Borg species designation

[Wishfire 2]

Someone over at the ST.com boards posted this, and it made sense to me.

 

To quote...

 

For the most part, people assume that the Borg, when they encounter a new species, gives it a species designation number one higher than the last one encounter. For example, if they encounter the Embrasians and give them a designation of Species 2054. The very next species they encounter will be Species 2055.

 

I had never given this much thought, but it just occured to me... Could it be that species designation numbers might not be based entirely on which order the species were encountered, but also on the species' similarities to other species. For example, say that the Vulcans are species 1850. Then, after the Borg have already encountered several dozen other species, they encounter the Mintakans (TNG episode "Who Watches the Watchers?"). The Borg see that the Mintakans are very much like the Vulcans, so they designate them as Species 1851. Whatever species was 1851 alread, as well as everything after that, gets redesignated a spot up.

 

This makes complete sense to me. It remind me of my CD collection. It's all in alphabetical order, with multiple albums by any certain artist placed together in order of release date. What this poster's above statement implies is that the Borg might organize species similar to an organized CD collection, with new species being inserted between known species as the new species warrants.

 

What do you think?

Edited September 10, 2005 by wishfire

[Matt 0]

I don't believe they'd do it that way. They would have to change designations everytime they met a new species. Obviously that would not be something beyond their abilities but it would hardly be an efficient method of classification and an inefficient Borg is an oxymoron. Also there's no record of designations changing in any episode of Star Trek, designations have remained the same throughout all series.

[Wishfire 2]

I don't believe they'd do it that way. They would have to change designations everytime they met a new species. Obviously that would not be something beyond their abilities but it would hardly be an efficient method of classification and an inefficient Borg is an oxymoron. Also there's no record of designations changing in any episode of Star Trek, designations have remained the same throughout all series.

351577[/snapback]

 

True, but designations (species-wise) were never heard of much, so that's not saying much.

 

I think it would be efficient. It like when some people download MP3s. The MP3s get downloaded to one file, but the people will send them to the MP3 file, because they belong with other MP3s.