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Comment by shrimp_emoji | Hacker News Reader

Even if humans did care, that doesn't mean they could organize a meaningful response.

COVID-19 is affecting people right now. It, and other viruses like the flu, are just a giant rhythm game: if everyone could be isolated for 2 weeks, it would be over in 2 weeks, and we'd never have to deal with it ever again.

We just have a fundamental coordination problem. A lot of foresight and resources are required, and only a Central Overmind that mind-controls everyone would be a practical way to implement that kind of coordination. When the price of non-coordination is extremely jacked up, like in a crazy future where anyone can cook up an antimatter bomb or an extinction-tier supervirus (or super AI?) at home, it's obvious that the only tenable mode of operation is massive surveillance + censorship (and perhaps hivemind motor control) by a Central Overmind. :D

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>> “ COVID-19 is affecting people right now. It, and other viruses like the flu, are just a giant rhythm game: if everyone could be isolated for 2 weeks, it would be over in 2 weeks, and we'd never have to deal with it ever again.”

Above claim includes set of assumptions that are unsaid and likely unaccounted for, for example:

- isolation occurs per person, not per household.

- 14 days is enough; research I’ve seen claims that only covers 97.5% of the population, which clearly is not 100% of the population; meaning that in 2.5% of the cases, it took longer than 14-days for the individual to become systemic; longest claim I have seen is 28 days, but that’s clearly an outlier may have been due to error of some sort.

- 14-days assumes you’re systemic on the first day of isolation, though mean time to becoming systemic in not zero days, it’s 5-days.

- assumes no latent environmental infection, wildlife based exposure, no bad actors intentionally reinfecting a population, etc

- simply put, no, 14-days is not enough, and few people understand the dynamics at play.

I've thought about how a hive would manage, but I suspect there are other weaknesses a hive would have that would come to light pretty quickly (you know besides lack of free will, and extinction from depression or lack of motivation). We probably need something new, but seem unable to experiment quickly with new ideas.

“Hive mind” as it relates to a singular species is a work of science fiction to my knowledge and barriers to such a systemic centralized existence appear to defy the laws of physics, information theory, etc.

Even the human mind in my opinion does not exist as a hive and at best described as an ecosystem that eventually experiences systemic failure.

> and perhaps hivemind motor control) by a Central Overmind.

I volunteer to be the Lead DevOps engineer who looks after the Central Overmind.

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