We Are Borg: Crowdsourced ISEE-3 Engineering and the Collective Mind of the Internet, Dennis Wingo
“In the science fiction universe of Star Trek, set several hundred years in the future, when we are a spacefaring civilization, humanity encounters a species called the Borg. The Borg are a conglomeration of species who are assimilated into a collective mind numbering in the hundreds of billions. All of the Borg are connected to each other through a communications link that allows each of them to share each others thoughts, though in a manner that erases individuality. This week, with the call that our ISEE-3 reboot team put out to the internet for help in debugging our propulsion system problem, I have come to realize that a significant portion of humanity has reached a Borg like state, one where the internet has become a collective mind for communications and knowledge sharing. We still have our individuality, we can still decouple at will from the collective mind, but in a way that few philosophers or technologists have envisioned, we are connected in a way never before thought possible. The implications are staggering, and here is how our little ISEE-3 project is an example of the operation of the collective mind.”
ISEE-3 Status Report 15 July 2014
“Our next window at Arecibo is tomorrow (Wednesday) between 12:19 pm and 3:03 pm ET. During that opportunity we intend to attempt a deep space plumbing repair on board ISEE-3 and then fire its engines.”

Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member...

5 replies on “ISEE-3 Is In Borg Mode”

  1. Actually, I think quite a few writers now talk about this being a primary way of operating! Certainly David Brin’s book Existence and his Smartest Mob story uses it as a main plotline, and folks like Robert Wright in his book Nonzero have discussed how all of our development, going back to the start of society, is about increasingly becoming a bigger and better single brain. It’s kinda why my lab exists, and drives many of our collaborative networking projects.

      1. That’s why Wright’s stuff is interesting, as it’s non-fiction, and also written about 14 years ago, talking about 10-20 years ahead, so you can make good comparisons in the 1000X world in which we now live in and see how well it’s predicting the impact of comms tech on society. Brin, of course, does more than SF, and Existence (which is partially derives from Wright’s concepts) is a bridge from his non-SF interests to his SF ones, and makes a lot of contact with SETI, the future of exploration, etc, when you take 1000X/data/moblie tsunami development into account. But Existence pretty much bases its main problem solving events on “smart mobs” (Internet-connected amateurs and/or past/active/retired experts) doing the brute-force thinking. He also has a bunch of non-fiction pieces out there. But, of course, there’s been a 30,000 jump in capacity in 15 or so years, so a lot of folks are cluing into this as a way of working and making change.

      2. I’ll have to agree with you on this as I have done much the same myself. I might however look back on it as comedy in some cases (such as Star Trek communicators looking a lot like modern day flip phones, and the ‘Death Star’ in Star Wars looking somewhat similar to Mimas) but as for wishing upon dreams put to the big screen, I’d rather work with building upon facts. The borg correlation is interesting and somewhat amusing though as it is a relatively good comparison, give or take a few details.

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