Sapient/sentient organizations

SCP Foundation has SCP-1442, while Orions Arm has business minds. Are there any other examples in fiction of an organization in itself being a sapient/sentient entity separate with from its individual members?

EDIT: nvm misread

Edited by Synchronicity on Aug 14th 2020 at 2:23:08 PM

How could an organization be "sentient" anyway?

Presumably they're not talking about something like human beings, where we're an organization of specialized cells that cooperate and form a sapient creature at some arbitrary level. Instead, I expect they mean something like the Borg from Star Trek, where individual members are sapient and they share a consciousness that has collective decision-making skills which can be independent from the component parts.

The "best" other example I know are the Hierarchy from The Jenkinsverse, but such individuals are debatably not individuals below a certain amount of ego. There just isn't that much for me to talk about because most of the fiction I've consumed tends to assume Hive Mind means "everyone thinks the same".

Not quite. A sapient organization is only superficially similar to a Hive Mind, from what I gathered. Here are some passages from SCP-1442's article that hopefully can give you a good idea.

Other passages from SCP-1442's article strongly imply if not outright state that SCP-1442 is no more aware of human beings (including its members) and other organisms at their level of existence than we humans are aware of our own cells, the microbiota within/on our bodies, and the microbes that exist all around us. It seems to only concern itself with other organizations.

I guess you could define a "sapient organization" as the idea of the organization itself that has literally taken on a life of its own, becoming an abstract entity whose physical "body" is comprised of the many people that are members of the organization, the buildings and other physical assets belonging to said organization, as well as abstract assets such as the information stored in its physical and non-physical documents, ht members' thought processes and memories, etc. Its will is interconnected with and yet independent from those of its members, allowing the former to influence the latter's actions to some degree or another.

Edited by MarqFJA on Aug 15th 2020 at 3:17:05 PM

Except the consciousness isn't shared by the organization's members as in a Hive Mind; it arises from their individual consciousnesses in aggregate and influences them in turn, but it's still technically separate from them and owes its existence to the organization's legal instruments and such just as much as it does to the members' actions and thoughts.

That's the crucial element: A Hive Mind directly identifies itself with the people that comprise it as a whole. A sapient organization identifies itself with the ideas that have been conceived by its members, are codified in its written bylaws, mission statement, archived records, etc., are embodied by its physical and abstract assets, and the behaviors that said members take in pursual of said ideas.

I feel like you're just ignoring "independent from the component parts" so that you can disagree with me. Whatever; you win and I have nothing to contribute to your topic.

The independence from the component parts is secondary to the sharing of consciousness in your described "model", though.