Hive Mind or Independent Intelligence?

I tend to put it down to PTSD.

Telepathic projections was used extensively in the original comic series however. People - who'd never seen or heard of the Aliens - dreamed about their mothers, which eventually devolved into nightmares about monsters.

Excellent idea myrddin.Ripley is endlessly haunted by nightmares.I think this warrants further exploration.

PTSD is more night terrors and insomnia than specific recurring nightmares. At least that's what my buddies told me who got a taste of life in the sandbox. 

It is true about the ptsd.I was reading this essay from John Scalzi about Ripley and one of the things he mentioned about her character was the ptsd.But the nightmare idea is intriguing.

"PTSD is more night terrors and insomnia than specific recurring nightmares. At least that's what my buddies told me who got a taste of life in the sandbox."

I don't know enough about it.

It's interesting that Ripley didn't suffer any nightmares on Fiorina when she was carrying a Queen, and there was an actual Alien nearby - but did have nightmares at Gateway when there were none.

Thanks! It certainly got my mind going, so I thought I'd share. Ripley DEFINITELY had PTSD, it's just that the same nightmares over and over again wasn't a common symptom with my army buddies.

Alien 3 really didn't address nightmares. You hardly ever saw her sleeping, though.  And it could be argued that Golic was having telepathic interference while he was awake. Especially in the novelization.

Nah, Golic was a just a nut.

Ripley sleeps pretty soundly after bonking Clemens. Though her waking up was framed in such a way that it happened just as Murphy got diced.

My neighbor is a marine and suffers form ptsd.He's known to get pretty violent at times,but that's all i really know.He hasn't had an incident in a long while any way.

is it the individual xeno projecting these images or is it the queen? from the comics I got the impression its the queen

In the comics t was the Queen Bionational had bred on Earth.

So we have one for hive mind.  That's a good start. How does that make the most sense to you?

I get the impression the xeno is capable of telepathically seeking out its prey. it always seems to know where u r. they can also be commanded/ communicate even, with the queen but I think the ability to project images and fear into people might be a bit far. id say the queen would be the only one with that ability which makes her more terrifying and seperates her from the rest. think there has to be some sort of difference which makes her stand out from the xeno other than just sheer size and egg laying ability

I actually think the whole species is so much more complex than originally thought. so many possibilities. theyr adaptability is theyr most lethal quality. lone xeno can egg morph and start a hive by itself in a limited resource situation. larger host situations, they adapt and a queen is berthed. theyr telepathic ability makes me think from birth, the xeno takes in so much info about is environment. is it a lone xeno? is there a queen? number of hosts etc. I think at the first molting stage, this is where the xeno becomes either xeno or queen, after it has taken in its environment. I think having both concepts makes it a more lethal and indestructible species. sorry I know this wasn't very helpful

@ali81That's a reasonable assertion.

Like I said, though let's assume the premise is true for the purposes of this discussion.  Another one for hive mind with explanations of their reasoning. I like it.

ok, I think they r hardwire for a hive mentality. ill stop there before I start rambling again

I think i agree with the hive mind.In Aliens there attacks seemed pretty coordinated as if the queen was directing them.Individual xeno's may have been smart enough too back off,but i think that if the queen was controlling them then she may have been willing to use as many as she could to get to them.

the fact even a lone xeno is naturally programmed to start a hive adds to hive mentality

@S.M. clearly Golic was a nut, but did that make him more susceptible to the projection or less?

Don't care for the hive mind concept.

Never thought the Queen was terribly intelligent either.  She sat there oblivious to the AP station about to go critical.

I believe when it comes to Golic,they had a plotline that they dropped where he teamed up the dog/runner alien.If it actually happened then it may have been communicating with him or even controlling him to Some extent.