Ahive mind,group mind,group ego,mind coalescence, orgestalt intelligence inscience fiction is aplot device in which multiple minds, or consciousnesses, are linked into a singlecollective consciousness orintelligence.[1][2]
This term may be used interchangeably withhive mind.[3][4] "Hive mind" tends to describe a group mind in which the linked individuals have noidentity orfree will and arepossessed ormind-controlled as extensions of the hive mind. It is frequently associated with the concept of an entity that spreads among individuals and suppresses or subsumes theirconsciousness in the process of integrating them into its own collective consciousness. The concept of thegroup orhive mind is an intelligent version of real-lifesuperorganisms such as abeehive or anant colony.[citation needed]
The first alien hive society was depicted inH. G. Wells'sThe First Men in the Moon (1901) while the use of human hive minds in literature goes back at least as far asDavid H. Keller'sThe Human Termites (published inWonder Stories in 1929) andOlaf Stapledon's science-fiction novelLast and First Men (1930),[5][6] which is the first known use of the term "group mind" in science fiction.[7][2] The phrase "hive mind" in science fiction has been traced toEdmond Hamilton's novelThe Face of the Deep (published inCaptain Future in 1942) referring to the hive mind of bees as a simile,[8][9] thenJames H. Schmitz'sSecond Night of Summer (1950).[10][3] A group mind might be formed by any fictional plot device that facilitates brain to brain communication, such astelepathy.
Some hive minds feature members that are controlled by a centralised "hive brain" or "hive queen," but others feature a decentralised approach in which members interact equally or roughly equally to come to decisions.[11] The packs of Tines inVernor Vinge'sA Fire Upon the Deep andThe Children of the Sky are an example of such decentralized group minds.[12]
Hive minds are typically viewed in a negative light, especially in earlier works, but some newer works portray them as neutral or positive.[5][13]
As conceived inspeculative fiction, hive minds often imply (almost) complete loss (or lack) ofindividuality,identity, andpersonhood. However, while the individual members of a group mind may not have such things, the group mind as whole will have them, possibly even to greater degree than individual people (just like a human has more personhood than a single neuron cell). The individuals forming the hive may specialize in different functions, similarly tosocial insects.[citation needed]
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