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As we all know, the Borg announce themselves with some variation of the classic:

We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

The question is - why exactly they are doing this? Announcing that resistance is futile is not likely to reduce the actual resistance - otherwise every battle could be won by just announcing it's futile to resist. The Borg must have learned from experience that nobody really believes them that the resistance is futile (and those that looks like believing probably are trying to pull some trick on them) - at least nobody we encounter on-screen or by reference does. The Borg also are nothing but pragmatic - so why they keep doing something that has no chance of working?

Moreover, announcing their intent to assimilate probably lowers their chance of successful assimilation (in most cases, insignificantly since they are technologically superior to most others, but still why suffer even small disadvantage)? Would it not be more practical to announce themselves as something like "We are the Borg, interstellar candy merchants, and we have free samples right here in our cubes, please come in and taste!" I'm kidding of course about the exact formula, but the point is - why not try to deceive at least at the first encounter? That could help them to assimilate at least a small number of species on initial encounter and thus gain very valuable knowledge. See how Martians act in the "Mars Attacks" movie - that's how one would expect the Borg to act.

Of course, that would eventually get them a very bad reputation about those who know them - but it's not like their reputation is any better without it, given that they are assimilating everybody anyway and, as their Voyager encounters prove, are not strangers to backstabbing and scheming. They obviously have no "warrior honor" concept like Klingons do, so why would they give up a very important surprise advantage and disclose their nature and intentions upfront?

Looking for an in-universe answer, of course, "it sounds badass on TV" is not interesting enough :)

Valorum
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StasM
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    Good question. My first guess would be, that it actually lowers resistance: "We are the Borg (have a look at our cube!) You will be assimilated (you could become part of this) Resistance is futile (or you could die. What do you prefer?)" I guess some people choose a life as a Borg over no life at all. – Einer Jun 07 '14 at 10:05
  • If you ask me, the Borg are the most misinterpreted / misrepresented species on Star Trek – flq Jun 07 '14 at 11:16
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    Is it worth mentioning that it just looks really badass on TV when they do it? – Valorum Jun 07 '14 at 11:33
  • The show-off of Collective Hive... – user931 Jun 07 '14 at 11:46
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    @Einer ; https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/6508409344/h821B98AB/ – Valorum Jun 07 '14 at 14:18
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    @Einer Borg do not kill all the species encountered if they resist, Borg assimilate them anyway. – madfriend Jun 07 '14 at 17:55
  • @madfriend they do kill - if they encounter resistance. Remember Wolf 359? That's the choice: Die or be assimilated. Tertium non datur: Resistance is futile. – Einer Jun 07 '14 at 17:59
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    Tertiary reason to identify to new contacts with the standard message: If attacked, the borg scout would learn valuable information about enemy defenses and transmit it to the fleet who could prepare instead of wading in blind. – Patrick Hughes Jun 08 '14 at 01:19
  • Terror is a nice weapon; showing off like that will intimidate quite a few people – PlasmaHH Jun 08 '14 at 19:32
  • There is nothing more frightening than a polite serial killer. – Reactgular Jun 08 '14 at 21:41
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    +1 for "We are the Borg, interstellar candy merchants, and we have free samples right here in our cubes, please come in and taste!" – Daft Jun 12 '14 at 15:45
  • The Borg have been around for a while. They probably tried a bunch of different phrases as A/B tests and found that their current phrase is the most effective in getting people to stand down or eliciting fear in those that will resist. – spicyness Apr 23 '15 at 22:13
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    @spicyness: trying out different strategies seems to be plausible. I vaguely remember that when the Borg contacted the Enterprise, Guinan stated that this was the first time the Borg ever asked a species for communication. Then, the entire communication turned out to solely consist of the Borg delivering that famous line. – Holger Feb 03 '17 at 16:37
  • Hubris? Hugh in the TNG episode I, Borg seemed genuinely puzzled at the concept that resistance was not futile. Or perhaps an element of gentlemanly conduct... "Well, we warned them not to resist..." - besides, the powerful rarely need to resort to sneak attacks. – komodosp Nov 02 '17 at 09:30
  • At some point a Borg cube must have assimilated a Dalek ship, and from then on the Borg Collective re-appropriated the Daleks' introductory line "We are the Daleks. You will be exterminated" for their own purpose. – Wallnut Apr 27 '18 at 14:14

7 Answers7

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The Borg see no reason that anyone would actively resist them and are confident that any resistance is (to coin a phrase) futile.

  • In announcing their presence they are giving the message's recipient a piece of good news, that they have been judged sufficiently unique and worthwhile as to be added to the Collective's distinctiveness.

  • They're also giving some salutary advice to anyone misguided enough to think about resisting them, that their assimilation will be over more quickly (and less painfully) if they just surrender. Either way the outcome is identical.

"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."

and

Borg Queen: Assimilation is complete.
Seven of Nine: 300,000 individuals have been transformed into drones. Should they be congratulated as well?
Borg Queen: They should be. They've left behind their trivial, selfish lives, and they've been reborn with a greater purpose. We've delivered them from chaos into order.

Valorum
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    Basically from this it follows Borg have no theory of mind and incapable of imagining species thinking differently than they do. Pretty huge flaw in otherwise very advanced species. – StasM Jun 08 '14 at 06:16
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    @stasm - from their perspective, they would consider individuality to be the flaw. – Valorum Jun 08 '14 at 09:15
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    But doesn't the point from the OP remain: that the Borg have never seen a species NOT resisting? If the Borg are rational and constantly evolving, they should notice their greeting doesn't work, and either change it or drop it. – Andres F. Jun 08 '14 at 14:40
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    @andresf - They've assimilated trillions of sentient beings, thousands of species. We've only seen a tiny fraction of them. It's perfectly possible that the warning has proven effective at other times. – Valorum Jun 08 '14 at 14:47
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    The Borg are sticklers for efficiency. If there's a chance their target will surrender then they would rather not waste the energy. – Brian Ortiz Jun 08 '14 at 17:16
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    My favourite quote to follow up from your quote... "Comforting words. Use them next time instead of 'Resistance is futile.' You may elicit a few volunteers". – Jared Jun 08 '14 at 21:59
  • Outward confidence is used in many competitions, not just war, as a way of demoralizing your opponent. That has a lot of desirable effects, so in addition to the above the Borg could be assuming that this ultimatum reduces the effectiveness of resistance. – Nicholas Oct 28 '14 at 18:42
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    Also, @AndresF. remember that we haven't seen many assimilations from start to finish. The first few ships and worlds will of course resist, but as the conquest progresses and a species has painfully learned that resistance IS in fact futile, there might be a lot of volunteers just looking to get it over with. – Nerrolken Nov 25 '14 at 18:16
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    @AndresF. Those that don't resist, well, their story is over. There isn't drama -- just, "resistance is futile", "ok", and more borg -- from our individualistic perspective. Seeing the cases where people do resist and win is what we are shown; doesn't mean that people usually win, it is just the cases where they win is more interesting. Of interest is the implication made that the "Federation Temporal Agency" is actually cheating and ensuring the galaxy isn't swallowed by borg, so we are seeing the unlikely path that the agency has arranged to happen. – Yakk Feb 03 '17 at 18:44
  • @Yakk That's interesting and actually pretty convincing: that most of the time the Borg announcement works, but in the TV shows we see all the cases where it doesn't. Makes sense and is about the only logical explanation for the Borg keeping this ritual. – Andres F. Feb 03 '17 at 19:43
  • I've got a piece of fanfic rattling around in my skull where a Federation ship bounces from one parallel reality to another. In one they encounter a Borg cube which gives a variation of that speech ending with "Compliance is voluntary." – Emsley Wyatt Sep 19 '17 at 17:01
  • Also, consider the case where a ship or species has not met the borg before and don't really understand what they're in for. Upon being met by a cubic kilometer ship demanding surrender, it's easy to imagine many choosing to surrender rather than risking death. It's even arguable that there might be people/species who, while they don't desire assimilation, might still prefer assimilation to death. – Shufflepants Jan 12 '18 at 22:14
  • Valorum, greetings from 2022! In 2016 Trump will be elected president -- you must try to stop this. I like your use of the word "salutary" here. – releseabe Mar 08 '22 at 17:09
  • @releseabe - I thought Trump did a pretty decent job, despite the opposition he faced internally. Peace treaties, no invasions by Russia, NATO paying up for the first time in decades, US energy independence, no new foreign wars, etc. – Valorum Mar 08 '22 at 18:40
  • @Valorum: This is how time paradoxes are avoided. – releseabe Mar 08 '22 at 19:04
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I think the reason why Borg always announce them is actually threefold:

  1. The Borg consider themselves liberators, not oppressors. They think that they're bestowing upon others the greatest gift ever, the gift of selflessness which (not surprisingly) sounds eerily close to the description of Paradise. They consider themselves missionaries on a quest to bring salvation. They understand that not everyone is enlightened enough to understand that, but they give you an option to join them willingly.
  2. The Borg is civilisation is of pure logic and reason, even more so than vulcans. They see armed conflict as an utter waste of resources and lives. They're also unable to see it in any other way and because of that they actually expect others to accept their reasoning. After all, they're already assimilated so many other races, why should this one be any different? Announcing themselves they actually sort of hand over their business card: They are the Borg (duh!), they consider themselves superior to you (futility of resistance), the Borg is a hive civilisation (assimilation), they do not want to destroy you (one can't assimilate dead) and few other things. Basically they are straight to the point folks with what you see is what you get approach.
  3. The Borg see other races as children and assimilation process as sort of coming to age ritual. One can't expect children to behave like grown-ups do and because of that they always try to explain. They also never take lives when they can help it and they never sneak attack. One just doesn't do such things to their own children.
Pronto
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  • This is a good answer. If you could back it up with some quotes or references it could go from good to great. – Valorum Jun 08 '14 at 09:31
  • Hmm... "never take lives when they can help it", you say? True, from a certain point of view... – user21820 Feb 04 '17 at 01:52
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    @user21820 Or more accurately, they never take lives unnecessarily. But if sacrificing a few lives would lead to being able to assimilate even more lives, then they'd do it in a heart beat. – Shufflepants Jan 12 '18 at 22:17
  • @Shufflepants: I was being sarcastic. Their assimilation is equivalent to taking all the lives of the assimilated, by my definition of life. – user21820 Jan 13 '18 at 04:25
  • You say they are unable to see it any other way, but they have some understanding that some creatures do see them as threats which is why they say "Resistance is futile" (they seem to like this phrase...). – releseabe Mar 08 '22 at 17:12
8

In addition to Richards great answer; I believe this is actually a part of their protocol, their ROE (rules of engagement) that they follow to the letter. They are a very 'structured' society after all. They do not wish to kill, only to assimilate and incorporate. They believe themselves superior and prefer that the assimilation process be 'willing'. The Borg Queen even indicated this during her dialogue with both Data and Picard in the TNG movie, 'First Contact'. But if the 'willing acceptance terms' are refused, protocol has been followed and allows that more forceful measures can be used... for your own good of course.

Morgan
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5

Announcing your intentions is nothing new.

The ancient Greek / Roman / other old armies would give the target city the opportunity to surrender (and become slaves). If they declined (maybe by kicking the messenger into a pit) then the fight is on. If the target lost the fight the residents were killed - every last one of them.

The rationale was the attackers wanted the infrastructure and fighting over it made a mess of the place. So surrender peacefully and we will be reasonably nice, or take your chances in battle and we will NOT be nice if we win.

So the Borg are the Roman Legion, and Janeway* is Leonidas. Just not quite as theatrical as Gerard Butler.

And it really does sound badass on TV.

*Significantly more interaction with the Borg

Meat Trademark
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paul
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    But cities sometimes surrendered, since the choice were death vs. slavery, and some may prefer slavery to death. As far as I know, nobody ever voluntarily surrendered to Borg, and there's no reason to - they'd assimilate you anyway, so there's no upside in surrendering, unless you like being Borg drone (I don't think volunteer Borg were ever mentioned). – StasM Jun 08 '14 at 06:18
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    @StasM - The borg queen makes a pretty fair case in favour of joining the borg ; basically you'll live forever, have great purpose, never fear anything and you'll be contributing toward a galaxy-wide scheme to achieve understanding and perfection in all things. – Valorum Jun 08 '14 at 06:28
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    @Richard have anyone ever bought it and joined the Borg voluntarily? How often that happened? How it would compare with deception strategy, e.g. where you pretend to be friendly and then ambush them when they least expect and assimilate them? – StasM Jun 08 '14 at 07:32
  • @StasM - No, but there's always a first time so I guess the Borg live in hope. – Valorum Jun 08 '14 at 07:35
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    @StasM: "As far as I know,..." doesn't mean it never happened. It just hasn't made prime time yet. "You will be assimilated" -> "Ok." leaves 43 minutes to fill. Cities that surrendered to ancient armies didn't leave many stories either. – paul Jun 08 '14 at 21:31
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    Wasn't 300 about Sparta vs Persia? Not Rome. – Vincent Vancalbergh Jun 08 '14 at 21:34
  • More people know about Rome than Persia, and the analogy is ancient armies / cities in general. – paul Jun 08 '14 at 21:38
  • But the point is that it doesn't work in the Star Trek universe. In the real world, conquerors (Persians, Mongols, whatever) are not hyperrational -- they sometimes stick to traditions that would hurt them (see: the Mongols and their ritual collapse every time a Great Khan died). The Borg, in contrast, are highly logical; if their ritual doesn't work, I would expect them to drop it -- to "evolve" out of it. Also, of course, under Mongol/Persian/whatever rule you didn't lose all individuality and humanity; if you didn't resist, nothing much happened to you... unlike with the Borg. – Andres F. Feb 03 '17 at 19:40
  • Also, another thing about the Romans is that they (not sure how genuinely, but it was an official stance) believed that only defensive war has the sanction of the Gods. And so, before starting a war, they found (or manufactured - somehow their Gods were pretty gullible) an offense against Romans and offered the enemy to correct the offense (usually by surrendering and giving Romans what they want) or face war, which in that case would be fully justified and divinely sanctioned. – StasM Feb 05 '17 at 23:57
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It illicits fear. It is very confident. They are attacking the will to resist to make their job easier and also perhaps aware that the more anxiety they generate the less effective their oppositions defenses will be. It is their propaganda message to those they wish to assimilate.

Meat Trademark
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jeff
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    This doesn't seem to improve upon the already accepted answer. I suggest checking out the Tour to get a better idea of how to ask and answer questions. We're not a typical discussion forum. – Meat Trademark Jun 08 '14 at 21:20
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    @MeatTrademark I disagree. The psychological warfare aspect of this answer seems, to me, to be the best answer to the question. No other answers touch upon the subconscious effects of such outward confidence. – Nicholas Oct 28 '14 at 18:34
  • Ditto. Out of universe this motto makes them seem intimidating and dangerous. Surely the people in universe would feel that even more strongly. –  Oct 29 '14 at 03:08
  • The problem I see is that it seems ineffectual within the Star Trek universe, even though it would work in the real world (but in the real world there are no hyperlogical hive minds like the Borg -- no aggressor behaves like them). Civilizations don't surrender to the Borg, so it would seem their announcement doesn't work. If the Borg are hyperlogical and constantly evolving, why won't they drop their "greeting"? – Andres F. Feb 03 '17 at 19:38
0

Perhaps the Borg see some advantage to demonstrating the "proper" way for things to happen: you get orders from the Borg, you realize futility in resisting, and you do what they say.

Granted, their nanobots will force the issue through the assimilation process. However, there may be some advantage to prior training. For instance, maybe nanobots need to exert more energy (or somehow get used up) re-programming the mind, and a highly contrary/antagonistic mind may be less desired than a mind that has already started the process of learning to listen to commands that originate from the Borg hive.

Even for those who initially resist, once they individually realize that the Borg are accomplishing exactly what they want, they may be more prone to change their mind and become more cooperative/desirable even before the machinery starts to force the issue.

TOOGAM
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0

The reason the Borg announce themselves is very straightforward. It's an explicit statement of intent. In deep space, if another species are encountered, you are never fully aware of their intentions. That's why the Enterprise always hails ships, to state their intent. The Borg are simply doing the same.

L Andrews
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    Does not really answer the question. OK, announcement serves to announce intent. But why announce intent? – StasM Apr 19 '15 at 03:51