How social psychologists are gathering evidence of the Hive Mind

How social psychologists are gathering evidence of the Hive Mind

A long held view among certain scientists is that each individual is isolated within his or her own head, that there is no collective mind or any sense of social understanding in which the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. For them, this kind of “hive mind” is firmly part of science fiction.

And yet, a growing number of cognitive psychologists are beginning to recognise a phenomenon called social cognition, which has more than a passing resemblance the idea of a hive mind of collective intelligence. The idea behind social cognition is that each individual mind gains a certain amount of information about a social situation. But when two minds work together, they can end up with more information than the sum of their parts.

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There are clearly significant implications. “An extendible mind can partially offload the mechanisms of cognition into its environment and thereby augment its capacities,” they conclude.

By that way of thinking, we may need to revise how we evaluate are cognitive abilities. Ikegami and co finish with this: “Whereas cognitive scientists have traditionally assumed that we are fundamentally isolated within our own heads, we suggest that we are actually open to genuinely sharing our minds with the other people around us — as long as we mutually participate in the unfolding of our embodied interaction.”

Very interesting how science is beginning to come around to the realization that our minds can extend beyond our skulls. We are not isolated within our own heads! This reminds me of the Global Consciousness Project.

reply to post by BlueMule


I think it is an interesting area to get into.

Have you ever really observed a workplace interaction before? My favorite example, has to be the director of a company, and his PA. Sure, the director of a company will have to make all manner of important decisions, and get them right, if his company is to succeed. But his PA is the one dealing with all the niggling details, schedules, making sure appointments are noted down, and kept, fielding phone calls, setting up itineraries, prioritising the days events with the mechanical efficiency necessary to fit everything in, and ensure that their employers time is spent in a satisfactory manner.

This is an example of one mind, offloading concerns onto another, while it deals with thorny issues. You could say it is similar to the way server time is managed in a network of powerful computers.

reply to post by BlueMule


I don't understand how the well-established science of social cognition equates to anything that can be described as a 'hive mind'.

I read your linked article, but did not see how it suggested a hive mind. So I went to some reliable websites that define and describe social cognition. None of them seemed to say anything about hive minds either.

Here are the links I visited:

What is Social Cognition? International Social Cognition Network

Psychology.about.com: Social Cognition

Science Daily: Social Cognition

Wikipedia: Social Cognition

After all that reading, I'm still puzzled. Perhaps you can explain. I hope you will.

Astyanax
reply to post by BlueMule

 

I don't understand how the well-established science of social cognition equates to anything that can be described as a 'hive mind'.

Like I said, science is beginning to come around. These things take time.

reply to post by TrueBrit


Nice analogy about the boss and his PA.

I'm glad science is finally starting to open the box and look on the outside instead of always from within. I am curious though what type of hive mind they refer to? is it a temporary field of some sort? like a morphic field? or rather thought field? where exactly is the hive mind located?

reply to post by BlueMule


You haven't answered my question though. I wonder if you can; I wonder if anyone can.

Until someone does, this is just a load of nonsense, you know.

reply to post by Eonnn


I believe that the terminology may be getting in the way of understanding here a tad. I do not think that the people positing this theory are suggesting that we have a bee or ant like part of our brain, which is responsible for connecting with the wishes of a queen, or any of that sort of thing.

I think what they mean is, that the way society has shaped the growth of the mind over the multitudinous generations of its existence, has lead us all to occupy certain positions within the relationships we have as people, and that a sort of hive mind has evolved as a pure construct of thoughts which occur to us entirely in our own minds. An example of this, would be the training that warriors undergo, before being sent into battle.

They train themselves in tactics, so that even if an assault has to be undertaken with a minimum of verbal communication, and perhaps even a breakage of line of sight, certain things do not need to be explained. Everyone knows where everyone else is going to be when the assault begins, and a certain level of understanding of the way the scenario might play out, with regard to the ending positions of the rest of ones squad can be assumed, without anyone confirming these things. It is merely how they are. The same can be said of groups of gamers, who have played together for years, knowing that while one individual will be capturing an objective, another will be covering a retreat, or casting a spell, or attracting the attention of the most dangerous opponents, so as to reduce the apparent importance of other team members, who will in reality be doing something important, but doing it as quietly as possible.

Gamers particularly, have a tendency to be able to do these things without speaking more than a couple of words in a half hour period. I was playing Borderlands 2 with a friend of mine for a while. We had been working our characters up for about a month, going around doing all the annoying side missions, and generally messing everyones day up with terror inducing weaponry. This one particular occasion, we entered into an encampment of bandits, who were present in vast number. Without even speaking, we both drew a bead on separate, high powered goons called Psychos, with rocket launchers, and pummeled their position, causing splash damage which affected around 90% of the enemy combatants, and killed the two largest enemies outright, after which, and without any communication between ourselves, we split up, and mopped up the remnants of the bandit force with assault rifles, and close combat techniques. This was the formula by which we proceeded for the next three hours, before taking a break (we take our days off seriously... even when we game).

When I come into a room full of people, all playing on the same server (which I hate doing by the way) I feel like I cannot break into their little worlds. Something holds my tongue from flapping, and my jaws from opening and closing. It is not that I lack confidence or anything (as the time that, bare chested, I opened my curtains as the morning light came through the window, opened the window itself, and announced to the street in a booming voice,"WELCOME SHOEBURYNESS, TO MY NIPPLES!" will attest). However, something keeps me from breaking into whatever they are doing together, because I know that their group activity may rely on every individual pulling togther and working as a team, and more than that, I know that without asking.

How do I know that? Perhaps they do not know how intense the non-communication they are involved in is, but it is there, beyond the readable, beyond the definable, at least for the moment. I would be very surprised if it did not turn out, that far more of our lives is lived in this way, in these incredible temporary bubbles of hive like activity, than is currently known of.

Astyanax
reply to post by BlueMule

 

You haven't answered my question though. I wonder if you can; I wonder if anyone can.

Until someone does, this is just a load of nonsense, you know.

Folks are more like lemming. I don't think we should insult the bee.

reply to post by BlueMule

As stated by TrueBrit - "terminology" may be getting in the way.
It seems that everyone in this discussion (thus far) has a different idea of what the OP meant by "hive mind" - myself included.
If we do not agree on its definition - we will not be able to discuss the subject with much success.

My initial impression of what was meant by "hive mind", was similar to "cloud" networking, and/or a "collective soul/consciousness".

If you wouldn't mind, I think some exposition on the definition might help.
Thanks.