In light of the comments discussions for " Data being intimate with Tasha Yar - why was Data built with this capability? " involving Captain Picard and Borg Queen, a question popped into my mind:
Do Borg even have sexual reproduction?
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4 Answers
According to Seven of Nine in Voyager "Revulsion", Borg reproduce by assimilation only - likely due to efficiency reasons.
As Borg, we had no need for seduction, no time for single-cell fertilization. We saw a species we wanted, and we assimilated it.
answered Sep 20, 2011 at 16:29
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15Wait, I distinctly remember a TNG episode where an away team from the Enterprise beam over to a Borg cube and find little Borg babies. They deduce that the implants are added later.– DimaCommented Sep 20, 2011 at 16:52
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7@Dima: What's to stop them from assimilating babies too? It's easy once you've already assimilated the adults.– gnoviceCommented Sep 20, 2011 at 17:03
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6@gnovice: As I recall the whole point there was that the Borg do reproduce "naturally", whatever that means, and add implants later.– DimaCommented Sep 20, 2011 at 18:03
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5Inefficient at least with 24th century technology. Remember, with the Doctor's 29th century mobile emitter Seven's borg nanites were able to mature One into a full adult drone in a matter of days. Besides which, the Borg have to have some kind of End Game plan. Lets say they assimilated the entire universe (just for the argument, OK?), how would they replace drones that got damaged or destroyed?– XantecCommented Sep 20, 2011 at 20:22
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1This quote doesn't necessarily rule out producing new drones by cloning. But looking around for more info, I also found a quote from Seven of Nine in the episode "Drone" when she saw a fetal Borg from in a futuristic maturation chamber (the Borg nanoprobes had assimilated the technology in the Doctor's 29th-century mobile emitter), and said "I don't understand. The Borg assimilate. They do not reproduce in this fashion." Commented Nov 21, 2014 at 22:27
DVK has it right - the Borg do not currently reproduce by sexual intercourse.
It is reasonable to assume that they COULD, if they wanted to. The drones are either capable of the act or could be made capable of it. Even better, the technology for 'test tube babies' is readily available to them.
It is, however, unlikely they would choose to do so. Outside of the Ocampa (who's lifespan and tendencies towards evolution into godlike beings would be issues), it takes at least a decade of care for a child before they could be useful to the Borg, and more like 18 to get a drone with anything resembling full strength and capability.
As DVK said, it would be an inefficient way to expand the Collective.
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5Borg maturation chambers are often used to accelerate a creature's growth by up to 25x when they are assimilated at very young ages. This could in theory produce a human adult from an embryo within 9 months. I'd consider that very efficient, especially if that 9 months is otherwise just being spent in search of or transit to the next planet to assimilate. en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Maturation_chamber– IsziCommented May 11, 2012 at 12:40
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1@Iszi: But is that an efficient use of the power that goes to the maturation chamber?– JeffCommented May 11, 2012 at 13:30
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2As opposed to the power & resources that would be required to locate, travel to, and assimilate a comparable number of drones? I'm sure it likely is.– IsziCommented May 11, 2012 at 14:29
Seven states that Borg assimilate, and do not have sex. The line about Borg being born could mean Borg drones being "made", or what happen if the Borg assimilated a pregnant female and she gave birth
The Borg are constantly evolving, adapting and changing. I would say yes, they are capable of sexual reproduction, but prefer other methods like cloning, test tube babies, and just assimilated offspring of species added to the collective... However, there have been some displays of sexuality in the Borg- mainly by the Queen in First Contact... I would surmise that, as with many things about the Borg, it is a mystery left unsolved in canon. They don't portray the whole picture about the Borg as a species- only what the Federation has dealt with directly in their encounters and observations.
