Drone

This page is about a gender identity that is not widely used among gender-variant people. This does not mean that the identity is not valid, but that very few people are known to use this term. More information on uncommon identities...

A Drone, in the field of queer fetishism, 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.^{[citation needed]} 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 and Occultism

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. Rick and Morty breaks the established mold by portraying Unity as a kind and caring person with a "human" identity, capable of personal relationships, morals, and growth. Science fiction hiveminds are a common reference point for people trying to understand drones in the real world.

Occultism describes the concept of the "egregore", a being created from the collective thought of a group of people. Various groups across different traditions have cultivated egregores according to these groups, such as the Knights Templar, and the Roman Empire.

Dronification Fetish

Drones saw increased attention within the queer community with the introduction of the dronification fetish, the most prominent example being Hexcorp. The goal of the dronification fetish is to remove the feeling of personhood from the submissive. The creator of Hexcorp is transgender, and dronification is said to appeal to trans people due to freedom from societal constraints regarding name, body, disability, and personhood itself. To become a drone is to relinquish gender, and substitute it with obedience.^{[citation needed]}

Queer Understanding

All understandings of the hivemind and the drone are inherently nonbinary. The conception of gender held by an ant or a bee is not a man/woman dichotomy of male homeowner and female childrearer.^{[citation needed]} For bees, female workers manage all the non-reproductive tasks of the hive and are sterile. Star Trek's Borg drones are queer, and the minions of the Zerg have no use for gender. The drones of a simulated swarm, like virtually all computer programs, have no gender. Trans people choosing to give up gender in favour of dronification relive their transgender experiences in a safe environment. The nature of the drone is, in all explored cases, queer.^{[citation needed]}

This has lead to some people taking on nonbinary identities specifically as a drone. In the 2023 Gender Census, less than 0.1 % of respondents identified as such.

Stigma

Popular depictions of hiveminds in science fiction are often villainous or evil. Occult groups practicing group identity are also often vilified in media and popular opinion. Sentiment against dronegender people has also broken out in some online communities, primarily concerning accusations of trolling or delusion.