Collective consciousness describes a situation in which a group of individuals share experiences, memories and feelings. The various individuals in the group are physically separate from each other, but in their consciousness they are part of one entity that experiences the world, remembers and feels in a unified way. This interesting, strange and complex idea has become common in science fiction works
Ariel Brizon, Galileo. Courtesy of the author and courtesy of the Galileo system
Collective consciousness describes a situation in which a group of individuals share experiences, memories and feelings. The various individuals in the group are physically separate from each other, but in their consciousness they are part of one entity that experiences the world, remembers and feels in a unified way. This interesting, strange and complex idea has become common in science fiction works. Two separate categories of Madab works allow us to examine the idea from different and complementary angles. In stories dealing with encounters or confrontations with non-human cultures, collective consciousness is used, in many cases, as the basis for the description of alien creatures that are fundamentally different from humans. Creatures that do not recognize themselves as individuals. and function only as parts of a group. In works of a different kind, those dealing with an attempt to predict a future human society, a collective consciousness is sometimes described which is a new stage in the development of man. The idea of unifying human society by directly connecting the human mind to a computerized communication network leads, in these descriptions, to a change in the basic nature of man and to a change in the nature of human society. In both cases, the collective consciousness serves as a contrast or mirror against which our human consciousness is tested and the discussion raises questions about the very essence of the latter.
For many MDB enthusiasts the concept of collective consciousness is associated with the "Star Trek" series and the race known as the Borg. This race consists of individuals who are half human and half machine who share a collective consciousness. The Borg, as individuals, do not experience emotions and passions and there is no point in trying to communicate with them. For details There is no meaning in this society and they serve the general consciousness that unites them. They are cold, mechanical, single-minded and without doubts and reflections. When one of them dies (usually after an impressive battle with the Enterprise crew) his brothers appear to the collective to return valuable components on his body. It is obvious that they have no interest in a soldier who has fallen on the battlefield. The individual is a marginal detail for the whole and the loss of his life is like the loss of a hair from a person's head. The Borg are a perfect enemy that does not allow any emotional identification of the viewer their individuality. The striking point here is that the deep contrast between the Borg and the humans, which leads to the war between them, is based entirely on the fact that the Borg are a society with a collective consciousness. The contrast is so deep that later on in the series the writers had to attribute, after all, motifs Individuals to the Borg and even give them a Queen who embodies the collective consciousness in an individual personality. The exercise was necessary, because interacting with a race that is absolute in its mind and united in its purpose does not leave much room for a plot development that is more complex than an all-out war and nothing else.
It's not for nothing that Star Trek writers chose to advance the plot by adding a queen to the Borg. Although other ways could be found, these writers asked an available image from the collective creatures we know on Earth: the insects. Different types of ants, bees and other insects exist in group assemblages. By the way, the creators of the series seriously considered presenting the Borg as a race of insects but resorted to the representation of man-machine due to budget considerations. In the context of insects it is difficult to talk about consciousness, but it is certainly possible to show that it is a collective of individuals that are assimilated into a whole and that this whole exceeds the sum of its parts and constitutes a unity distinguished from its details. Consider, for example, a column of ants winding from the nest to a site where there is food. The column crosses various obstacles and if we disturb it by placing a new obstacle it will find an alternative path. The abilities of each individual ant are very limited. Ants do not have a brain (or a significant nerve center) and cannot be attributed to the ability to solve complex problems. The ants follow in their movement scent signals left by other ants. Each ant follows a sequence of basic commands embedded in its genetic code. For example: follow a scent and follow it, in the absence of a scent continue in the same direction until you find new scent signs, if you have gone too far retrace your steps, etc. The emerging column is the result of all the ants following the basic commands together. The column does not exist in the "consciousness" of any ant, it is a result of the nest as a whole. The column represents the "will" of the nest in a certain sense and overcoming a new obstacle is a consequence of the abilities of the entire nest. The nest itself is a separate entity that surpasses in its abilities the individuals that make it up.
The evolutionary branch that includes the insects separated from the branch leading to humans at a very early stage in evolution. Some argue that the evolutionary distance and the fundamental difference in structure are at the root of most humans' deep aversion to insects. The use of insect characteristics to describe extraterrestrial races exploits the basic aversion to their external form with the perceived distance from the nature of their collective behavior. In many M.D.B. books, races are described that have the appearance of an insect. In almost all of these books, up to a certain point in time, the insect is the absolute enemy - repulsive in its appearance and foreign in its perceptions. One famous example is found in Robert Heinlein's book "Space Warriors" (1959) in which humanity fights the race Murderous insects. In this book, as in many books and films from the XNUMXs, an image was used that suited the atmosphere of political suspicion that characterized the period. The collective nature of the enemy described in them matched the American writers' perception of communist Russia. The war of the "free" individual against the collective striving to harm him was seen in this period as the most basic and just struggle.
In the 1985s and XNUMXs, there was a fundamental change in the writing of Madev and later the works of the period were called "the new wave". During this period, many conventions and boundaries were broken and the foundation was laid for the highly complex Madev. An interesting, albeit later, example of the change of perception in the context of the idea of collective consciousness is found in the first book in the Ender's Game series (XNUMX) by Orson Scott Card. Also in the plot of this book humanity is attacked by a race of insect-like creatures. But towards the end of the book the plot thickens and deeper meanings are derived from the fact that the attackers are a race with a collective consciousness. The diversity of the enemy turns from the basic reason for fighting him into the basis of misunderstanding him. This insight forms the basis for the continuation of the series in which the question of diversity between races is examined from many angles.
It is difficult to place the point in time, but it seems that the complex questions surrounding the issue of collective consciousness in the MDB grew stronger together with the strengthening of new forms of thinking based on a critical element - those that are sometimes referred to as postmodern. The new criticism, in which greater political liberation is evident, made it possible to re-examine basic concepts such as Freedom, individualism and cultural homogeneity. It opened up questions about the limits of the individual against the social order and the true degree of freedom in a world saturated with media and centers of power. Under the influence of modern critical thinking, the issue of collective consciousness is examined in the MDB while re-examining the principle that sees the individual as an unshakable foundation. Now questions such as: Can freedom be exercised only by individuals? Is living as an individual clearly better? Does death have the same meaning when it comes to collective consciousness? After all, given a superconsciousness that contains all the individual's memories, desires and knowledge, the loss of his physical body may have less meaning. Is there any meaning to murder in this context? Is it possible for a collective consciousness to experience emotion or to be impressed by beauty in a similar way or even in a way that surpasses these abilities in the individual? Is the assimilation of the individual into the collective necessarily a bad thing or is it possible, instead of the loss of the individual, to see the collective consciousness as a whole that empowers all who integrate into it?
The question of collective consciousness, which arose to a certain point from a discussion of non-terrestrial races, also arises in the 1980s from the sub-genre of MDB, which originates from a completely different type of thinking. Cyberpunk, which develops together with the personal computer and the Internet, presents questions about a world in which the "real" reality is integrated With a reality that exists within a computer simulation. Cyberpunk examined, from the beginning, the question of collective consciousness as an appendix to the question of expanding human consciousness into the digital space. In a world where digital communication is advanced enough to allow a connection between a person and a computer, it is possible to immediately expand the discussion and think about the connection between a person and a person. - through the computer. In a world where thoughts can be shared between thinkers, the boundaries between individuals become blurred and thought becomes the property of all thinkers connected to the network.
What makes the subject even more interesting is the fact that the cyberpunk vision may become a reality in the not too distant future. Already today, it is possible to transmit sound, image and text messages through the Internet and many people spend a large part of their time when the computer is for them "ears and eyes" to a world that does not exist in space. The day when it will be possible to transmit thoughts, human memories or emotions through the network, the world of cyberpunk stories will become a reality. That day may not be so distant. Experiments in establishing an interface between the human brain and the computer are currently being done in practice. Since the brain, like the computer, operates using electrical signals, the gap between the two is not as great as one might think. Only recently was it reported in various journals about success in connecting the brains of monkeys to robotic arms. In recent years, scientists have been able to connect electrodes to the brains of humans and transmit various signals to them. Blind people were able to see a basic pattern of light and shadow coming from a digital camera directly into their brains and deaf people heard sounds coming from a microphone. Advanced brain imaging technologies allow detection of the activity of individual neurons and the ability to do this on a whole-brain scale is not far off. It is possible that these technologies will make it possible to connect brains in a way that creates a bridge between the activity of one brain and another. The existence of this type of connection seriously raises the possibility of a connection between the thought processes of different people. It is quite possible that a human-computer interface that surpasses the one that exists today will be realized within a few decades, followed by a human-human interface, and that the issue of expanded consciousness and even collective consciousness will move out of the realm of science fiction into the realm of public discourse.
And what, if so, can we derive from the investigations carried out, for years, by MDB writers on the question of collective consciousness in preparation for the day when the question will arise in our lives? Well, on the one hand, it is clear that the idea of losing individuality arouses natural fear and disgust. The idea of ceasing to be "me" and becoming "All of us" is disturbing at the most basic level. Try for a second to imagine your instinctive reaction to the offer to connect, even for a short period of time, to a digital network and think the thoughts of all the users connected to it - at the same time that they are thinking your thoughts together. On the other hand, there are advantages in the collective consciousness Scientific, creative and even political collaborations can become something completely different from what is known today. Along with the obvious advantages of thousands of minds joining together to solve a scientific problem, it is also interesting to think about the question of whether war is even possible in a world where people share their consciousness partially or fully. It seems that the appearance of a collective human consciousness, if it does occur, will constitute a new stage in evolution and will mark the transformation of the human race into a new race, fundamentally different from the old one. Because in this statement there is more than just a technological forecast.
As humans, we constantly try to communicate with each other in different and complex ways - through language, body language, writing, art, music and all modern means of communication. It seems that despite the different communication abilities there is always a gap between people and that, as the poet said, we are actually always alone. Perhaps this diagnosis leads to the conclusion that at a very basic level we aspire to be together, perhaps even aspire to be one. Is the sense of individuality that defines us a cage that we are just beginning to notice its existence and the possibility of escaping from? And maybe, on second thought, the Borg don't look so bad anymore?
The article was first published on the website on 11/6/2004.
