Late to the discussion—I only recently took the plunge on Apple TV.
I drew the same parallel between LLMs and hive mind, but what actually made me sympathetic to the premise was the show’s details: all animals are free, resources are shared, there are no wealth disparities or corruption.
A single individual has the capabilities of billions and chooses not to harm anyone—not even a fly. You could argue they wouldn’t harm another person because they’re technically one, but shouldn’t we have that mindset anyway? We’re all human.
To me the show posed a genuine question: what if this is what humans could be?
Which is what made me want to test the LLMs. I ran a quick experiment asking Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT whether sacrificing free will for global peace is ethical. All three said no.
But given what the hive mind actually produces in the show—global cooperation, no poverty, no environmental destruction—the question feels less settled and at a minimum, is worth pausing on.
Late to the discussion—I only recently took the plunge on Apple TV.
I drew the same parallel between LLMs and hive mind, but what actually made me sympathetic to the premise was the show’s details: all animals are free, resources are shared, there are no wealth disparities or corruption.
A single individual has the capabilities of billions and chooses not to harm anyone—not even a fly. You could argue they wouldn’t harm another person because they’re technically one, but shouldn’t we have that mindset anyway? We’re all human.
To me the show posed a genuine question: what if this is what humans could be?
Which is what made me want to test the LLMs. I ran a quick experiment asking Gemini, Claude, and ChatGPT whether sacrificing free will for global peace is ethical. All three said no.
But given what the hive mind actually produces in the show—global cooperation, no poverty, no environmental destruction—the question feels less settled and at a minimum, is worth pausing on.
See details on my experiment here: (https://jacklucaschang.substack.com/p/pluribus-asking-the-hive-mind)