Within the mythos of Star Trek, the concept of the hive mind of the Borg is one of the best double-edged swords in all of science fiction. On the one hand, the Borg brutally deprive a person of their individuality and turn them into worker drones, working toward a vague idea of complete perfection for the Collective, and (sometimes) a Borg Queen. But, on the other hand, being part of the Collective is sometimes ephorphic, and is presented as the ultimate cure for loneliness. And while the Star Trek franchise has done a good job at exploring alternate takes on the Borg in recent years, one sci-fi show is doing the same thing, but in a new, very realistic way.
In the seventh episode of Vince Gilligan’s Apple TV series, Pluribus, “The Gap,” the series makes a strange case for why a Collective, shared hive mind might not only be desirable, but, shockingly, necessary.
