. One might postulate that before that time, they where using technology much more on-par to what we see of the other races in the Delta Quadrant (in VOY) and had been slowly expanding, as they won wars. Further, when Q had the Enterprise-D meet the Borg as something they couldn't handle, he might also have been showing the Borg, the Federation and teasing them too.
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posted
You know I've said this a few times. I reckon Q caused the whole Borg thing - not because he introduced the Borg to a rich new source of assimilation ground but that here is this ship that appears out of NO-WHERE in a FLASH and then DISAPPEARS again in a FLASH! That would be TECHNOLOGY that the Borg would really really want.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
quote:Originally posted by AndrewR: I don't know if you've gotten the Borg Enterprise episode yet - but it'd be interesting to see if they look less evolved - indicating they were FROM that time - or more evolved like the FC/Voyager borg.
I am fairly sure that the Borg we will supposedly see in Enterprise (this coming May) are reminants of the 24th C.-collective-sphere that the Ent-E destroyed, not 22nd C.-Borg...
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Chronologically, the Borg encountered Humans 1343 species (or specie designations) prior to the Ktarians (first seen in 2355)...
...or in other words, 2355 would not be an accurate point of reference for the Human designation by the Borg, as their designation already long predates the Ktarians (again, by over 1300) who were already observed assimilated by that time...
....so I don't think there is a logical process at work here....and this whole theory thus becomes full of holes....
....it would, however, be interesting to see where the El-Aurians fit into the scheme of things as they were seemingly assimiliated ~100 years prior to Voyager....
[ April 18, 2003, 01:04 PM: Message edited by: Futurama Guy ]
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posted
I don't see how hard it is to believe that a few Ferengi paid their way off Ferenginar and got into mischef and ended up in the Delta Quadrant assimilated by the Borg.
Maybe there's an Iconian Gate near Ferenginar and one or two stepped through onto a borg-world!
OK I'm pushing it.
Maybe it's a scale of usefulness - Ferengi and Kazon low? Human higher?
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