Some food for thought: What if all of the minds of the world fused?

This is one of the many topic that could either/or belong in the Yack Fest or here. Actually now that I think about it, it probably belongs in the Yack Yest. Oh well.

I think about weird things like this all the time. We all know the brain can only hold so much. But what if, someone has a machine that not only allowed you to read the thoughts of other, or even their memories or large portions of it. But their entire mind, pitted against yours. They could just hook you two up to sharing your minds, and let your thoughts and beliefs duke it out.

Is such a thing even physically possible. Would a person only be able to share one thought at a time or so, making them able to communicate on a deeper level than speech. Or can you really just throw two brains together like that and see the result. Furthermore, how many opinions do you think would change?

If the entire world could do that, what kind of opinions do you think the entire world would share? Furthermore, would it even be possible to watch over someone's entire memories without your own mind becoming incredibly different?

edited 1st Jun '11 3:49:06 AM by Ukonkivi

Genkidama for Japan, even if you don't have money, you can help![1]

What is the motivation for these fused minds. Some individuals hold a stand because it is their self interest even though they knew it was wrong. So maybe the fakes can be detected.

If a chicken crosses the road and nobody else is around to see it, does the road move beneath the chicken instead?

I don't want other people's bullshit raping my brain. My brain is supposed to be my fortress of solitude into which I can retreat when I want to spend some time away from the rest of the world.

End of story.

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.

I was thinking about this a lot and... The idea seriously creeps me out. Seriously, this is the scariest thing ever. Fucking Instrumentality. No freedom, no privacy, no rest, no escape...

edited 1st Jun '11 4:09:10 AM by nzm1536

"Take your (...) hippy dream world, I'll take reality and earning my happiness with my own efforts" - Barkey

That's how I feel about the whole issue.

I take orders from only me. I wouldn't be "only me" if I was fused with everyone else, right?

edited 1st Jun '11 4:13:04 AM by annebeeche

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.

Individualism for the win!

"Take your (...) hippy dream world, I'll take reality and earning my happiness with my own efforts" - Barkey

Hell yes. In fact, Individualism is a core theme in my works. A character dies so that he can die with his mind more or less intact.

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.

I have a great deal of difficulty even imagining what this would be like. Except I get the feeling that I would loathe it - if you think about it as 'everyone can read your mind and you can read all of theirs' it's not desirable at all.

Be not afraid...

I'd even go further: If all minds of the world were fused, into a single mind then it would the largest genocide ever - after all, that fused mind would be a new mind, and all the old ones would essentially be gone.

It depends, of course. If it's just connected minds instead of fused minds, then it's still creepy as hell and nothing good, but not quite as bad, of course...

Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. Unrelated ME1 Fanfic

I see everyone is discussing how much they would like it. I kind of wanted to abstain because I figured my opinions were usual enough as to not be good for the movement of the thread. And I was right, they are apparently unusual.

Which means I'll keep them to myself for a few more pages.

edited 1st Jun '11 5:46:38 AM by Ukonkivi

Genkidama for Japan, even if you don't have money, you can help![1]

I have the feeling that everyone's first thoughts are going to be a long the lines of "OH GOD THIS MEANS THAT EVERYONE IS GOING TO KNOW ABOUT X!" (for whatever value of Secret Shame X may be)

So...fear, panic and shame are definitely going to be pretty damn popular emotions in the event of such a thing happening.

Disregard.

edited 1st Jun '11 6:04:32 AM by Pentadragon

The funny thing about that is, would such a large scale fusion of such minds trivialize such a thing.

Even if you're some of the worst scum, there a chance it might be trivialized once you share it with the world. Because by the level, perhaps everybody will be forced to sympathize with you a little bit, after all, everyone might self identify with you a little bit. Then again, perhaps not. It's interesting to think about which opinions would win out and what it would mean.

Everyone seems to think their thoughts are horrible anyway. Maybe if everyone pushed their minds together like that, everyone would realize that the things they think that are in their minds which are so horrible, are pretty normal.

Genkidama for Japan, even if you don't have money, you can help![1]

It would be rather disturbing. Individual thought is surely neccessary for the very nature of human thinking, anyway. To merge all minds as one, would be merging viewpoints, paradigms of thought which are inherently incompatible.

A telepathic link between humans is one thing, but breaking down the barriers between peoples' minds, no way. Humanity would not be able to function as one giant hivemind. Or at least it would not function well. We need separate minds. Every mind is a world of its own, by assimilating all into one collective it would be destroying so much individual uniqueness, even in cultures which are strongly society-orientated. And that would be a damn shame.

edited 1st Jun '11 6:11:43 AM by Shichibukai

Requiem ~ September 2010 - October 2011 [Banned 4 Life]

I'm not just worried about everyone else knowing my thoughts - I would find it terrible, but that's not the only thing.

I don't want to be bombarded with the guilt the woman next door has about their dying father. Or the rape fantasies of the guy down the street. There are some things that I frankly would not want to know about some people.

Be not afraid...

Perhaps though the ones that lose, should lose.

Genkidama for Japan, even if you don't have money, you can help![1]

I'm quite sure all you get is a giant hive mind focused solely on lolcats.

@OP: You get the internet.

Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...

A voluntary sharing of thoughts would be like a new Internet. Quick communication, but with lots of wrong information being spread. Accidentally acquiring other people's prejudices would be like catching a computer virus . . . one that you may never be able to purge.

However, forcing (or even volunatry) communication of everyone on the planet simultaneously sounds like the ultimate Mind Rape.

Imagine every mean, petty and cruel thing you've ever done in your life. Imagine every mean, petty and cruel thing that other people you know have done. Multiple this by several billion.

Everything you hate: murder, rape, torture. You not only experience it from the victim's perspective, you share the perpetrator's belief that their actions were justified.

Every belief in the world is now jammed together in a contradictory, jumbled mess. You are simultaneously an atheist, a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a neo-pagan . . . and thousands more. You hold every political view. All bigoted, hateful and prejudice thoughts on the planet are now your own.

All is chaos. Death is the only escape.

Also, think about it: everyone has some sick, perverted or disturbing thoughts he doesn't want to share with the others and is ashamed of. Imagine everyone knowing all those dirty thoughts of all the people you know. Imagine talking to someone and simultaneously hearing things you never wanted to hear.

Moreover, most of our thoughts are not orderly, organized or even related to each other. Try to write down your own stream of consciousness. Imagine hearing six billions of such chaotic thoughts all the time. Nobody would be sane after something like that

"Take your (...) hippy dream world, I'll take reality and earning my happiness with my own efforts" - Barkey

Gendo Ikari, I presume?

We'd become buggers.

Alternatively: Tang.

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Well, he was justified because his version of the instrumentality is still better than NERV's plan for it...

Anyway, I think the discussion can be summed up with: "Of course I have something to hide. Don't you, too?"

Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. Unrelated ME1 Fanfic

It'd be neat if you could turn it off and on at will. I get the feeling you'd end up with a sort of biological version of Ghost In The Shell, with people accessing each other's brains internet-style. Brain-hacking would be the new forefront of warfare. It's a neat idea. ^^

If you couldn't turn it off, though, I think the monolithic inflexibility of a single mind would probably be no more effective at life than the billions of minds working at cross-purposes that we have now. It'd change the reason for stagnation, but not the stagnation itself.

But somehow,◊

I've never read a story that made a Hive Mind sound appealing. A Miracle Of Science tried its best, but I remained just as creeped out at the end as I was at the beginning. Then again, I seem to be an unusual case in that my concept of "me" is entirely in my thoughts—I get the feeling that someone who thinks "I'm me because I'm an American" might accept a hivemind of all Americans, or someone who thinks "I'm me because I'm in the body I regard as mine" might be happy with mental fusion so long as their body remained separate.

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful