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.

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

I don't buy the projection concept, so I'll go with "less".

@ninXeno426 did that make it into the special edition? I haven't watched it yet.

@S.M. I mean, do your thing, but that's kinda the whole premise of this topic... That it's a thing the telepathy.

xeno.yeah they were very organised in the river of pain book, though whether its canon or not im not sure, but ants/ bees r very organised. I know what u mean by the golic/ dog-xeno idea. just didn't see that working out tbh so can see why it was dropped. the golic character though could be a similar concept to how the engineers view the xeno, deleted scene ofcourse

SM

If the Queen was really oblivious to the critical reactor that would suggest an inability to read telepathically.

As far as projecting complex nightmares telepathically, I don't know how that is even possible over vast ranges without using quantum effects. This would suggest an absolutely fearsome intelligence.

The kind of intelligence that would suggest Xenos should be able to build their own space ships. Which they don't.

No unfortunately.Golic has a much larger role,it goes a little more into his fascination with "The Dragon" but not that far.Actor Paul Mcgann expressed disappointment over it not happening.I believe it can still be read though.

The reason I suggested quantum effects is because I assume even telepathy would be subject to the inverse square law, assuming it existed.

Okay I'm gonna advocate collective consciousness, just to put a twist in things. (Though I'm generally on the side of hive mind.) If they all know what every Xeno knows and act in the most appropriate way to propagate the species in their environment, then widespread colonization/infestation increases the knowledge, and therefore power of the race. Especially when they encounter a new species. 

This also makes it more likely for them to be objects of worship or at least admiration.  It makes more sense for the Queens to be the only ones who communicate like that, though. Adding urgency to drones producing one because they are comparatively blind and alone without one. 

it was a fascinating insight into golic in the dragon seens, wish they couldv done more like golic going around, knocking inmates out and dragging them like offerings to the dragon or something like that

I'm gonna assume that the eggs/facehuggers would lack any sort of collective consciousness/hive mind?

I'm going to see if i can find the script,but a synapse can be read on the avp wikia.They give a lot of insight into what Golic's role could have been.A notable example is he's the one that greets Weyland,not Mr.Aaron,so he makes it pretty far.

yea I think the hugger is just going on pure sensory traits. the comics/ books also depict a genetic memory marker in the xeno life cycle. in sea of sorrows, an empathic engineer can sense the creatures pure hatred for him as he is a descendant of ripley, who blows up several queens in the previous book

@SpiteHouse I love the quantum angle! That would be pretty scary! They may just have the Engineers build spaceships and provide hosts for them through the telepathy.

The nightmares continue until the survivors submit to the Xenos.  Then the Xenos have access to another wealth of knowledge.

Keep in mind this is all a speculative, fun thought experiment. 

EDIT 

@ninXeno426 yeah in the novel he helps the Xeno escape from the first trap. 

@ali81 I wish Fox was clearer about what is canon. They really need to go "this is the alien Bible. This is everything we want in the story." Cuz I was fascinated by that aspect of River of Pain.

@SpiteHouse I agree the the facehuggers are pure sensory, instinct driven, no collective consciousness or hive mind. 

myrddin

defo. the bit in the book when the jordens go into the drelict and what they come across fits more with what I want to see in this trilogy. plus I wanna see a xeno n engineer go at it

@Ali81 I'm with ya.

I'd put more credence in a hive mind for the facehuggers since only one egg opens when Kane approaches and not all of them.

sm

egg chamber scene in alien would support that as kane walks pas several eggs, but then again does he not touch the egg before it becomes active?

S.M. I'd say hive mind for which eggs open, but instinct for the hugger. They all seemed to be connected to SOMETHING via the tentacle/artery things that trail out from all of them.

That would be a good topic too: what are those tentacle things coming out of the eggs?