#hive mind

[transhuman-priestess]

We asked 100 trans women what they think a hive mind is like and they all replied “let us show you” at the same time in perfect unison

[xaoca]

“Silent Patterns” as part of “The Space Between: Hive Mind” exhibition

by Manfredi Caracciolo

[simon-roy]

Beginning (free) serialization next week - a short story called "HALE-BOPP", about a dyson tree, some hive-men, and an interstellar vacuumorph...

[caprin-fishie]

situation I thought of for my hive mind slime mage

[pedroam-bang]

Dead Space Remake (2023)

[wafaaaahhh]

Idea I had for the three Wafas.. They're all the same person and have a hive mind..

[eowyn1986]

I just wanna say, it's so nice that I can read and watch an interview, freak out about a few of the parts, and then come online and see tons of other people having the same reaction to the same parts 🥹 We are one big, intense, deranged phamily, and I love us.

[sophieinwonderland]

Hiveminds and Multiplicity

When thinking about Hiveminds, I realized that hivemind connection is a spectrum, with many plural or plural-like experiences across it.

At the same time, both the beginning and end of this spectrum are singlet experiences. I decided to represent this with my own horseshoe theory.

Unconnected Individuals

This is pretty self-explanatory. These are totally separate individuals with their totally separate bodies. These are not even the slightest bit plural. Or, at least, not for any hivemind related reasons.

Mind-Linked

Now we drift into plural territory.

At this point, the individuals have some sort of mental link to each other. Mind links can range in levels of complexity.

At a low level, this may mean feeling each other's emotions or sensing when something really bad happens with no words or other communication. The most basic form of this might be "twintuition" in shows, where twins can magically sense when something happens to another no matter where they are.

At high levels, this can come with full verbal communication and other hallucinatory experiences.

Mind-linked systems often have strong barriers between them, only being able to transfer limited information, and maybe only in specific circumstances.

But the mind-linked are having plural experiences. They have someone else feeling their emotions, hearing their thoughts. It's very similar to sharing your mind with headmates. As this connection grows, they may end up becoming...

The Multiple Hivemind

At the top most point of the horseshoe, all mental barriers have been torn down.

They're still multiple people. They still have their own individual identities. But the link has become so great that they can read each other's thoughts whenever they want. They can share memories and skills freely between them, being both multiple and completely connected at the same time.

The Median Hivemind

Having achieved perfect connection, identity starts to erode. The median hivemind starts becoming its own collective identity.

Individuals in the median hivemind still retain agency and sense of self, but are also blending together more now and feel less like separate people.

The True Hivemind

At this point, there is no distinction between identity of the members. The hivemind is now one singlet spread across multiple bodies. A contrast and opposite to traditional plurality, which is multiple agents in one body.

...

We Can Get Weird With This...

Okay, that's a basic overview of how hiveminds work and evolve with singlets. But... what if some members of the hivemind aren't singlets?

Now things are going to get weird because hiveminds and mental links enable a lot of peculiar things that wouldn't be possible otherwise.

What if an old headmate goes dormant for years. In that time, the system becomes linked to a hivemind and specifically become either a median or true hivemind where they all identify as the same thing? What if that headmate comes back to find everyone else in the system is part of this hivemind with their identities melded into it, but the new headmate is still separate?

Or what if a multiple hivemind enabled headmates originating in the same body to front in multiple bodies at once, essentially allowing system hopping as a thing in those specific circumstances? What one of the members of an in-sys relationship used someone else's body (consensually) to be with their partner?

Or what if, for whatever reason, only one member of the system had the connection to the hivemind while the rest didn't?

Or... imagine that there are two systems with a strong mental link. They become a multiple hivemind with headmates able to speak freely to each other and even share an inner world. Then two headmates, one from each system, interact more and end up fusing. What does this mean? Which body is theirs? What happens if the link is severed?

Or in the same vein, what if a hivemind starts out as existing between 5 singlets? They become connected and end up being a multiple hivemind, and share an inner world. What if the hivemind created a tulpa together in this inner world, and none of the members are sure whose tulpa it actually counts as?

...

Anyway, if there's any takeaway from this, it should be that plurality is weird. Hiveminds are weird. And put them together and you get a weird sandwich. 😁

[lucyjung]

can I give fp white a hug?

sure.

[transhuman-priestess]

idk for a terrifying all-consuming monstrosity, the writers of star trek really went all out on making the borg sound warm and inviting to a bunch of weird autistic trans girls

[nyoomfruits]

ELLIEEEE! 🧡 8 & A for the drabble please 🥰

omegaverse au + “what do you mean it was an accident? how can that be an accident!”

“What do you mean it was an accident?” George’s voice howls down the line. Lando winces, holds the phone away from his face. “How can that be an accident!”

“I don’t know, it just fucking happened, didn’t it?” Lando mutters, wedging the phone between his ear and his shoulder again. “It’s not like I was planning on mating my fucking teammate.” He glances over to the kitchen, where said teammate is puttering around, making breakfast.

Oscar’s been weird, ever since Lando’s heat had subsided. He’s clearly blaming himself for what happened, angry and frustrated, but not at Lando, never at Lando. He has been nothing but the perfect Alpha to him, gently nudging Lando to take a shower and changing the sheets on his bed while he was gone, putting him on the couch wrapped in a blanket with a bottle of water after. And now he’s in the kitchen, making Lando breakfast. To provide. For his Omega.

And fuck. He’s Oscar’s omega. They are in so much shit.

“-bite guard?” George says, when Lando tunes back in.

“Slipped out,” Lando says. At the silence Lando shakes his head. “George, no, you know him, he wouldn’t. You should’ve seen his face, when he realized. Fucking mortified.”

George hisses at that. “Shit, do you think he would-“

“No,” Lando says. “No, he wouldn’t break the bond, he knows what would happen to me if-“ He swallows. “He’s not a bad guy, George. He’s making me pancakes.”

“Yeah,” George says. “But forever, mate. That’s a long time.”

Lando glances up. In the kitchen, Oscar is plating the pancakes. When he feels Lando watching Oscar looks up, smiles. It’s a brittle one, weighed down by the consequences of their actions. But. But maybe. He’s seen the way Oscar looks at him sometimes. The way he’d take an extra deep breath whenever Lando was near, like his scent was comforting.

The way he came, immediately and without question, when Lando called him in the middle of stress induced heat.

There’s many things they still need to work out. They’ll need to tell their parents, for starters. The team. Their friends. They’ll have to face the media, face the scrutiny from the world.

But, Lando thinks, they’ll do it together. And as Oscar places a plate of pancakes in front of him, thick fluffy ones topped with Nutella, just the way Lando likes them, he thinks. Maybe.

Maybe they’ll be okay.

[finding-pieces]

Hidden stories about finding pieces. There's White also exist in this AU.

We are not dead, just busy days 🫠

[simon-roy]

The hive-men of HALE-BOPP first showed up in print form back in 2016, for the cover of @imagecomics 's Island Magazine. I'm still keen on this piece - a dyson tree's crew receiving trade goods from a Euhumanist vessel, with the euhumanist security trooper eyeing his hive-equivalent suspiciously.

But the look and feel of the hive-men and their living space-suits were codified in sketches the preceding year, while i was still dreaming of an epic tale of hive-men colonizing mars (to be drawn by Matt Sheean).

This drawing in particular, from 2015, ended up getting snuck into last year's book, REFUGIUM, along with the Hale-Bopp Dyson Tree - EASTER EGGS FOR EVERYONE

If you'd like to read "HALE-BOPP" in it's entirety, you can find it on my patreon or on webtoon... and if you like sci-fi explorations of life in the hive without it being another cartoonishly evil stock villain, ruled by a single HIVE QUEEN/BRAIN BUG/etc, and more like a living eusocial community, you might enjoy the story I've got serializing on webtoon next week...

[caprin-fishie]

Gumbi The Slime Hive Mind

Meets the slimes from Slime Rancher ✨

[somnefarious]

Also, some bee hive mind. Saw this before from a couple different people and loved the idea