But Haraway, it is important to point out, does not encourage, produce, or invent these boundary breakdowns. She simply traces the contours and consequences of border skirmishes or untenable discontinuities that have been underway within and constitutive of Western intellectual history.
The cyborg, therefore, does not cause this ontological erosion of the human; it merely provides this dissolution with a name. It already defines the rather unstable ontological position in which human beings already find themselves. Therefore, we can say, performing something of a remix on Bruno Latour, that we have never really been human. We have always and already been Borg, insofar as the difference between human and animal and animal and machine have been and continue to be undecidable, contentious, and provisional.
Resistance is futile, because we—not just human beings but a much broader conceptualization of the first person plural that would also include animals and machines— have always been Borg. Understood in this way, it is not the Borg, but the human that is science fiction. What it Means to be Borg 2.
Popular visualizations of the cyborg, as deployed in both science fiction film and literature, generally conform to this apocalyptic and dystopian configuration. From the mythical golem of Jewish legend to RoboCop and the Borg of Star Trek, from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to the Terminator and the replicants of Blade Runner, cyborgs have customarily been represented as a catastrophic counter force to human dignity and survival.
What makes the Borg so threatening, within the narrative structure of Star Trek, is that they announce a challenge not just to individual human entities, like Picard, and human communities, like planet earth, but to the very concept of humanism.
Gunkel — Resistance is Futile The Star Trek Universe enterprise of enlightenment humanism and the humanist philosophy that powers not only the starship Enterprise but the entire Star Trek franchise. This is precisely what makes the Borg so terrifying. They are not just another alien culture with plans and aspirations that differ from or are in conflict with that of the Federation, like the Romulans, Cardassians, or Klingons.
They threaten the most profound and essential values that make Star Trek what it is. Who, etc. Although resistance often appears to be futile, it is nevertheless necessary to protect the humanist tradition and legacy. And what makes these narratives so compelling is that the puny humans always, in some surprising and completely unexpected way, eventually manage to win.
They are helping us to be more human, helping us to connect to each other. This particular formulation is, in fact, more attentive to the scientific concept originally proposed by Clynes and Kline.
This is a travesty of the real scientific concept that we had. It is not even a caricature. Understood in this fashion, the Borg, despite the way they have been depicted in STNG, are not a monstrous figure of dehumanization.
From this perspective, then, Borg assimilation is not a dehumanizing threat but an opportunity for upgrading the fragile human species. And this is, in fact, the explicit goal of the transhumanist movement.
We need a name for this new belief. Understood in this fashion, cyborg assimilation is not something that is antithetical to the human being, but is an integral part of being human and a natural extension and elaboration of the humanist project. Gunkel — Resistance is Futile The Star Trek Universe Transhumanism can be viewed as an extension of humanism, from which it is partially derived. Humanists believe that humans matter, that individuals matter. We might not be perfect, but we can make things better by promoting rational thinking, freedom, tolerance, democracy, and concern for our fellow human beings.
Transhumanists agree with this but also emphasize what we have the potential to become. Just as we use rational means to improve the human condition and the external world, we can also use such means to improve ourselves, the human organism. In doing so, we are not limited to traditional humanistic methods, such as education and cultural development.
The one seeks to defending humanity from this monstrous incursion, while the other welcomes it as the means for upgrading and improving the human condition. What is interesting, however, is not what makes these two positions different, but what they already and necessarily hold in common. It is simultaneously more and less than what has been traditionally defined as human. On the contrary, the cyborg comprises a deliberately monstrous hybrid that, as Haraway explains it, holds incompatible things together without resolving into larger wholes or seeking unitary identity What we see in the strange apparition of Locutus, therefore, is neither human nor it opposites but something that is simultaneously neither and both.
Formulated in these terms, the cyborg is neither a dystopian figure of dehumanization nor a utopian promise for human improvement and perfection. Instead it comprises a posthuman figure that, as Claudia Springer describes it, "undermines the very concept of 'human'" Justifying her employment of the figure of the cyborg in an essay on AIDS, for example, Allison Fraiberg makes the following argument: "By using the cyborg as a starting point, I'm saying that—and this is by no means an astounding observation—rhetorics of humanism and organicism have produced, are currently producing, and, I dare say, will probably always produce, radical material inequities for the vast majority of people" Hot The Lost Years by J.
Hot Demons by J. Great book, Star Trek Generations pdf is enough to raise the goose bumps alone. Add a review Your Rating: Your Comment:. Recent Downloads Hot Demons by J. Hot Emissary by J. Resistance by J. When Picard collapses and again hears the Borg's voice, he understands that they are in the Alpha Quadrant — regrouping, breeding a new Borg Queen and seeking revenge. While he first struggles to understand that the Borg act based on a "feeling", he intuitively knows where they are and that they have to be stopped.
However, Admiral Janeway orders him not to do anything until Seven of Nine arrives on the Enterprise ; knowing that it will be too late by then, Picard decides to disobey his direct orders. With the exception of T'Lana, who thinks that Picard is relying only on some feelings and formally objects, all of his senior staff follow him. However, Picard's initial idea fatally fails — an away team under the lead of the new security chief Lionardo Battaglia who had to kill his friend when he was assimilated by the Borg is killed, with the exception of Battaglia — the Borg now "kill on sight".
Picard, feeling guilty, decides that he has to become Locutus of Borg again, in order to beam to the Borg cube and kill the Queen. Beverly Crusher injects the Borg nanites , but also a neutralizer chip which prevents Picard from being assimilated permanently. Picard beams to the Borg cube, leaving Worf in command of the Enterprise. The Queen immediately recognizes Locutus and tries to persuade him to stay with her.
Click here to sign up. Download Free PDF. Marta Malchevski. A short summary of this paper. Download Download PDF. Translate PDF. Significantly influential to Certeauan concepts was the groundwork of the post-structuralist theorists of the mid twentieth century. De Certeau explores these resistance and power relations between producer and consumer through styles of action that he terms strategies and tactics.
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