Is God a Swarm?

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The Colonel
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Re: Is God a Swarm?

Post by The Colonel » Wed Jul 23, 2008 1:31 am

For us to be a swarm everyone would have to be working together in harmony to advance humanity. If this was done I would see us advancing very quickly and such, but humans are not hive minded. We are instead a mix of nationalism and individualism. Even if we were hive minded, we would be far from a god, we would just be even more powerful.
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Deschain
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Re: Is God a Swarm?

Post by Deschain » Fri Jul 25, 2008 11:28 pm

The Colonel wrote:For us to be a swarm everyone would have to be working together in harmony to advance humanity. If this was done I would see us advancing very quickly and such, but humans are not hive minded. We are instead a mix of nationalism and individualism. Even if we were hive minded, we would be far from a god, we would just be even more powerful.
Despite to popular belief swarm has no center, no sense of greater purpose. Look at flock of birds. It is a typical example of swarm intelligence. Each birds wants to go to a warmer place and has no regard of helping out fellow birds. However when they move they instinctively flock giving them faster and more intelligent response to outside influences.
Your last sentence got me confused.
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The Colonel
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Re: Is God a Swarm?

Post by The Colonel » Sat Jul 26, 2008 2:50 pm

I never implied a swarm had a leader. A swarm functions because everyone's actions work with everyone else's, whether unconscious or other wise.

I do not understand what you are confused about. I'm saying in reply to the original post that even if we did work in a swarm we would not be at the level of a god, just more efficient in all of our dealings.
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Deschain
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Re: Is God a Swarm?

Post by Deschain » Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:37 am

The Colonel wrote:I never implied a swarm had a leader. A swarm functions because everyone's actions work with everyone else's, whether unconscious or other wise.

I do not understand what you are confused about. I'm saying in reply to the original post that even if we did work in a swarm we would not be at the level of a god, just more efficient in all of our dealings.
I do not think that the birds intend or want to work with everyone else. Each bird follows its own interest while remaining neutral to others. I think most people today operate like this (their interest first while remaining neutral to others).

You might have a point there but I was talking about long periods of time over which the society could achieve almost anything you can dream of (ofcourse we won't be able to break the laws that govern our universe but we always found a way to bend around them).
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Re: Is God a Swarm?

Post by Vigor » Wed Sep 03, 2008 2:30 pm

I think the term you are looking for is Pantheism.. You might be interested in the works of Spinoza.
Einstein wrote:I believe in Spinoza's God, Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.
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Re: Is God a Swarm?

Post by Metaphorical » Sat Feb 07, 2009 8:40 pm

Humans are much too self centered, and have become too individualistic to reach such scaled efficiency that smaller, simpler animals have achieved through swarming.

Also, ants communicate with their antennae. Neural transmitters anyone?

Amirite or amirite?

Edit: Necropost ftw; didn't read the date.

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The Colonel
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Re: Is God a Swarm?

Post by The Colonel » Thu Feb 12, 2009 11:34 pm

I really don't agree, inefficiency is not a problem, and thus, we are not too individual. And anyways, to compare the efficiency of us to a slime mold or an ant colony would be like comparing apples and oranges, but I suppose, if you really wish too, one could say that we are more efficient than both of these, ants, for one, have massive waste dumps in their colonies. But then it could be argued that we are both equal as well.

Oy, what's our definition of swarm anyways, because it could easily be argued that humankind is a swarm of sorts.
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