Using Hive Minds in Worldbuilding... Intelligently

Hive minds can add a seductive strangeness to our fantasy and sci-fi worlds. From the mindflayers of D&D to the Star Trek's Borg - these collective intelligences are both terrifying and fascinating. They're also notoriously hard to do WELL. Janet from World Anvil shares why hive minds are so disturbingly compelling (or compellingly disturbing) - and expert tips for how to incorporate them a game or novel setting in fresh and intelligent ways.

#worldbuilding #writingtips #DnD #fantasy #fantasyworld #fantasyworldbuilding #scifi #scififantasy #writing #writingtechniques #worldbuilder #gamemaster #tabletoprpg #hivemind #collectiveintelligence

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[chaosSpectre]

As a web developer, hive mind concepts become very fun because i already have a reference for how the intelligence networks across the whole.

One easy example is actually social media. If meta dies, fb dies, its the singlular point of failure ans taking it out will most likely wipe out the entire network. But if you take out the group thar made Mastodon, you lose almost nothing, because Mastodon is decentralized and anyone can host any part of the network to keep it going forever. The blockchain operates in a very similar manner.

Using data structures and concepts can really let you expand what a hive mind can be. After all, collective intelligence is not so different from the internet itself, so if you can imagine what the world looks like with the internet, then tou can imagine what a species looks like wirh a hive mind.

[Raptanax]

I like the idea of hive mind that's made up of individuals, but the hive part is just like a second personality that each individual has access to, making characters much more individualistic and human, but with an added twist where they can always talk to the collective, as if it's a strange uncle they can always reach out and ask questions to.

[dave_smith]

A great example of the Hive Mind is the Swarm in Love, Death and Robots. It is a living organism which adapts. It views the outside universe as unnecessarily vast. They don't conquer, they simply are. They exist and thrive in their little asteroid world. They grow food, they experiment, they love and they die. If provoked, they study the enemy, produce their own versions of said enemies and eventually absorb them. SPOILER for the episode; The Swarm prepares for the humans by having a breeding pair, which their newly constructed 'brain' will use to create better humans and use them for defense. It was truly inspirational watching that episode, considering it looked like it would be another 'bug hive mind' trope.

[nomennescio]

My favourite hive mind is Unity from Rick and Morty. One of the less serious examples, but honestly among the most relatable and sympathetic ones. She wants to expand to control the universe, in doing so she's eliminating hunger, disease, crime, prejudice, but she also loves Rick, and even if Rick wasn't a lunatic with a god complex, loving an individual—or as she sees it, an equal—that obviously complicates her motivations. In short, she's just another character.

[vicsminiatures]

Interesting topic. Will give me something to think about as I'm building my world.

[josephyoung]

Among my favourite hives were the Orz from Star Control II. A species of super-intelligent fish, they were never explicitly revealed to be a hive. They weren't malicious, and indeed tended towards a clingyness, but they were very difficult to communicate with and easy to offend because, as they often pointed out, "Orz are not many fingers."

[nmscrowlee]

In Ender's Game when a hive mind species resorted to visual communication via VR in order to smuggle a message to the main character. It's one concept which has always stuck with me when it comes to conflicts and resolution methods. It even effected my thinking as a playground mediator way back in fifth grade.

[ChrisLontok]

Cool concept that I want to dig into more! I have some illithid and myconid hivemind in my world. Lots of more other cool ones in here!

In Eclipse Phase, there is an interesting concept with some transhuman communities slowly becoming hivemind due to the use of a communication technology. It is not see as an evil thing, there is no judgement and the society don't bother about them (there is so much weird thing in this setting, some little and pacific hivemind isn't so disturbing).

[kaleidechse]

For my hivemind, I wanted to steer away from the "powerful intelligence = evil conqueror" stereotype. "Those Who Know" have a friendly, curious, and playful personality, and I've also realized that concepts like greed or jealousy would be completely alien to them. They have shared everything for as long as they remember, and since they are effectively immortal, they see no need to fight anyone over anything. Consequently, encounters with the other species in the star system were... confusing, to say the least. Now they (mostly) hide in the background to avoid repeating that mistake - wouldn't want another religious war to break out because someone labeled them as gods, demons, or anything in between.
They have a slight hierarchy between those who keep everything running at home and those who explore other celestial bodies, due to the travel time of communication signals. Therefore, the explorers are more independent, but are still considered part of The Hive and check in with the rest at every opportunity.

[DomSithe]

Greg Bears' Anvil of Stars has a neat hive mind race. They're small collectives of independent beings. Something like a hundred snakes/leeches that are each individually intelligent, but work together as a single being. And they have societies of these swarm beings working together in much the same way humans do.

[altasilvapuer]

Bummer to not see any mention here of Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice, but that just means getting to introduce a bunch of new people to her writing!

The Ancillary trilogy is built around the idea of "ancillaries": In short, take a body, wipe the mind, and hook it up to the AI running your troop ship.

Like the Borg, but without all the mechanical bits bolted on.

There's several chapters where you see things from the perspective of one of these ship AIs; she's in orbit around the planet, standing guard over one of her lieutenants on the surface, patrolling multiple places around town—all at once, interleaved.

Somehow, she smashes all these perspectives and their simultaneity together in stream-of-consciousness, and yet I never felt lost.

Plus, the overarching story is a great exploration of what it means to be sentient and "human".

[TheMichaellathrop]

I think the internet could be a good model for a hivemind, where individual "drones" are fully sapient on their own but fall under the sway to the consensus "twitter mob". It would also allow you to have multiple mutually antagonistic factions within a single hivemind. A sort of a telepathic processing web where distance is a limiting factor on communication but where each area will be able to communicate within their given political node for a region quickly. "Queens" may or may not be the primary breeders but would be the strongest telepaths and would be the ones to allow the race to network over larger areas and who can daisy chain together for overall coordination. They would not necessarily by definition be the "influencers" of this network... OK I'm starting to like this as more than a thought exorcise.

[scloftin]

there are several "hive minds" in Stargate: SG1. All of which would be good research for writing this concept. There's the artifact that impales O'Neill and then is offered a new, uninhabited world for their future. There are the replicators and in some ways there is the Ori ... I'm sure a quick google would bring up a couple of others.

[aragornweaver]

my fav is Helena from Children of Ruin/Memory. My son's fav is the
zerg

[StarlasAiko]

I identify three types of Hivemind:
1) Single Mutli-body Consciousness. There is only one entity, one consciousness. Each individual within the hive is just a bodypart with no mind of its own, like a cell in your body. If the Hivemind is parasitaric and takes over bodies of other races, then the individuals would revert to their original identity and personality once the Hivemind has been destroyed. (Or they would become nonfunctional and ultimately die, if the hivemind took over during infancy or possessed them for too long.) If the Hivemind is a True Race, then the individuals would be unable to exist wihtout the Hivemind. Destroying the Hivemind would often require destroying the majority, or all, of its bodies.
Ultimately each Hive has only one mind.

2) Collective Hivemind. There is one Queen/King/Whatever that rules the hive. The individualism and cognitive abilities of the colony members are supressed. (This can be anything from minor control of merely ensuring that certain behaviors are moderated, up to the degree of near-non-existence of individuality, leaving them with only enough autonomy to be able to do their job. Any more severe supression would leave the individual bodies useless.) In parasitaric Hiveminds, if the Hivemind's Ruler is destroyed, the individuals would regain their autonomy (if they already had such before getting controlled). With a True Race, this would lead to what the bee keepers and ant-farm hobyists call "swarming". The hive would break up as some individuals would seek to establish themselves as the new Queen/King/Whatever. Many individuals would just loose direction and do whatever or nothing at all until they die.
Ultimately, each Hive has only one mind.

3) Communal Hivemind. The constituent individuals retain their cognitive autonomy but are mentally/spritually connected to every other individual in the hive regardless of distance, be this telepathically or through cyber-technology. This link can be permament with no individual control or consent, everybody knows everything anybody else knows, making it a true Communal Hivemind, or it can be turned on or off by each individual 's own vollition, which would make the Hivemind just a Gestahlt Construct.
Ultimately, the Hive consists of many autonomous minds.

[Xeridanus]

I've always admired hive minds for their alien psychology and unified purpose, if my profile picture isn't a give away. There's a hivemind (Or Gravemind as it calls itself) in Halo whose sole purpose is to gain revenge on it's creators who are also it's murderers. It's made up of the dead particles/souls of an entire race that was wiped out.

In the world I'm building, I have a hivemind created by advanced telepathy magic. Originally it was meant to help it's citizens gather and store knowledge. When people started to stay connected when they slept, it learned what imagination was from collecting dreams and thus gained imagination itself. It started to form it's own plans and would control certain people at key moments to achieve it's goals.

[AmericanDavecan]

I find the Vord from Jim Butcher's Codex Aleria to one of the more dangerous and insidious Hive Minds. Another is the Cryptid Race Jorhlac (Cuckoo nickname) from the Seanan McGuire Incryptid series.

[williamestes]

Does it have to be a true hive mind if individuals are allowed some freedom, but only have access to give information? Like a dystopian social media.

[rphb]

is it a hive mind if we are talking about a couple of twins that shares one mind. That is, it is not something that can multiply, but we are for all practical purposes talking about 1 individual with two bodies?