A collective consciousness (CC) is a set of shared beliefs, ideas, and moralities which unifies a society or even a civilization. This is a "hive mind", "group mind", "mass mind", or "social mind", and can span a planet or beyond.
A global brain is a planetary information and communications technology network that interconnects all individuals and their technology. As this network stores ever more information, takes over ever more functions of coordination and communication from traditional organizations, and becomes increasingly intelligent, it increasingly plays the role of a brain for a planet.
The Internet increasingly ties its users together into a single information processing system that functions as part of the collective nervous system of the planet. The intelligence of this network is collective or distributed: it is not centralized or localized in any particular individual, organization or computer system. Therefore, no one can command or control it. As it expands to a social network, information propagates from person to person. Such propagation is similar to the spreading activation that neural networks in the brain use to process information in a parallel, distributed manner. It therefore becomes much more powerful and intelligent than its constituent systems.
This concept of a "brainternet" can help large groups of people achieve time-sensitive objectives with unparalleled unison and cooperation. However, if the hive mind becomes over-used, it could lead to people losing a sense of independence and free will. Identity theft will take on a whole new meaning.
Elon Musk and Neuralink aim to create a brain-computer interface (BCI) with significantly greater information bandwidth than traditional human interface devices. These artificial intelligence systems will rapidly outpace human abilities, making it highly possible for a CC to become cybernetic in nature. An emerging metasystem of individual human intelligence together with cybernetic implants creates a network of “nerves” that interconnect subsystems and coordinate their activity. Such coordination can create a collective intelligence.
CC Examples[]
- A hierarchy hive mind is the Borg Collective. Each Borg drone is linked to the collective by a sophisticated subspace network that ensures each member is given constant supervision and guidance. The collective consciousness gives them the ability not only to "share the same thoughts", but also to adapt quickly to new tactics. The Collective made decisions as a single entity. However, the Borg Queen played a role in ordering the chaos of the Collective and the information flowing in from its trillions of drones.
- An Overmind is one mind with many bodies. Drones are controlled and have no effect on the Overmind if destroyed. An example is the Orz.
- A merged mind is an individual mind made of many bodies. A loss of a body can badly affect this mind. An example is the Flood.
- A consensus consciousness is a single mind made of many individuals, and the loss of each individual can affect the mind. An example is the Geth.