The Singularity of the Human Hive Mind

James Sirois gives us a strong warning about overusing the net.

- James Sirois

The internet has become so all-pervading that even the word seems a little old-fashioned now. No-one really uses it much anymore. We ask each other for wifi, or talk of going online, or complain about a lack of data, but rarely do we talk of ‘the internet’ as an entity; it has become too ubiquitous, too intrinsic to our lives, for that to be a very useful term. This prompts me to wonder: what are we becoming? Could the internet lead us to become more than individuals and disparate communities?

I believe we’re entering an era when the words ‘individual’ and ‘community’ take on new definitions or meanings as we increasingly become interconnected in what I think of as a ‘hive mind’. I also believe that a hive-minded process could itself be a transition towards a singularity in consciousness across the Earth. Is that desirable, or even possible? Are we in the process of creating it? Is it inevitable? Can it be controlled? What does it even mean?

Before addressing these questions, however, we’ll need definitions of the words ‘Hive’ and ‘Mind’ and the phrase ‘Hive Mind’. What is a ‘hive mind’, exactly?

Mind

An awareness of existence with experiential content, referring both to what is outside itself and to its own existence.

Hive

Multiple entities sharing an element of awareness not unique to any individual but present to each, and experienced by all as some awareness of their collective existence.

Hive Mind