[Ads-l] to borg - 1994

[Barretts Mail]

1. English/Japanese to Dutch translator Loek van Kooten writes (http://www.loekalization.com/prozcom.html <http://www.loekalization.com/prozcom.html>):

——
The seal turns out to be nothing but a stamp of approval from Proz.com for being a good indoctrinated, brainwashed and borged citizen on their site: someone who only sings, claps and dances because of all the great miracles performed by Proz.com's divine staff.
——

2. He is not a native speaker of English, but Wiktionary (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Borg#English) has: 

(slang) To assimilate rivals, via corporate acquisition or religious proselytisation.
(slang) To turn into a cyborg, to implant machinery into people with the intent of controlling or assimilating them.

Usage notes
Use of other than the infinitive is rare. Lowercase spelling also occurs, less commonly.

The word is not found in the online Oxford Dictionaries.

3. Urban Dictionary (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=borged <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=borged>) takes this back to 13 May 2005 when 324430 of 9999999999999 defined it as: 

——
to be assimilated into the collective by something in an effort to forcibly take something of yours... 

could be your computer, clan, freedom, money, effort, technological and biological distinctiveness, or your soul.... 

but you will know when you have been borged. 

you have been warned.....
XP fucked up my system!!!! again!!!! 
ive been borged!!!!!! fuck you Bill Gates!!!! AHHHH!!!!!!!!!6^%$^$*^&^*&^#$%(*^$^ 

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE…………

——

4. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_Who <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_Who>) says that the appearance of the “Borg” occurred first on 5 May 1989. 

5. 1994 - earliest instance I find of “Borged” in Google Books: 
Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture
by Mark Dery
http://bit.ly/2iNVaHb <http://bit.ly/2iNVaHb>

——
Even so, the compu-slang title reminds us that our interaction with the world around us is increasingly mediated by computer technology, and that, big by digital bit, we are being “Borged,” as devotees of _Star Trek: The Next Generation_ would have it—transformed into cyborgian hybrids of technology and biology through our ever-more-frequent interactions with machines, or with one another _through_ technological interfaces.
—— 

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA


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