The Borg / Join this lecture at FEDCON in Bonn

Sci-Fi in Open World RPGs

15. February 2022

AI in Star Trek

17. February 2022

Published by Robert Eiba at 16. February 2022

FedCon 30 | Vortrag | Die Borg | Dr. Rebecca Haar

The Borg: Is resistance really futile?

“Resistance is futile!” The threat of assimilation by the Borg is as sinister as it is fascinating. All individuality evaporates in the collective, one is never alone again, one’s body is technically enhanced with implants and nanotechnology, in the collective one’s will is secondary.

For Captain Picard, his own assimilation is a nightmare, for the Borg Hugh the encounter with the Enterprise is a new perspective: on board the Enterprise and shielded from the collective, he develops his own personality again. Seven of Nine also manages to break away from the collective with the help of the Voyager crew.

The question of how swarm intelligence is to be considered against individuality and what role the idea of transhumanism and cybernetics plays in this context will be elaborated in this lecture. At the same time, an overview of all Star Trek series from The Next Generation to Picard will be presented, showing the development of the Borg and how they are dealt with.

Lecturer: Dr. Rebecca Haar

Duration: 60 min - The Lecture will be held in: german

Dr. Rebecca Haar is a literature and media scholar who has always had a penchant for science fiction. She has specialized in simulation and virtual worlds, which was also reflected in her dissertation published in 2019, which deals, among other things, with the question of how perception changes when virtual worlds and reality increasingly overlap, even in everyday life. Of course, between cyberspace, the metaverse and the matrix, one or the other holodeck can also be found there.

For some time now, Rebecca Haar has also been giving lectures in which she links literary and cultural studies with popular culture, especially comics, Star Trek and Doctor Who. In addition to conferences at universities, she has also spoken at conventions and festivals, including FedCon in Bonn, TimeLash in Kassel, and the Dragon Days fantasy festival in Stuttgart. Currently, she is working on a non-fiction book about Star Trek, among other things.