The Rise Of Homo Nexus: Are We Now The Borg Collective?
Recently, I have been binge watching Star Trek: Voyager (such a geek, right — love those 90s hairstyles). One of the key premises of Star Trek (all versions save for the new JJ Abrams dreck) is that individuals can always triumph over a “collective”. The Borg was evil because it was a collective. When you were assimilated by the Borg (resistance is futile) you were robbed of your individuality, which meant being robbed of your humanity, since your humanity was inextricably tied to your individuality. The message: Individuality is good, the collective is bad.
I’ve been making some interesting connections and observations over the last little while about the future of humanity and what we’re becoming or what we have become. While I’ve said before that we are already cyborgs, only recently have I realized that we have become closer to the Borg depicted in Star Trek than I thought.
As a libertarian futurist (yes, you knew that, didn’t you?), I believe in the individual. Every adult is an individual, and should be allowed to make their own decisions for themselves.
I mean if you think about it, those are the precepts upon which America (and modern democracy) was founded. All humans are created equal. All humans are individuals. They can make decisions for themselves. These individuals are adult enough…
