How does the hive mind work in the movie “Pluribus”?

You know what it is Great about show like For many? The problem is that we don’t really know what’s going on, so we have to speculate. Just like real life! In case you haven’t seen This offerwhich just finished its first season, here’s a quick recap:

A radio transmission arrives from a planet 600 light-years away, and the message turns out to be the RNA code for an alien virus. Some goon installs it, and it infects almost every person on Earth, causing them to act as a single entity – a hive mind with shared goals, values, knowledge, and everything. The show’s title comes from the old US motto “One of many“- one of many.

Only 13 people remain immune, including Karol Sturka, a feisty romance novelist intent on maintaining her individuality, against all the group’s efforts to assimilate her. We don’t know for sure how the hive mind works, but infected people seem to unconsciously communicate with each other through radio waves. Talk to one of them and you’ll talk to all of them.

It has advantages. For example, there is no need to remember phone numbers. You can call any number and the same “person” answers. The downside is that they’re not really people.

However, if the radio theory is correct, how could this collective consciousness work from a physical point of view? Let’s investigate!

What is a radio wave and how do you make it?

In case you forgot (or never knew), we used to listen to music on devices called radios. There were two types of stations: AM radio with broadcast frequencies from 535 to 1,700 kilohertz (kHZ) and FM radio from 88 to 108 megahertz (MHz).

Now, radio waves are electromagnetic (EM) waves. This means that it consists of oscillating electric and magnetic fields. In other words, it is a type of light, along with visible light, infrared light, microwaves, X-rays, etc., which differ only in frequency and wavelength. Radio waves lie on one end of the electromagnetic spectrum, and have the lowest frequencies and longest wavelengths. This makes it ideal for long range communications.

fine. But how do you make a radio wave? Since electromagnetic waves use changing electric fields, you can induce a wave by accelerating an electrical charge. The radio station you no longer listen to has a very large electrical wire called an antenna. Electric current travels up and down the wire, accelerating the electrons. There’s your radio wave.

But can the human body do this? Well… maybe? Our nervous systems are essentially electrical circuits, although the “current” consists of charged ions, not electrons. Perhaps an alien civilization has figured out how to harness this.

How well can Plurbs communicate?

So, if we are right, every former human being is now essentially a radio transmitter and receiver. One individual sends a signal that is detected by others, who pass it on to others, and so on. It looks like a kind of decentralized mesh network. But how far can one vocabulary convey?

First, let’s estimate the total energy output of the transmission – the amount of energy radiated per second. It is produced by a person’s metabolic system About 80 watts of power At rest, it is used for basic functions such as breathing, pumping blood, digesting food, etc. For the general formula, let’s say 10 percent of it goes to radio broadcasting, that’s 8 watts.

Let’s also assume that the singletons are “isotropic” transmitters, meaning that they emit energy in all directions equally, as in the old example RKO radio logo images. When it radiates outward, that force spreads over an expanding range. The total energy remains the same at the source (p₀), but the power for each region, which we call intensity (I), refuses. This means that the signal strength decreases with distance (r). Knowing the surface area of ​​the sphere, we can easily calculate the density: