# Cruising the Hive Mind: The Queer Telos of Pluribus ## Thesis Pluribus asks: **What is the place for the queer subject in a posthuman telos?** ## Concerns 1. If queerness produces counterpublics via traditions of disidentification in pursuit of more utopian (human) futures---is the queer subject fluid enough to persist when that utopian telos is realized? 2. What may emerge from an intersection of queer disidentification and the radical posthuman subjectivity of a zoe-geo-human continuum (Braidotti) or agential realism (Barad). ### philosophical "...what it means to have been sent, as Glissant says, (Lorna Goodison says to have been sent by history) “to consent not to be a single being.” **What does it mean to have been sent to give yourself away? Pretty much everybody I know is driven to dissent from such a movement, where consent is inseparable from a monstrous imposition**... impossible assent, _consentement impossible, glissment impossible_..." -Moten "[brown commons](https://lithub.com/towards-a-definition-of-the-brown-commons/)" - *The brown commons is not about the production of the individual but instead about a movement, a flow, and an impulse to move beyond the singular subjectivity and the individualized subjectivities* -Munoz ### Representational | | Gender | Orientation | Affective | Ontology | Ethics | | ----------------- | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------- | ----------- | ------------------------------ | | **Others** | various | pan/poly | Equilibrium (but vulnerable) | materialist | Affirmative, Posthuman (vegan) | | **Carol** | cis | homosexual | Depressed | Atheist | | | **Manousos** | cis | asexual(?) | Anxious | Religious | | | **Diabate** | | poly, heterosexual ([anyone else?](https://youtu.be/Jga34BoTnlY?si=PCS8LBzxrIbasyMe&t=220)) | Decadent | Humanist | | | **Wycaro Fandom** | various | | various | | | | | | | | | | the Wycaro Fandom is diversely neurodivergent ### Cultural/Political ### Formal ## Other Hive Minds The [**Borg**](https://youtu.be/rXzJFoAtilc?si=lZrQ9W-KhJyTWNio)/[**Cybermen**](https://youtu.be/FBHGbBJwyh0?si=M7_yf0tNEzIBolEL) as totalizing hegemony **[Unity](https://www.wco.tv/rick-and-morty-season-2-episode-3-auto-erotic-assimilation)** a kind of "straight" collective (Rick and Morty Season 2 Episode 3) [**Sense8**](https://blindfieldjournal.com/2015/08/14/roundtable-sense8/) a kind of queer intersubjective/collective/counterpublic **[Dark City](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW2acP4-A9M)** a collectivity attempting to individuate Midwich Cuckoos / [Village of the Damned](https://archive.org/details/village-of-the-damned?start=3824) an invasive, superior minority **[Mass Games](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67T9-43hb5I&list=RD67T9-43hb5I&start_radio=1)** ### other others ***[The Rook](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rook_(miniseries))*** Dead Ringers [A Song for Lya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_for_Lya_(novella)) Stephen Universe: Fusion, Clusters [seven of nine](https://youtu.be/dv8LSu9vljw?si=0ibtSD_6fmQqT_Cj) [Vampires of sinners](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq2Q8ZyjC-c) #### reddit list threads: - [one](https://www.reddit.com/r/scifi/comments/cldo6i/does_anyone_know_of_any_books_that_feature_a/) - [two](https://www.reddit.com/r/scifi/comments/1pj9xn8/good_hive_minds_examples/) #### Real World [Superorganism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superorganism) [Holobiont](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holobiont) [Unanimous.ai](https://unanimous.ai/) - To bring **Swarm AI** to major markets around the world, we have two powerful software platforms. [**Swarm**](https://unanimous.ai/swarm) is a graphical platform that enables networked human groups to quickly converge on AI-optimized decisions, predictions, insights, and assessments. [**Thinkscape**](https://unanimous.ai/thinkscape) is a conversational platform that allows networked groups (up to 400 people) to hold real-time deliberations and amplify their combined knowledge, wisdom, insights, and perspectives. ### Genre Conventions [TV Tropes - Hive Mind](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HiveMind) [TV Tropes - The Virus](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheVirus) [Wikipedia - Group Mind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_mind_(science_fiction)) see also [Clone Angst](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CloneAngst), [Uniqueness value](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UniquenessValue) [Wikipedia list - Hive Minds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Hive_minds_in_fiction) [Wikipedia list - Swarm intelligence list](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_intelligence#In_popular_culture) ### Video Clips: [hive curious?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33v_D5MV3Gc) ["what pronouns do you use for the hive mind?"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n9xZ0pEGhE) 0:07 [The octopus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1SgW_gMMHI) - city of lost children [Dark City](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW2acP4-A9M) - let the tuning commence [Auto Erotic Assimilation](https://www.wco.tv/rick-and-morty-season-2-episode-3-auto-erotic-assimilation) ## Pluribus Analyisis [Lesbian Mojo](https://youtu.be/mJq14jpI35s?si=bZUkKWIzIZAegNm-) ## Pluribus Behind the Scenes ## Quotes "Normalcy is the evil side of homosexuality" - jack smith, (qtd Munoz, p IX) kinks - [strangers](https://genius.com/The-kinks-strangers-lyrics) (dave davies) ## Hook: **Welcome to Utopia.** We welcome a newly conscious, profoundly inclusive, interconnected and interdependent humanity, who live collectively as ***part*** of the earth---not its self-appointed master. Overnight, the entire human race has abandoned every prejudice. Skin-color, Nationality, Gender and sexual identity---no longer produce fear, hostility, or contempt. Mental health, physical disability, and age are no longer grounds for social exclusion or injustice. The enforcement of gender roles and oppressive family systems that produced generational trauma and abuse have been abandoned. There is no more class struggle. Greed no longer incentivizes---the old maxim, *from each according to their ability to each according to their need* has taken precedence over a culture built on the exploitation of precarity and consumerism. Old markers of qualification and attainment, like education, certification, and credentials, are now irrelevant. Only expertise and ability matter. There are no more religious conflicts. Violence, cruelty, even mere unkindness are things of the past. Humans, animals, and plants are viewed as equals. The human species has stopped exploitation and recognizes the inherent worth in all forms of life. Preventing environmental degradation and waste by ensuring the efficient use of natural resources is now common cause for humanity. Compassion, Curiosity, honesty, and emotional growth are now universal values. This new, entangled-world is the fulfillment of the posthuman project, a global emancipation and universal abolition. worldview that has evolved beyond the various provincial theisms, tribalisms, rejected Colonialisms' masters and slaves, then further evolved beyond the secular humanist centering of the "rational individual"---read: white, cis-het (male), able-bodied, neurotypical, subject at the heart of the humanist project. **And yet.** ## possible sources Bosworth, David. “Knowing Together: The Emergence of the Hive Mind.” _The Hedgehog Review_ (Charlottesville) 19, no. 1 (2017): 1-. Editor, Opinions. “‘Hive Minds’ in Media Reflect a Real-World Need for Compassion.” _The Commonwealth Times_, October 8, 2025. [https://commonwealthtimes.org/2025/10/08/hive-minds-in-media-reflect-a-real-world-need-for-compassion/](https://commonwealthtimes.org/2025/10/08/hive-minds-in-media-reflect-a-real-world-need-for-compassion/). Gaggioli, Compiled by Andrea. “The ‘Hive Mind’ Is Near.” _Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking_ (Los Angeles, CA) 20, no. 5 (2017): 341–42. [https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2017.29071.csi](https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2017.29071.csi). “Gesture, Ephemera, and Queer Feeling: Approaching Kevin Aviance - University of Washington.” Accessed January 6, 2026. [https://orbiscascade-washington.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay/cdi_walterdegruyter_books_10_18574_nyu_9781479868780_003_0009/01ALLIANCE_UW:UW](https://orbiscascade-washington.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay/cdi_walterdegruyter_books_10_18574_nyu_9781479868780_003_0009/01ALLIANCE_UW:UW). Ho, Shuyuan Mary, Jeffrey Nickerson, and Qian Zhang. “Hive Mind Online: Collective Sensing in Times of Disinformation.” _Journal of Digital Social Research_ 4, no. 4 (2023): 89–129. [https://doi.org/10.33621/jdsr.v4i4.119](https://doi.org/10.33621/jdsr.v4i4.119). “Https://Orbiscascade-Washington.Primo.Exlibrisgroup.Com.” Accessed January 7, 2026. [https://orbiscascade-washington.primo.exlibrisgroup.com](https://orbiscascade-washington.primo.exlibrisgroup.com). “Is Kinship Always Already Heterosexual? - University of Washington.” Accessed January 7, 2026. [https://orbiscascade-washington.primo.exlibrisgroup.com](https://orbiscascade-washington.primo.exlibrisgroup.com). Jones, Michael Thomas. “The Post-Woke Story of the Hive Mind | Michael Thomas Jones.” _American Reformer_, January 5, 2026. [https://americanreformer.org/2026/01/the-post-woke-story-of-the-hive-mind/](https://americanreformer.org/2026/01/the-post-woke-story-of-the-hive-mind/). Joseph, Rachel. “GLITTERING JUNK: JACK SMITH AND THE VAST LANDFILL OF IDENTITY.” _The Journal of American Drama and Theatre_ (New York) 25, no. 2 (2013): 77-. Khawalid, Alex, Dan Acristinii, Hans Van Toor, and Eduardo Castelló Ferrer. “Grex: A Decentralized Hive Mind.” _Ledger (Pittsburgh, Pa.)_ 4 (2019). [https://doi.org/10.5195/ledger.2019.176](https://doi.org/10.5195/ledger.2019.176). Lesbian Mojo, dir. _Pluribus: The Lesbian Storyline Everyone’s Talking About — Finally Real_. 2025. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJq14jpI35s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJq14jpI35s). Milliner, Matthew J. “Hive Mind: Alan Watts, Thomas Merton, and the Church of the East.” _The Hedgehog Review_ (Charlottesville) 26, no. 3 (2024): 1-. Moten, Fred. “To Consent Not to Be a Single Being.” Blog. The Poetry Foundation, February 15, 2010. [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/blog/uncategorized/53342/to-consent-not-to-be-a-single-being](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/blog/uncategorized/53342/to-consent-not-to-be-a-single-being). Muñoz, José Esteban. _Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics_. Cultural Studies of the Americas ; Volume 2. University of Minnesota Press, 1999. Muñoz, José Esteban. “Towards a Definition of the Brown Commons.” _Literary  Hub_, October 23, 2020. [https://lithub.com/towards-a-definition-of-the-brown-commons/](https://lithub.com/towards-a-definition-of-the-brown-commons/). Nothing Radical. “Being an Ambassador to the Queer Hive Mind.” September 11, 2021. [https://nothingradical.blog/2021/09/11/being-an-ambassador-to-the-queer-hive-mind/](https://nothingradical.blog/2021/09/11/being-an-ambassador-to-the-queer-hive-mind/). “Queer Universes : Sexualities in Science Fiction - University of Washington.” Accessed January 7, 2026. [https://orbiscascade-washington.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay/alma99161863581501452/01ALLIANCE_UW:UW](https://orbiscascade-washington.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay/alma99161863581501452/01ALLIANCE_UW:UW). Zubillaga, Luciano. _TCOET: Queer Theory, Pornography, Science Fiction_. 2021. [https://doi.org/10.22024/UNIKENT/01.02.87797](https://doi.org/10.22024/UNIKENT/01.02.87797).