Creating a Hive Mind via Connection.

[Trusk'our]

If Bridge Four, or any group of people really, were to get access to a bunch of Unsealed Duraluminminds, or perhaps get a Bondsmith's help, could they create a strong enough Connection to one another to create a sort of hive mind? We know that a Radiant and their Spren can send mental impressions to one another, and they seem to be able to track one another as well, so maybe these Connected people could do the same with one another; working together more efficiently due to their Connection.

Also, it seems that Radiants get some natural talent that relates to their Spren, so could a veteran soldier grant some of their honed skill in the form of “natural talent” to a fresh recruit that they’ve formed a strong Connection with? Could the veteran get some benefit in the form of emotional strength from the new recruit, since they aren’t worn as thin from years of fighting? Maybe this would be a way for the Heralds or other ancient beings with worn souls to stabilize themselves; form a strong Connection with someone young and full of life.

[Quantus]

To me "Hive Mind" has connontations of a Single Self distributed over lots of physical bodies, and I dont think Connection alone would suppress the Individuals enough.  Bondsmiths are more versatile so who knows what they can do.  If they did, it might depend on what sort of Bond they were working with and/or modelling it after.  The Squire-Radiant bond, for example, might be a place to start to get that sort of Communal thing going, but that one is distance-limited implying that the Bond is more Cognitive than Spiritual.  

Radiants get Resonances unique to their order and related to their two surges, and each type tends to gravitate towards specific traits and/or types of people, but I dont think it gets any more individual or diverse than that.  So if something is conveyed it might more likely be something on a more generic Human vs Singer level.  Maybe being Hived to a Singer would let the group hear the Rhythms, while being Hived to a Human would make lesser spren more responsive to them the way they are to Humans relative to the Singers.  

[Anomander Rake]

I think it could work!  Unless capital-c-connection to such things can be artificially manufactured, being a part of Bridge 4, or Kelsiers Crew, or some other unique and exclusive group seems to me like it would be an appropriate key.

I don't think anything would happen naturally, but some fabrial intermediary that mimics whatever Nahel bond mechanic allows for the exchange of thoughts/ideas/impressions could do the trick?

[DiePie]

On 1/25/2022 at 10:33 PM, Anomander Rake said:

I don't think anything would happen naturally, but some fabrial intermediary that mimics whatever Nahel bond mechanic allows for the exchange of thoughts/ideas/impressions could do the trick?

A few, well placed, Hemalurgic spikes should do the trick!

 

On a more serious note, I agree that suppressing people's individuality would probably be more difficult. Your best bet would probably making it so that the separations between people's minds are as porous as possible, so that thoughts, feelings, etc. seep between minds. Leave that for long enough and eventually they're going to act more as one person.

Now if you start during childhood, before people develop strong personalities, then you might be able to get something closer to a hive mind using this idea.

 

But your best bet is probably spiking people's intelligence/ability to multitask and their connections to their bodies (assuming those things are possible).

[Anomander Rake]

45 minutes ago, DiePie said:

A few, well placed, Hemalurgic spikes should do the trick!

...

But your best bet is probably spiking people's intelligence/ability to multitask and their connections to their bodies (assuming those things are possible).

True!  Hemalurgy should def work, we know it can steal a lot of wonky stuff on top of normal things:

Spoiler

Satsuoni

Is it possible to give cats intelligence with Hemalurgy? Or transfer cat's identity to a human?

Brandon Sanderson

Hemalurgy can do some very, very odd things. And the endowment of intelligence is a common result of tinkering with Shard-based magic.

17th Shard Forum Q&A (Sept. 26, 2012)

Spoiler

Argent

Can you get a Hemalurgic spike for writing skill?

Brandon Sanderson

Hemalurgy is a lot more varied than what it's been used for so far.

Shadows of Self Chicago signing (Oct. 12, 2015)

Spoiler

Krios (paraphrased)

If you have a form of manipulating your Identity and a form of healing, are you able to shapeshift or even evolve your body like growing wings?

Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

You'd have to do some real work on your Spiritweb to make that work. It'd take more work than you're implying, but the [singers] for instance are doing this. It'll take a little more work, it's not just blanking your Identity. Hemalurgy would make it very easy, but also very evil. But what you want to achieve is possible.

Stuttgart signing (May 17, 2019)

There is this one too:

Spoiler

Questioner

Can you transfer consciousness via Hemalurgy? Like could you spike someone's ability to--

Brandon Sanderson

I'll RAFO that for now.  It's a good question.

Orem signing (March 10, 2018)

Larger hive minds would get tough this way though, needing to be spiked for each thrall/member would leave you more porcupine than person lmao.  I wonder if you can have an intermediary somehow, someone to jam a bunch of spikes into, and then a single pair of spikes linking them to you.

[DiePie]

12 minutes ago, Anomander Rake said:

Larger hive minds would get tough this way though, needing to be spiked for each thrall/member would leave you more porcupine than person lmao.  I wonder if you can have an intermediary somehow, someone to jam a bunch of spikes into, and then a single pair of spikes linking them to you.

I wonder if this could work with a being that's physically larger than a human, like for example a Kandra (who are probably better predisposed towards running a civilization out of their own head anyways), if they need more space to put spikes they can just ingest more biological material. It could be a more biological-horror take on the topic, with the host of the hive mind basically turning their original body into a pincushion to maintain control over their bodies.

[Anomander Rake]

44 minutes ago, DiePie said:

I wonder if this could work with a being that's physically larger than a human, like for example a Kandra (who are probably better predisposed towards running a civilization out of their own head anyways), if they need more space to put spikes they can just ingest more biological material. It could be a more biological-horror take on the topic, with the host of the hive mind basically turning their original body into a pincushion to maintain control over their bodies.

I am VERY hopeful that we get grandiose acts of hemalurgy / fabrial creations like this.  Something like (Spoiler for the anime Psycho-Pass)

Spoiler

The Sibyl System - a hive mind of interconnected human brains acting as a law enforcement system for future Japan

or (Spoiler for Naruto: Shippuden)

Spoiler

Pain, a character with the ability to USE CHAKRA RODS PIERCING CORPSES TO CONTROL THEM - who's main body is, as you said, storming pincushioned, using six corpses with unique abilities to carry out his deeds.

Also, the rods piercing the corpses are stylized as jewelry (seriously dope character- designs), and they all look drippy as hell - def need some of that in the Cosmere future XD

or (ENOURMOUS spoiler for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

Spoiler

Father turning the ENTIRE CITY OF XERXES into a Philosophers stone, which is a well of free power to fuel alchemy, breaking the laws of equivalent exchange, created from human souls.  In other words, free investiture to power magic

Can't wait to see magic pushed to its limits and spliced together for nutty results like these

Edited January 28, 2022 by Anomander Rake