Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

Hive mind?

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lepetitfromage:

--- Quote from: LTK on 19 Feb 2012, 09:03 ---
--- Quote from: TinPenguin on 19 Feb 2012, 03:04 ---And who is your audience? Who is there to appreciate your artwork, when they were all there along the making process with you?

Art is expression, a manifestation of what cannot be explained otherwise. With connected minds, you could just convey your exact feelings without the middle man. Art would simply become a transmission of impulses, no more elegant than a radio wave. Perhaps people would still make art for old time's sake. But you asked what would be worse. And art is something that would suffer for the lack of individuality. How many of our species' greatest artworks have been made in solitude? Or because of solitude?

--- End quote ---
I see. I agree with you that a collective consciousness makes some forms of art (but not all of them! think literature) redundant. I disagree that this somehow constitutes a fundamental loss of culture. Consider how a poet tries to communicate his feelings through a medium that attempts to use words in a way that's beyond their dictionary definition. Then a layman takes a look at their poetry and says "That's just a bunch of nonsense." While sharing your thoughts in a collective consciousness can be accessible to anyone. How much is the physical manifestation of art worth to you if it excludes the vast majority of the population?

--- End quote ---

The beauty of the arts is heightened by the fact that any of it is open to interpretation. I may create a painting that means something specific to me but means something completely different to someone else because of the images I've chosen to use. On some occasions, one can research the motivation behind works, but it is up to them. If the meaning behind each piece is laid out blatantly for everyone, it loses some of the magic and mystery that quite a few viewers are so fond of. One of the most enjoyable aspects is the analysis, the interpretation, the deep and meaningful conversations that come about because of two or more people discussing the emotions that rise in them because of a work of art and how it relates to their personal history. If the meaning was obvious to everyone, I feel that that particular aspect would lose its appeal and instead of being enjoyable....people might just feel silly- because the meaning is already obvious to them, so the analysis "game" would be a moot point and also because (if we're talking about everyone knowing everything about everyone) no one would need to hear your stories because they already know them. Takes all the fun out of getting to know someone.

idontunderstand:
I think one thing which hasn't been said out loud that if everyone knew what everyone else was thinking and feeling, they would effectively become the same person. I guess there could be smarter individuals and more sensitive individuals, but they would only be important as organs in a body. You don't worry that your feet don't like being walked on all the time. You don't worry that your brain does not like thinking too much. At least, most people don't. Feelings of an individual would be the feelings of the whole society. I suppose this could both mean that the fewer people share the same feeling, the less it would matter, and that every time someone has a very strong feeling, everybody around would rush to help, since it would be in their own interest.

But then compassion wouldn't mean anything, because, I mean, you can't be compassionate towards yourself, you can only act in your own interest.

Then I guess that may just be human vanity.. we are all little meat lumps composed of billions of cells, none more important than the other. Dunno. I'll leave it. Interesting thread.

DSL:
Unless the hive mind produces art (the medium or media I leave as a matter of speculation) for the appreciation of itself ( haven't you ever created something just to create?) or of another mind (s).


Probably in Olaf Stapledon territory here. Haven't attempted to read him since high school.

Carl-E:
I've been catchig up on this comic ever since it was mentioned in the Robots / love thread. 

Thought this one was appropriate...

LTK:
Well, how about the ending to Deus Ex: Invisible War?

Helios will speak.

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