I was totally enthralled by the TV show Pluribus on Apple TV, moreso because of the core concept than because of the plot details or characters.
[Minor TV spoiler:]
For those unaware, the core concept is that an alien race from some super distant star beams a message to Earth, that message is decoded as a DNA sequence, humans unwittingly infect themselves with it, and presto — all humans on Earth become a hive mind, except for a handful of accidental holdouts that are genetically incompatible. The show follows the relationship between the holdouts and the hive mind.
I was totally captivated by all the details of how the hive mind behaves. It got me thinking how much of human society is not in our collective interest, but really due to the need to align individual incentives. There's no traffic or jails or courts anymore. No factory farming, no personal homes. The resource footprint of the hive mind is a tiny fraction of humanity before. The hive mind is creepy to the viewer by it's very nature, but it's actual behavior borders on angelic — it has respect for all life and sentient perspectives, and abores violence.
It feels almost like a reverse 1984 — making your feel the weight and cost of our individuality, and perhaps even a responsibility to curb it.
Unfortunately, the TV show is original and not based off of a book, so there's no more material for me to peruse.
Any suggestions? I don't exactly expect there to be a wealth of "hive-mind Utopian" fiction out there, but curious if you guys have ever read anything that's given you a similar vibe.
by Silent_Mike
5 Comments
Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le guin. It’s short but has a great take on the idea of perfecting humanity.
So the hive mind in this book is not human, but it’s told from the perspective of aliens first contact with humans and the differences between the hive and individual: Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Spider Robinson’s got multiple works that play on similar themes from a very different angle. Time Pressure, Mindkiller, Stardance, Starseed, and Starmind off the top of my head. The way he writes about race and sexuality can be very much of its time, though.
I am currently reading Dawn, the first book of the Lilith trilogy by Octavia Butler and it might fit the bill.
*The Bodysnatchers* by Jack Finney is the obvious parallel. The 70s movie adaptation is played as a horror, but you can read the invasion as utopian, which gives the movie an interesting tension. I’m not sure if the original book has the same nuance though.