Technology marches on. But humans remain the same. Gotta say, I don’t see this encounter going any better for Hivemind than previous ones.
As an aside, last we saw them, Meat & Lori were expecting a child … and my own silly brain needs a name for the kid, because “babyMeat” is bad, and “Meatbaby” is even worse.
So, what do I think? Hivemind is an idiot, and I love it! XD Increasing access to knowledge can be a fantastic power, but he’s doing badly. XD For those who’ll humor me, I’ll explain… but at least some of it will be in tabletop roleplaying game form. I’ll reply to my own comment, since I’m bad at formatting replies here.
Hivemind is kind of doing his name backwards. What do I mean? Well, IRL a hivemind is the collective mental activity expressed in the complex, coordinated behavior of a colony of social insects acts kind of like a mind of it’s own. Or how the collective thoughts/ideas/opinions of a group of people likewise sometimes behaves like a single mind. Either way, several bodies, but one mind above them all.
If he’s the collective sum of all the brains, maybe he could be a “gestalt”, but it really seems like he’s just using the additional brains kind of like spare hard drives that contain programs he doesn’t use all the time, but can access. So, why did I mention TTRPGs? It’s just that this reminds me of how sometimes, I think something is cool, so I go to build a character around it in GURPS…
…and while I can, I realize there was a better way. I’m not well versed in cyberpunk stories, but my understanding is at least some of them will have things like knowledge or skills saved into a medium (like discs, chips, hard drives, etc.) that some cybernetically enhanced humans can temporarily upload into their modified brains, to use as their own.
So, what Hivemind is doing, but (possibly) less evil and more efficient. Could just be that this is the only way it works in the setting of Supervillainous. I like to think he just wanted to stay on theme, and came up with a process that requires entire brains, most of which he’s not actually using, but still has to keep healthy and alive. Especially evil if the brain’s consciousness still exists in some capacity, but is not free.
By wardenrt66 Mon Sep 14th 2026 at 4:31 pm
Technology marches on. But humans remain the same. Gotta say, I don’t see this encounter going any better for Hivemind than previous ones.
As an aside, last we saw them, Meat & Lori were expecting a child … and my own silly brain needs a name for the kid, because “babyMeat” is bad, and “Meatbaby” is even worse.
By Otaku Tue Sep 15th 2026 at 2:20 pm
So, what do I think? Hivemind is an idiot, and I love it! XD Increasing access to knowledge can be a fantastic power, but he’s doing badly. XD For those who’ll humor me, I’ll explain… but at least some of it will be in tabletop roleplaying game form. I’ll reply to my own comment, since I’m bad at formatting replies here.
By Otaku Tue Sep 15th 2026 at 2:32 pm
Hivemind is kind of doing his name backwards. What do I mean? Well, IRL a hivemind is the collective mental activity expressed in the complex, coordinated behavior of a colony of social insects acts kind of like a mind of it’s own. Or how the collective thoughts/ideas/opinions of a group of people likewise sometimes behaves like a single mind. Either way, several bodies, but one mind above them all.
By Otaku Tue Sep 15th 2026 at 2:41 pm
If he’s the collective sum of all the brains, maybe he could be a “gestalt”, but it really seems like he’s just using the additional brains kind of like spare hard drives that contain programs he doesn’t use all the time, but can access. So, why did I mention TTRPGs? It’s just that this reminds me of how sometimes, I think something is cool, so I go to build a character around it in GURPS…
…and while I can, I realize there was a better way. I’m not well versed in cyberpunk stories, but my understanding is at least some of them will have things like knowledge or skills saved into a medium (like discs, chips, hard drives, etc.) that some cybernetically enhanced humans can temporarily upload into their modified brains, to use as their own.
So, what Hivemind is doing, but (possibly) less evil and more efficient. Could just be that this is the only way it works in the setting of Supervillainous. I like to think he just wanted to stay on theme, and came up with a process that requires entire brains, most of which he’s not actually using, but still has to keep healthy and alive. Especially evil if the brain’s consciousness still exists in some capacity, but is not free.