meonkeys
5 months ago
Should be: ...Tested for Impaired Cognition
fhars
5 months ago
Yeah. How could 1950's science fiction be so wrong?
cbdevidal
5 months ago
My stupid butt imagined new mutant superpowered insects like the Brain from Pinky and the Brain
ghurtado
5 months ago
Well, to be fair, that's what that stupid title is designed to make you think
grues-dinner
5 months ago
Show pitch: Pinky and the Brain but the Brain is a brain bug from Starship Troopers.
no_wizard
5 months ago
I was thinking Rachni[0][1]
[0]: https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Rachni
[1]: origins have to start somewhere
LargoLasskhyfv
5 months ago
I thought of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_IV_(1974_film)
layer8
5 months ago
They only seem to be testing individual bees though, not the hive mind.
folkrav
5 months ago
Is there any scientific basis for some kind of shared collective thought I don’t know about? In other words, what’s the “hive mind” if not the collective result of individual minds?
AlecSchueler
5 months ago
Changes in behaviour in the individual level might result in an apparent cognitive decline for that individual, but could still benefit the hive as a whole.
folkrav
5 months ago
I was asking about the concept of “hive mind”. Is the concept accepted as a “thing”, has it ever been measured in any way, and if yes, what is it?
AlecSchueler
5 months ago
Yes, it's the idea that the colony exhibits behaviour with a level of intelligence impossible for any of the single bees. Things like choosing the location of the nest or managing the temperature of the nest, there's various decisions "made" by the colony as a kind of emergent property of the behaviour of the individual bees who themselves don't have the capacity to think at that level. The various aspects of colony behaviour have all been individually studied by quite a few people and groups, yes.
s1artibartfast
5 months ago
I think you are missing the point of the question, and it revolves around calling it a mind capable of decisions.
AlecSchueler
5 months ago
Am I? I just mentioned there's research that shows a colony of bees can make decisions that individual bees are incapable of. What am I misunderstanding?
glenstein
5 months ago
Crowds of people, as an average, are more accurate at guessing the number of beans in a jar at a county fair than individual people, but not because there's such a thing as cognition manifesting at the group level in any literal sense.
I think you're making an interesting point, but I think you're attempting to point to a hive mind like it's the only pertinent topic when it comes to cognition of bees, as if testing for cognitive capabilities of individuals was a misunderstanding. But it's not a misunderstanding, it's part of what I think is some pretty explosively important research testifying to insect, cognition and even consciousness. At least speaking for myself, if the research holds, for me it necessitates a mind-blowing reevaluation of the internal lives of at least some insects.
AlecSchueler
5 months ago
> you're attempting to point to a hive mind like it's the only pertinent topic when it comes to cognition of bees, as if testing for cognitive capabilities of individuals was a misunderstanding
I'm not at all. I only responded to the questions "is a hive mind a thing, had anyone even studied that?" which is a Yes, and "why would they study the hive mind, isn't studying the individual enough?" for which I gave one potential reason to do so. I never suggested that studying the individuals was insufficient or that I took any issue with the study as it was conducted, I only answered these questions.
> Crowds of people, as an average, are more accurate at guessing the number of beans in a jar at a county fair than individual people, but not because there's such a thing as cognition manifesting at the group level in any literal sense.
Sure but if someone asked you "is there any point in studying group dynamics when you could just study individuals" you could still give a good argument for it right?
kbelder
5 months ago
If human society changed so that average individual intelligence decreased, but the human race as a whole acted more intelligently, did human intelligence increase or decrease?
lupire
5 months ago
Why are they testing a whole brain instead of individual neurons? What is a brain if not the collective result of individual neurons?
folkrav
5 months ago
The comparison only works if the concept of a “hive mind” is as accepted and defined as the concept of a brain, which is quite literally what I was asking.
collingreen
5 months ago
"Hive mind" conjures ideas of an omnipresent, all-controlling intelligence to me like startrek's borg, but I think this is more about the idea of a "superorganism" [0] like some bees and most ants where the group exhibits traits and "behavior" and "decisions" as a whole, beyond the ability of any single, specialized individual. Less superintelligence and more emergent behavior and complexity.
user
5 months ago
user
5 months ago