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Pilau Rice wrote:The concept of the Hive Mind is a confusing one to me. If it's a singular conscience made up of untold billions, who gets to decide what to do? It kinda makes more sense to have the Hive Mind as a singular 'creature' rather than having it as being made up as it is. I guess the whole concept of it is as it should be, alien and impossible to fathom

Although this is using another fluff universe as an explanation, the hive mind is like the borg, a single mind made of billions of smaller minds (where instead of the link being from radio waves or electronics its through the psychic link).

the idea of a hive mind is similar to the human brain, one choice (even a yes/no scenario) requires a multitude of thought processes and access to multiple memory pathways, so in this the hive mind is like the human brain, each tyranid represents a a small fraction of the thought process.

so in the hive mind it is everyone who decides what to do, but at the same time no one


If khrone's mind/personality is made up of a billion battles, billions and billions of angry thoughts and emotions, why is it implausable that the hive mind is not physical

BluntmanDC wrote:
Although this is using another fluff universe as an explanation, the hive mind is like the borg, a single mind made of billions of smaller minds (where instead of the link being from radio waves or electronics its through the psychic link).

Didn't the Borg have a queen?

BluntmanDC wrote:the idea of a hive mind is similar to the human brain, one choice (even a yes/no scenario) requires a multitude of thought processes and access to multiple memory pathways, so in this the hive mind is like the human brain, each tyranid represents a a small fraction of the thought process.

so in the hive mind it is everyone who decides what to do, but at the same time no one

But the human mind is still a single thing that sends out the orders to it's parts, regardless of how many choices and processes it needs to go through. I kind of get what you are saying. But where does the individual thought of the Hive Mind come from? I think that's what I am getting at, how do you come to one driving force from a billion individual minds.

Like I said ... alien and impossible to fathom

BluntmanDC wrote:If khrone's mind/personality is made up of a billion battles, billions and billions of angry thoughts and emotions, why is it implausable that the hive mind is not physical

Is this directed to me, i'm not saying that it isn't plausible, i'm just saying that it would be nice and easy to have it as a single entity Also that the 'nids don't seem to be anything more than insects and not warp related, apart from the Zoanthropes, more physical rather that psychic. Somewhat like the Necrons.

was anybody else surprised that the OPs name was Eldrad, how the feth did nobody get that name before him... what a dick

Because they are one mind. Think of each individual synapse breature as being equivilan to each individual brain cell in your brain. Both are sperated by distances in your case by inches in the Tyranid case by light years but they are just parts of a greater mind.

Ennkay wrote:was anybody else surprised that the OPs name was Eldrad, how the feth did nobody get that name before him... what a dick

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Because they are one mind. Think of each individual synapse breature as being equivilan to each individual brain cell in your brain. Both are sperated by distances in your case by inches in the Tyranid case by light years but they are just parts of a greater mind.

Yeah exactly my point.

I think my problem here is that I can't imagine something not having free will unless it's been dominated or there is a single point of origin for the thoughts to come from. As I see it the Hive Mind passes on it's will to the Synapse Creatures who in turn pass it down to the lesser Tyranid creatures. If a Synapse creature is killed the lesser creatures revert to their basic instinct as if they have been freed.

I do get where you are coming from guys and am not dismissing it, i'm just expressing it from my point of view and how I see how the Tyranids are.

Pilau Rice wrote:Didn't the Borg have a queen?

The borg queens are just mouth peices for the borg hive mind.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Because they are one mind. Think of each individual synapse breature as being equivilan to each individual brain cell in your brain. Both are sperated by distances in your case by inches in the Tyranid case by light years but they are just parts of a greater mind.

Exactly

Pilau Rice wrote:

-Loki- wrote:

zadelistol wrote:Hmm...well if you look at the rule book, you will find a table of all the nids forces linking to something or another. At the root of it all is the hive mind, which implies that it is a single creature, or to me it does.
I haven't had a chance to look at the new nid dex, nor did I actually read the fluff in the last ed.

The Hive Mind is the collective conciousness of the entire Tyranid race, a psychic 'entity' made up of the collective minds of the entire race. This is why the Tyranids always seem to work in perfect harmony, even across hive fleets - what one Tyranid knows, all Tyranids know. Synapse creatures are the focal points, which have a slight degree of self awareness, guide the swarm based on that collective knowledge. The higher up the chain of synapse creatures, the more self awareness they have. Hive Tyrants are near the top, with only Dominatrices, Norn Queens and the Swarmlord above them. There is no one leader, with the possible exception of the Swarmlord, but he is only spawned when the Tyranids just can't win, it's not a permanant part of a hive fleet.

The newest codex says on this

The Hive Mind holds all Tyranid Creatures in a psychic bond that enables them to act together as one gestalt organism. It is a single coordinating sentience formed from untold billions of individual consciences, each of which is a Tyranid.

The concept of the Hive Mind is a confusing one to me. If it's a singular conscience made up of untold billions, who gets to decide what to do? It kinda makes more sense to have the Hive Mind as a singular 'creature' rather than having it as being made up as it is. I guess the whole concept of it is as it should be, alien and impossible to fathom

What you quoted is what I said. It's a collective conciousness. One psychic entity that is the sum total of every Tyanid life. Therefore, it would know what each Tyranid knows. The hive mind knows what it wants, because it wants what every Tyranid wants. It's basically a big psychic brain made up of the knowledge of every Tyranid. However, synapse creatures are the hub of the hive mind, anything not near a synapse creature simply fall back on its instinctive knowledge, which differs from creature to creature. But when a creature is near a synapse creature, the hive mind can control it.

-Loki- wrote:
What you quoted is what I said. It's a collective conciousness. One psychic entity that is the sum total of every Tyanid life. Therefore, it would know what each Tyranid knows. The hive mind knows what it wants, because it wants what every Tyranid wants. It's basically a big psychic brain made up of the knowledge of every Tyranid. However, synapse creatures are the hub of the hive mind, anything not near a synapse creature simply fall back on its instinctive knowledge, which differs from creature to creature. But when a creature is near a synapse creature, the hive mind can control it.

Yes, I was quoting it to add emphasis and fluff to your point

I get how the Tyranids are, how basically then are one body controlled by one mind that works in unison from billions, but having a big super fiend would be kinda cool. I had the idea that the Tyranids were created by the last of the old ones to correct the mistakes made by their upstart children, to start again and wipe the slate clean.

Pilau Rice wrote:

-Loki- wrote:
What you quoted is what I said. It's a collective conciousness. One psychic entity that is the sum total of every Tyanid life. Therefore, it would know what each Tyranid knows. The hive mind knows what it wants, because it wants what every Tyranid wants. It's basically a big psychic brain made up of the knowledge of every Tyranid. However, synapse creatures are the hub of the hive mind, anything not near a synapse creature simply fall back on its instinctive knowledge, which differs from creature to creature. But when a creature is near a synapse creature, the hive mind can control it.

Yes, I was quoting it to add emphasis and fluff to your point

I get how the Tyranids are, how basically then are one body controlled by one mind that works in unison from billions, but having a big super fiend would be kinda cool. I had the idea that the Tyranids were created by the last of the old ones to correct the mistakes made by their upstart children, to start again and wipe the slate clean.

This theory...this theory amazes me. It could be a possibility but no way to know for sure unless we capture ALL the story writers at GW and force the answer out of them or for them to publish it.
This theory is VERY probable IMHO