A group mind, group ego, mind coalescence, or gestalt intelligence in

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...

is a plot device in which multiple minds, or consciousnesses, are linked into a single,

collective consciousness Collective consciousness, collective conscience, or collective conscious (french: conscience collective) is the set of shared beliefs, ideas, and moral attitudes which operate as a unifying force within society.''Collins Dictionary of Sociolog ...

intelligence Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can ...

. The first alien hive society was depicted in H. G. Wells's '' The First Men in the Moon'' (1901) while the use of human hive minds in literature goes back at least as far as

David H. Keller David Henry Keller (December 23, 1880 – July 13, 1966) was an American writer who worked for pulp magazines in the mid-twentieth century, in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. He was also a psychiatrist and physician to shell-s ...

's ''The Human Termites'' (published in Wonder Stories in 1929) and Olaf Stapledon's science fiction novel ''

Last and First Men ''Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future'' is a " future history" science fiction novel written in 1930 by the British author Olaf Stapledon. A work of unprecedented scale in the genre, it describes the history of humanity from ...

'' (1930), which is the first known use of the term "group mind" in science fiction. The use of the phrase "hive mind", however, was first recorded in 1943 in use in bee keeping and its first known use in sci-fi was

James H. Schmitz James Henry Schmitz (October 15, 1911 – April 18, 1981) was an American science fiction writer born in Hamburg, Germany of American parents. Life Schmitz was educated at a ''Realgymnasium'' in Hamburg, and grew up speaking both English ...

's ''Second Night of Summer'' (1950). A group mind might be formed by any fictional plot device that facilitates brain to brain communication, such as

telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...

. This term may be used interchangeably with hive mind. "Hive mind" tends to describe a group mind in which the linked individuals have no

identity Identity may refer to: * Identity document * Identity (philosophy) * Identity (social science) * Identity (mathematics) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film * ''Identity'' (2003 film), an ...

free will Free will is the capacity of agents to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded. Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, culpability, sin, and other judgements which apply only to ac ...

and are possessed or

mind-control Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwash ...

led as extensions of the hive mind. It is frequently associated with the concept of an entity that spreads among individuals and suppresses or subsumes their

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

in the process of integrating them into its own collective consciousness. The concept of the group or hive mind is an intelligent version of real-life superorganisms such as a beehive or an

ant colony An ant colony is a population of a single ant species capable to maintain its complete lifecycle. Ant colonies are eusocial, communal, and efficiently organized and are very much like those found in other social Hymenoptera, though the vario ...

. Some hive minds feature members that are controlled by a centralised "hive brain" or "hive queen" while others feature a decentralised approach where members interact equally or roughly equally to come to decisions. Hive minds are typically viewed in a negative light, especially in earlier works, though some newer works portray them as neutral or positive. As conceived in speculative fiction, hive minds often imply (almost) complete loss (or lack) of

individual An individual is that which exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of being an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) of being a person unique from other people and possessing one's own need ...

ity,

, and

personhood Personhood or personality is the status of being a person. Defining personhood is a controversial topic in philosophy and law and is closely tied with legal and political concepts of citizenship, equality, and liberty. According to law, only a l ...

. The individuals forming the hive may specialize in different functions, similarly to social insects. __NOTOC__

References

External links

*Entry o
group mind
a
Science Fiction CitationsMiguel Nicolelis' Brain-net
{{Science fiction Fictional collective consciousnesses Science fiction themes Collective intelligence

See also

Further reading

References

External links