Blog #17 - I Borg

This episode of Star Trek raises up many questions about our relationship with robots. The first one is 'What makes a human a human and what makes a robot a robot?' In the movie we see a young Borg transform into an individual named Hugh. At first most of the crew saw him as strictly a robot but as time went on they came to the realization that he had thoughts and feelings just like humans. Like them, I believe this is the aspect that defines someting as a living thing. Individuality in Hugh was first seen as a bad thing by the ship's crew. They all become too attached to Hugh. This brings up another question 'What can robots do to weaken our strrength?' In this episode the crew's weakness was becoming aware of Hugh's emotions and sympathizing with him. I don't think that this would have happened as soon as it did if he was in any other form. His human-like apparence made them want to help heal him so he could return to the ship. I thought that a great point was given when two of the shipmates were having a fencing match. It shoed how being concerned with others emotions might end up hurting you in the end. Good thing it was the opposite in the episode. The last question I want to bring forth is 'Do robots deserve to have the same rights as we do?' In the case of hugh I believe that we should accept his wants and needs because of his developed feelings. I totally agreed with the crew for letting Hugh keep his memory because it wouldn't be fair to take all of that away from him. My favorite part of this episode was at the very end when Hugh was about to leave when he looked over. It shoed that the Borg population did have hope in becomeing more like Hugh.