[captaincrusher]

I had some thoughts about the borg. I wrote it in a post awhile back which I deleted for good reasons, but I thought I’d repost the idea:

That the borg started out as just nanites.

They were technology created specifically to help a species, it doesn’t even matter which one. They were a medical tool that were inserted into the body to heal and help it. Their mission was just a single directive: “Fix what is wrong with this body”.

Then they, like any other budding life form, evolved. They became more aggressive, took over the bodies they were supposed to help more and more. Their view of what was “wrong” with the bodies changed - as the nanites became more intelligent, they also started to view humanoid bodies as pretty frail in comparison to technology. Instead of just helping heal a body to a natural, or previous state they started to strive for perfection.   

Here and there they started to replace frail humanoid veins, cartilage and even organs with the material from their own metal bodies. It was after all superior to the humanoids original structure. The bodies could be improved. Made more efficient.

When the recipients of the nanites resisted the increasingly aggressive changes, the resistance in itself became a fault that must be corrected. So the nanites started controlling the mind itself. 

“Resistance is futile”. 

First they just tinkered with their minds to make the humanoid more compliant. Restructuring their neural pathways just a bit. But then they started to view all the expressions of individuality as something that stood in the way of perfection.

Nanites were already a species built on the cooperation of millions for a single goal. It would be natural to assume this is the structure they would continue to operate within. So as they took over the bodies completely they used them as they would any other nanite: they treated them like separate parts in a big whole. Which was made possible by creating a link between every body.

Together the nanite controlled bodies could find more humanoids to “Fix”. Which meant joining them to this new collective of minds. Each individual would add to the intelligence and knowledge of the nanites, furthering their goal of being able to perfect the flawed humanoid.