[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by Hide

I have been wondering, how many isolated multi-sapiens do you need to "reach" the average homo-sapiens IQ? You previously mentioned at least 3, but I am assuming these guys are under the buff of the “hive-mind”. (Also you said a single one is very close to a chimp)

It depends on what aspect of intelligence you're measuring. A Multisapient collective generally needs to have probably 100-200 members to be as 'intelligent', broadly defined, as an average Homo sapiens. But that's speaking very broadly, because their minds are very different from ours. In some ways a 200 member collective is much smarter than an average human, in other ways, less able.

In some ways, their minds, past a certain point, don't such much get 'smarter' as 'wider', I'll try to illustrate what that means as I go on.

What was the range of the psionic-link?

Depends. There's a difference between conventional telepathy and the linkage between these beings, they have to be much closer to 'merge' than they do simply to send or receive telepathic messages from other psions.

The bigger the collective, the wider an area is can occupy and remain stable. A 'typical' 100-200 member collective would be stable and fully viable, usually, as long as its subsets were within, oh, say, ten miles of each other. Past that, the connection breaks down quickly with added distance.

The Great Collective, the one occupying its whole planet, could span maybe a million miles before destabilizing. Which is a lot less than it sounds like, as I'll be getting to shortly.

I am aware that homo-sapiens brain is different than a multi-sapiens’; however what would happen if a homo-sapiens managed to connect to the “hive-mind” (considering a successful, positive link). What would happen to the mind of a single (isolated) multi-sapiens brain managed to connect to a homo-sapiens brain (successfully and positively)?

They can't 'merge' at all, we and they are too different for that. Telepathic communication would be possible, but that would be no different than any other telepathic exchanges.

In my world, there is a collective entity made up of H. sapiens, called the Unity. It's very different than the Multisapients, far less elegant and efficient, because it's something of a kludge, from an evolutionary/biological POV.

PD. By “positively” I mean “ideally speaking” or “supposing it was possible, even if it isn’t”. For (a negative) example, in one of the latest Indiana Jones movies, Irina Spalko basically linked her mind to an alien’s mind. She demanded to know everything, and she turned into dust (others went crazy, but did not demand knowing everything).

Thanks!

Trying to 'merge' a human mind into a Multisapient collective would be unworkable, as I noted. No sane person would try it voluntarily, and if someone tried it by force, the question is whether the victim would come through it sane or not. Most likely not, but there are a few people who might manage it. It would be a horrific experience, though, because our minds are not evolved for that. If he or she retained sanity, they might or might not pick up a little information in the process, but there would likely be lasting mental damage.

Imagine someone bending your knees 90 degrees forward instead of back. They're not made for that. Same deal with our minds.