IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2015 - 10

EDITORIAL

MG Michael

esistance is futile"
is a catchphrase
"
that has become
synony mous with
the adoption of new
technologies [1]. The idea was popularized with its use in the television
series Star Trek: The Next Generation,1 where the "Borg," a cybernetically enhanced humanoid drone, has
a role to play in forcing other species
into a collective to connect to the
"hive mind" [3]. The Borg's singular
goal is the consumption of technology, not wealth or political power.
If we track back to the origins
of the phrase "resistance is futile"
in science fiction film,2 we can
find variants such as "resistance is
useless",3 and "your struggles are
futile."4 The exact phrase "resistance is futile" was first used in
Space: 1999 (1978), and later in
an episode of Doctor Who's "The
Cybermen" (1983). In the written
form, refer to Douglas Adams's The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
(1979) and his radio series (1978),5

Resistance is
Not Futile,
nil desperandum

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2015.2473981
Date of publication: 16 September 2015

The Hitchhiker's Guide
to the Galaxy (1979)
A huge young Vogon guard
s t e p p e d fo r w a r d a n d
yanked them out of their
straps with his huge blubber y arms. "You can't
throw us into space," yelled
Ford, "we're trying to write
a book."
"Resistance is useless!"
shouted the Vogon guard
back at him. It was the first
phrase he'd learnt when he
joined the Vogon Guard
Corps.

and more importantly Arthur J.
Burks's (1930) spectacular short
story Monsters of Moyen [5].
Dr Who "The Centre"
(1965)
00:15:16 Approach.
00:15:18 Approach, Earth
people.
00:15:21 Your struggles are
futile.
00:15:28 It doesn't work.
00:15:31 It doesn't work!
Space: 1999 "The Dorcans" (1978)
Consul Varda: Commander, the Psychon [Maya] will
tell you how futile it is to
resist us.
Maya [nodding with obvious
discomfort]: Resistance IS
futile.

1It was first spoken in the Star Trek: The Next
Generation episode "The Best of Both Worlds"
written by Michael Piller. However, it became a
cultural meme as the tagline of the 1996 film
Star Trek: First Contact. See [2].
2
See the television documentary composed of
scenes from Dr Who [4].
3
The Daleks told the Doctor that "resistance is
useless" in 1964's Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth.
4
This phrase appeared in the 1965 episode of
Dr Who: The Centre.

Katina Michael

Monsters of Moyen :
Chapter IV "A Nation
Waits in Dread" (1930)
With this mechanism,
guarded at forfeit of the
lives of a score of men, the
men of the Secret Room
could peer into even the
most secret places of the
world. The old men had
peered, and had seen
things which had blanched

"RESISTANCE IS USELESS!" was the catchphrase
of the Vogons of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy. This was likely a direct reference to the
Doctor Who villains, as Douglas Adams was
involved with Doctor Who around the time that it
made its first appearance as a radio play in 1978.

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september 2015

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