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Do Tyranids have only one Hive Mind somewhere beyond our Galaxy, or each Hivefleet has his own mind?

Im of the theory that the Hive Mind is a product of the group of tyrannids...so in short each Fleet has its own sort of Hive Mind. Essentially the collective of nids generates the Hive Mind...kind of like the idea of distributed computation. There may be an overarching Tyrrannid Mind that is directing the Hive Fleets as a whole, but, in the end, I believe that each fleet is under its own "will" per se.

It's never really explained. It's more reasonable to assume it takes the same form as an Ant hive. Driven by instinct, the gestalt consciousnesses of all the Tyranid organism creates this 'Hive Mind'. It has no central point or location, it exists in every Tyranid to a certain extent, branching through the fleets using the Warp. Lower organisms require higher evolved organisms to branch this connection.

There's 1 supreme Hive Mind, Hive Mind is always referred to in the singular.

I think there's only one, like the Borg Collective, but more gribbly.

Maybe they have one supreme Hive Mind and many lesser minds, like Zerg in Starcraft have Obermind and Cerebrates

Yeah, that's what I believe as well. I imagine the Hive Mind as the Tyrannids overseer/ideologue/god, coordinating the Hive Fleets but allowing them some degree of independent thought.

By the way, am I the only one who feels there's even a bit of competition amongst the different Hive Fleets?

Why wouldent there be. Even if there is one unifying hive mind, the best way to generate improvement is through competition. Its how the Russians developed military aircraft for years.

I've often wondered about this myself.

Do the Tyranids gain a defacto intelligence by shear numbers? Kind of like the mass of neural activity in our own brains which presents itself as intelligence? When viewed from afar this may be true.

Somehow the Ant colony analogue is the only expression that makes sense to me.

It is funny that this idea of 'one out of many' exists throughout 40k.

The Emperor is a collection of the psychic manifestations of a multitude of ancient shaman.

The Chaos gods derive their power and gain consciousness once critical mass is achieved through the wants, needs and actions of a multitude of followers over time.

The Tyranids have a 'hive mind' etc, etc...

When Hive Fleets meet, they battle to decide which one is superior. The victor absorbed the weaker fleets genetic materiel, and it's biomass. There's no loss to the stronger fleet as a result, and the species is strengthened because of it.

There is a supreme Hive Mind. Nord Queens, Hive Tyrants and Synapse Creatures all act as relays. If they are cut off, they Form the highest link, Acting as their own Hive Mind and as a Hive Mind for those below them on the chain.

The Supreme Hive Mind absorbs the lesser Hive Minds.

iproxtaco wrote:When Hive Fleets meet, they battle to decide which one is superior. The victor absorbed the weaker fleets genetic materiel, and it's biomass. There's no loss to the stronger fleet as a result, and the species is strengthened because of it.

I've seen this mentioned before but haven't seen it in the fluff. As far as I am aware, and what the Codex says, is that each Hive Fleet is but a tendril of the approaching Tyranid race and that the names given to the fleets by the Magos Biologis are to categorize the encounters and organisms involved.

It says that the tendrils compete for resources but nothing about eating each other. The only Hive Fleet that I have read about that involved one eating the other was the first encounter with the Zoats.

But the Tyranids are a difficult race to explain. Each and every Tyranid is the Hive Mind, but the lesser organism are subject to the dominion of the greater Synapse organisms.

Maybe it would be cool to have a single creature that controls each and every Tyranid creature. But I think the way they are now makes them more gribbly and more alien, they are supposed to be an incomprehensible race.

The outsider ctan. Enter the Conspiracy ZONE!