[MUD-Dev] Re: Idea: Hive-mind monster

[Adam Wiggins]

[Nathan:]
> :On Sat, 25 Oct 1997 01:38:27 -0500, Sauron <dlove at kusd.kusd.edu>
> :I have thought some about programming a borg like race.. I ignored
> : the horrible mistake they made in First Contact (although I 
> :realise they had to add that queen to make it possible for the good
> :guys to win.. ugh..).. Anyway, I couldn't figure out any way of making
> :it happen without having a central controller.. I could 'fake' it to
> :seem to be queenless but that was inadequate..
> 
> Depending on what you are using to write this...
> 
> A non-realtime hive mind: information is exchanged and linkage occurs when
> two members of the hive meet. The hive has a central information net that
> can be accessed by any member, any member has full knowledge of the hive
> to the time of last central unit contact.
> 
> Implementation: A time weighted neural net, with subnets capable of 
> wholescale dumps onto the main net (modular weighting method) and a
> corresponding database of information, with access locked to subnodes for
> any information not yet "dumped" to the main base... subnodes  that have
> contacted other subnodes gain the key to that subnode to the time of
> contact, and no further. Once a key has been dumped to the main database,
> the information keyed is permanently added to the main database.
> 
> Advantages: Individuals may temporarily differ in opinion from the main
> database, resulting in a POW slowly becoming a different character. Anyone
> witnessed by a member of the hive doing something the hive may not agree
> with has to immediately kill the member before the member  rejoins the
> hive and communicates the information. The hive changes in "attitude",
> provided that is the output of the neural net.

Orion and I have been discussing something very similar to this to handle
any organized group of similar persons.  I never thought of doing a borg-like
race this way, although all we'd need to do is change the amount of time
it takes for the information transfer to occur.  In fact, by just making this
variable, you've got a great mechanism for doing just about any species
you like.  Set a borg-like race to have an information transfer rate of
100% and a transfer speed of two seconds; set a human-like race to have
an information transfer rate of 1% per day.  Naturally you'd also want to
add a curve to this (information transfer rate of, say, (.01 * (my information
 - hive's information)) / 1 day, in order to get a slow drift to the feeling
of the community.  Also setting mins and maxes - a more independant race might
never fully agree with all of their bretheren, while the borg would
want to 'resolve' any information in dispute and then set that as an absolute
in the hivemind database.  For the a borg-like race, killing one of them
instantly pisses off the whole race.  For a human-like race, killing someone
slowly propagates the race's dislike of you, and many people may never care.
Setting up sub-communities within the main community makes this even better -
kill my brother and I hate you, kill my neighboor and I really really dislike
you, kill some guy who lives three states away and I just think you're 
someone I don't want to ever be around.