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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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. 😁
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