Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Android vs. Borg

Again, i've been on a star treck kick. this time, i changed it up a bit, and instead of watching reruns of the next, i found a DVD at the library devoted specifically to episodes where they delt with the Borg. it was fasanating to watch. it made me think, if i were to be on star treck, and had a choice of being either a borg, or an android like Commander Data, which would i choose? it depends on the day, honestly.
being an android, Data is able to be a free thinker. he makes his own choices, he can choose to use the holodeck for whatever he likes, and "enjoy" it, as much as an android can enjoy anything, at least. he can form oppinions, and not worry about that someone else will know without him knowing they know. he is even free to choose to pursue a relationship (it wasnt at all successful, but it was entertaining to watch, anyway). borg dont have that choice
being a borg means being part of the hive mind. what you know, so does everyone else. you have no free thoughts of your own. you comply with everything the queen says. you cannot have an oppinion. it isnt part of your hardware. all this in the pursuit of perfection. its an appealing thought sometimes. if life gets overwhelming, why not become a borg. then you will never be overwhelmed, and you no longer have to deal with your life. being part of the collective would be ideal at that point. one major downfall to this idea is that then you have no control over your life, someone else controls it completely. looking at it on a spiritual scale, it would be more like having Satan's plan for us all. to not let us have our agency, but to blindly comply with what he wants. being an Android would be more like the plan we all chose, Heavenly Fathers plan of letting us have our agency, and letting us make mistakes.
both the borg and androids are both emotionless. wouldnt that be nice sometimes? there are days i wish i just had no emotions. it makes life complicated. i am still free to believe what i like, still free to pursue what i like, but without emotion. it might make the world a little more flat, (data once tired to compose a poem "ode to Spot (his cat)" that was emotionless, all about spot's attributes. again, not quite successful, but amusing to watch), but oh, the relief it would bring. i wouldnt have to try and figure out my stupid human emotions (being an empath would accompish the same idea, but that is a different tangent). i could go through my days, not worrying about this, that, or the other, not caring what others thought. either one of those sounds nice.
so who has the biggest advantage? honestly, they both do. again, it all depends on the day. which would you choose?

1 comment:

Bonnie Jean said...

Having difficulty dealing with emotions, for me at least, often has to do with the fact that they are rather confusing and illogical. Therefore, I tend to vote for being a Vulcan. :) Spock still gets to have emotions, but since he is perfectly logical, he seems to know exactly how to deal with them logically.

Also, as a vulcan you could have cool pointy ears and talk to whales telepathically.

Of course, androids can also act as flotation devices in case of emergency water landings, so then you would never drown. :) And Data does eventually get his emotion chip... He just has the lovely option of turning it off, so I suppose you could get some of the benefit of having emotions some days and not having them when you don't want to deal with it, too.

Sadly, my library does not have much by way of videos of Star Trek episodes, though they have mountains of fanfic. :p I want a better library. :)