Hawking is the Borg - my words - "to understand Hawking, you had to understand the people and the machines without whom he would be unable to act and think; you had to understand the ways in which these entities augmented and amplified Hawking’s competencies. For example: The specialties of his students, which are spread across very different research fields, enable him to integrate diverse information and the different facets of a problem in a way that others cannot. His secretary provides him with a mental assistant many of us would never have, by sorting and arranging his data according to his interests and what he is able to process."
On Stephen Hawking, Vader and Being More Machine Than Human
By Hélène Mialet 01.08.13 9:30 AM
Wired Magazine
A primitive example of the collective is the brain trust: "A group of experts who serve, usually unofficially, as advisers and policy planners, especially in a government."
theFreeDictionary
A more sophisticated collective would be the Borg. "We understand that only through assimilation to The Borg are we able to achieve greatness and perfection in the universe. In the spirit of this creed, the principles we promote in The Hive are those of friendship, mutual growth and defense."
cybernations
"The principal philosophy of the Borg Collective was a drive towards achieving a state of "perfection" for themselves and, in their view, all life. The Borg achieved their "perfection" in several ways, all of which assimilated the individual into the greater hive mind of the collective."
The other similarity is the borg consist of "organic bodies" outfitted them "synthetic systems and organs" giving them "highly-advanced technological abilities." The adjustments made to the Borg "rendered all Borg devoid of individual volition and caused them to work in unison and in constant contact with the Collective, unencumbered by emotion or autonomy."
Memory-Alpha
Would we be more if we formed a tighter collective with our family and friends or would we lose our individualness with no gain? Are we capable of such close cooperation?
Interesting series of videos and discussion of Hawking's speech over time.
singularityhub
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