The Hive Mind Government

[Thure]

Such very special government forms (Hive Mind, Robots, Space Hordes) are perfectly for DLCs/Expansions

 

[zyphial]

Such very special government forms (Hive Mind, Robots, Space Hordes) are perfectly for DLCs/Expansions

There are ways it could be done without a DLC, but as a member of PDS's target audience (Besides CK2->HOI3 megacampaigns I play MOO, Gal-Civ, Hegaemonia, Conquest Frontier Wars... and more) who's bursting to play the game... I'd still happily wait for a DLC so Hive Minds can be fleshed out more than the simple ways they could be represented otherwise and let them balance/focus on other, core areas of the game until it's DLC time.

But the DLC hate directed at paradox - especially on reddit - is surprisingly strong, given how much you get from the base game (and patches)...

 

[Caspoi]

There are ways it could be done without a DLC, but as a member of PDS's target audience (Besides CK2->HOI3 megacampaigns I play MOO, Gal-Civ, Hegaemonia, Conquest Frontier Wars... and more) who's bursting to play the game... I'd still happily wait for a DLC so Hive Minds can be fleshed out more than the simple ways they could be represented otherwise and let them balance/focus on other, core areas of the game until it's DLC time.

But the DLC hate directed at paradox - especially on reddit - is surprisingly strong, given how much you get from the base game (and patches)...

Isn't it the first law of Reddit to always hate something?

 

[Thure]

There are ways it could be done without a DLC, but as a member of PDS's target audience (Besides CK2->HOI3 megacampaigns I play MOO, Gal-Civ, Hegaemonia, Conquest Frontier Wars... and more) who's bursting to play the game... I'd still happily wait for a DLC so Hive Minds can be fleshed out more than the simple ways they could be represented otherwise and let them balance/focus on other, core areas of the game until it's DLC time.

But the DLC hate directed at paradox - especially on reddit - is surprisingly strong, given how much you get from the base game (and patches)...

Of course it could be done without a DLC... but a DLC focused on Robots/Hive Minds/Space Hordes would be better than to put everything without time in the base game. I prefer if Paradox would focus on this special cases on their own in a DLC. The base game should focus on the basics and not so much on extra flavour.

 

[QueenoftheIsles]

Isn't it the first law of Reddit to always hate something?

Reddit is actually just a Sith Academy in disguise.

 

[ParagonExile]

But unlike mechanisms, genetic modifications are always with, they are you. You'll be able to replace all your organs with mechanical parts, but what's the point if the brain still fails you with some Alzheimer? And if you replace brain, then it'll be just a computer with your knowledge instead of you, no fun. If you just insert some computers in your brain, then it's simply a calculator with fancy interface.

You could make your entire body robotic using gradual conversion using artificial neurons and dendrites (etc), using the same mechanisms your body uses already. If you're an adult your body has had many cell turnovers (even in your brain) and the atoms in your body have been swapped out dozens of times. You are not your brain, your brain is just what supports (and influences) your thoughts and memories. Replacing it is hypothetically very simple. Not exactly easy in practice though lol

Genetic modifications cannot be hacked, they don't need hi-tech maintenance and can be repaired with some sandwich and juice. Augmentation is like plastic surgery, it fixes symptoms, not the problem.

Nanotechnological augmentations would self-repair faster than any biological living thing, wouldn't require direct maintenance and would operate with a closed-system broadcast architecture preventing them from being taken over.

:3

Robots OP, Paradox pls nerf

 

[Nirmara]

Most of what I'm going to propose is inspired by Derek Parfit from his book Reasons and persons. I'm basically assuming that the hive have "personal identity" as a whole and that if a part of the hive start developing it's own identity, it will eventually seceded from the rest of the hive. A hive mind would therefore be limited by possibility of seeing divergences between separated hubs of the whole. Hubs being a large enough part of the hive that need to have some autonomy in order to function efficiently. It would be impossible for a single being to micro-manage everything on a galactic scale (more on that later) so a type of intermediaries would be needed.

Ingame, each planetary system could get an ethos for all pop of the hive specie (possibly including species modified to be incorporated to the hive). This would make an hive-empire more stable, but at the same time more likely to fall if a hub start diverging from the whole. If a hub start diverging too much from the whole, it could "revolt" creating a new empire. Hive mind specie would therefore be more stable if they stay "small" but highly unstable if they grow too large.

Divergences between hubs mostly come down to two factors: time and complexity.

As time pass on, the chances of seeing a hub diverging from the whole increase since it will accumulate information that doesn't necessarily needed to be transmitted to the whole. Distance is an other factor to consider since even with FTL communication, relaying information will be more and more difficult creating some form of lag between hubs. Ingame, this should translate by making distant and older colonies more likely to diverge than closer or newer one. Of course, technologies could help improving communication reducing the time/distance factor.

We can also imagine a "contamination" mechanic as information transmitted between hubs spread to others "harmonizing" the hive overtime. If new ethos start developing more quickly in one or more hub than it can be harmonized, the hive should eventually fracture.

Complexity is an other factor to consider since the more information there is to transmit and analyse, the higher the chances are of seeing a hub diverge from the whole. In game, complexity could be represented by the number of pop there is in a hub. Highly populated system, and therefore more complex, would be more likely to diverge and would have more weight in the harmonization process. Again, technologies could help improving the capacity of the hive to analyse information making it more capable of keeping said systems under it's control.

 

[SIEGE-109]

Classification of Hive-minds:

1. No individual minds. Every piece of living matter that makes up the hive is simply an appendage of a single mind.
a. The Hive's body is formless and continuous like soil fungus.
b. The Hive has discreet individual bodies.

2. Individual minds bound to the hive-mind. Every member lives a double life, it's thoughts blending, or at least communicating with those of the whole.
a. Individuals are not sentient, but the hive-mind is.
b. Individuals are enslaved to the hive-mind, but fully sentient.
c. Individuals have free-will. This goes against the assumption that the hive would necessarily subsume it's parts.

3. Quasi-hive-mind. There is a very high degree of communication between the individuals in the society, so that their thoughts begin to blend together, but a hive-mind does not emerge.