Drone

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A Drone is an individual body that exists as part of a hivemind. The idea of hiveminds originates in entomology, but has also become a staple of science fiction, occultism, robotics, and queer fetishism. Drones within an insect or science fiction context are often depicted as having no gender, or a gender relating to the hive itself. This has lead to fetishism treating the process of becoming a drone as a transgender experience. Some people also identify as dronegender, or alternatively swarmgender/hivegender.

Entomology and Computer Science

The behaviour of swarming insects such as bees, wasps, ants, and locust have been described as a "hive mind", which is the origin of the term. Insect colonies are capable of performing more complex tasks than any one individual could accomplish. The "hive mind" of an ant colony does not exist as a physical brain structure, but instead as the consequence of the actions of many individuals programmed to work together. The description of this intelligence as a "mind" is therefore controversial, as there is no kind of "telepathy" occuring, yet nonetheless there is a problem solving mechanism processing information at a mass scale. This theory has been adopted by simulation and robotics researchers as a model for creating drone agents that together possess a hivemind. In computer science it is more common to refer to these systems as "swarms" than as "hives". The idea of producing swarm intelligences that use humans as drones has also been explored.

Science Fiction

The pop culture image of the drone and the hivemind have been introduced and developed largely by science fiction, beginning with H G Wells in 1901. Popular modern examples include Star Trek's Borg, and StarCraft's Zerg, both of which use the term "drone" to describe members of the hivemind.