hivemind

plural hiveminds · alternative hive mind

1. literatureA collection of minds somehow linked or unified, possibly as if by telepathy.

   It traces the growth of homo gestalt with the uniting of six lovely outcasts of society who have psi powers and come together as a hive mind, thus creating a gestalt super-being.

   2005, Michael Ashley, Transformations: The History of the Science Fiction Magazine 1950 to 1970, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, page 133

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   Though now extinct, the rachni once threatened every species in Citadel space. Over 2000 years ago, explorers foolishly opened a mass relay to a previously-unknown system and encountered something never seen before or since: a species of spacefaring insects guided by a hive-mind intelligence.

   2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Rachni Codex entry

   We have the villainous Borg of Star Trek: a hive mind of individuals robbed of their individuality, communicating with each other not by touch or even speech but by omnipresent computer networks.

   2011 February 15, Michael Chorost, “‘World Wide Mind’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Synonyms: groupmind

2. broadlyfigurativelyCollective intelligence, especially when facilitated by communications technology.

   The hive mind should be thought of as a tool. Empowering the collective does not empower individuals — just the reverse is true.

   2006 May 29, Jaron Lanier, “Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism”, in Edge

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   The marvel of “hive mind” is that no one is in control, and yet an invisible hand governs, a hand that emerges from very dumb members.

   1992, Kevin Kelly, Out of Control, Addison-Wesley, published 1994, →ISBN, page 12

   In any case, culture and technology are increasingly reliant on the hive mind–and whatever its faults, Lanier's broadside helps us consider the consequences of this momentous development.

   2006 December 10, Steven Johnson, “Digital Maoism”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   There are many places, of course, on the internet where a utopian ideal of "here comes everybody" prevails, where the anonymous hive mind is fantastically curious and productive.

   2011 July 23, Tim Adams, “How the internet created an age of rage”, in The Observer

   It is not my metaphor–the notion of a hivemind, a group sort of consciousness and/or collective body of knowledge, has long been discussed in both academic settings and in common parlance.

   2019, Sarah Rose Cavanagh, Hivemind, Orion, →ISBN

   Just as industrial society was imagined as a well-functioning machine, instrumentarian society is imagined as a human simulation of machine learning systems: a confluent hive mind in which each element learns and operates in concert with every other element.

   2019, Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, →ISBN

   Synonyms: swarm intelligence

3. broadlyderogatoryfigurativelyA group of people who uncritically share beliefs, behave very similarly or mindlessly follow orders.

   Lehman, AIG, Anglo-Irish, etc. were not cases of immortal hive-minds at work; they were cases of kleptocrats run wild.

   2010 December 10, Paul Krugman, “Hive-minds and Kleptocrats”, in The Conscience of a Liberal

   Synonyms: sheeple