Hive Mind Brain

( Thought experiment: Hive mind based consciousness )

I was recently reading about a condition known as split-brain (aka corpus callosotomy), and some scientific experiments done on patients who suffer from it. In short split-brain syndrome means that the right and left hemisphere of a patients brain are severed, and cannot communicate. In humans, different parts of the brain controls different body parts and senses, in split-brain patients you end up with two separate brain half's that work perfectly fine on their own, but where each has control of specific body functions, that the other part cannot access. As an example, the left and right hand and eye are controlled by the left and right brain (eyes are actually reversed strangely enough). One example of an experiment that done, revolves around showing the patient a picture that only the right eye can see. In the split-brain patient, the visual cortex is not connected with the same part of the brain as the speech cortex. This means that when the patient is asked what they saw, the part of the brain that gives a verbal answer has no idea as it literally did not see the picture. However, when then presented with a set of cards, where one picture is the one that was shown, and then asked to point with their left hand to what they saw, they will get it right (because the left arm is controlled by the same part of the brain that saw the image). So, seemingly there are two separate consciousnesses inside the same brain, both unaware of the other.

This gave rise to a thought experiment: What if consciousness is actually a kind of hive mind effect of the neurons or cells in the brain? We have observed hive mind behavior in bees and ants (though that idea is contested) and in things like trees, fungi and slime molds, so it might not be so far fetched to imagine it happening in cells of the brain? And it would actually explain the observed split-brain effect above. If neurons have a collective awareness, then it does not pose a problem if the brain was split. You would simply have two groups which each of their own awareness, with less sensory input, but otherwise unaffected?

Another thought. If the brain can be split like in split-brain patients, then why should you not be able to connect two different brains? If you did, what would happen? Would it merge into one consciousness? Or would it retain some semblance of two separate selves? What would happen if you could reconnect someone with split-brain syndrome?

You could make the following similar though experiment, using technology. Say we become able to broadcast feelings and thoughts from one brain to another via some kind of brain interface chip. Imagine you were hooked up with a brain chip that send the feelings of say 2-3 other people directly to your brain. If one of them got hurt, you would feel it. Depending on how it was implemented, you might either be able to differentiate, or you might feel it exactly like you got hurt. In both ways, you would most likely get a very close connection to the other people. Then imagine you got connected in this way to all the people in your city. The city's collective suffering and joy would suddenly be very personal to you? Now imagine we do the same with thoughts. That we connect the thoughts of two people, by recording each, and sending them live to the other. You would have an awareness of your own thoughts, but also of the other persons. One thing is the effect on empathy that would probably have, but how would it alter your consciousness and feeling of self? What then if it was 10 or 50 people. At some point it would probably become a total chaotic mess, but could we learn to navigate it? And most importantly, what would happen to our own consciousness? Would we retain a sense of self, or would we merge into one shared consciousness? A hive mind consciousness?

It is an interesting idea to imagine the brain-cells as a kind of parasite swarm that lives in the brain, connected to all the sensory input of the body, and creating a kind of shared simulation of everything that is going on, that can be used to coordinate life. You are then the hive mind awareness, and the I is the simulation?