Does the hive procreate?

10 months ago by Etnaphele to c/pluribus

With the matter of starvation and the dubious aim of the virus (its target may be to cancel mankind according to some theories), how do you think the hive manages procreation? I think at least for now they would avoid it to keep the load on food resources as low as possible. What’s your take?

OccamsTeapot 19 points 10 months ago

I don't think they procreate. If they were interested in continuing humanity they wouldn't be so strict about their philosophy. They would "pick the fucking apple" as Carol puts it. It's a feature, not a bug.

IMO all they want is enough time and bodies to send a new signal before humanity goes extinct.

Whether it's a prelude to invasion or just a rogue virus still trying to spread itself is anyone's guess.

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Pluribus 6 points 10 months ago

Maybe they will procreate once majority of old host bodies die. There are many young people outside America and Europe.

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Etnaphele 4 points 10 months ago

Yeah I also think that they would control the population, maybe letting it decline to a more sustainable level over some decades and have a steady state of new babies in some years time. But what if a baby is immune? :D I’ll let this overspeculation sit for a while…

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IcedRaktajino 6 points 10 months ago

But what if a baby is immune? :D I’ll let this overspeculation sit for a while…

Bait taken.

Assuming the hive doesn't intentionally procreate: All the hive women Koumba is getting with....is the hive making sure they're all on birth control? A potential plot point is one or more of them becoming pregnant and having an immune baby (inherited from Koumba).

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thatKamGuy 1 point 10 months ago

Definitely on some form of birth control, even if it’s just cycling out women as they approach their fertility window?

Given Lakshmi is one of the immune and her son isn’t, I don’t think that inheriting immunity is a major risk.

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signaleleven 2 points 10 months ago

As much as I love hard sci fi where everything is internally consistent, I doubt they will use genetics to explain immunity. The whole thing feels kind of magic (they now hinted at it being unconscious communication via EM fields, but then a plurb in a anecoic chamber would be cut off, and they dont seem to play on technicalities to test the scientific consistency of the phenomenon, or to move the story forward) If any explanation to the immunity is given, it's going to be some psychological one. Misanthropy, loneliness, trauma. If the show will drag long enough to widen the focus from Carol and Manousos, we'll see that even the most accepting and tame immune people have some kind of backstory that leads to deduce a common denominator among them.

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Pluribus 3 points 10 months ago

Such baby would be groomed to join the Hive in future. If everything goes right few years later they would happily get plurbed.

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doenerpate 4 points 10 months ago

i don’t think they’re procreating right now since they know they don’t even have the resources for the current population. feels kinda like a critique on overpopulation. if they actually needed to reproduce to achieve some goal, they’d probably do it in the least invasive way possible.

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MimicJar 2 points 10 months ago

I think it depends on what their ultimate goal is.

At the moment the only goal were aware of is infecting everyone not currently infected. That could possibly take a long enough time that the hive would need to reproduce.

A secondary task we've seen is serving those not part of the hive. But it doesn't seem like they need to do this. So if they all die off, that's fine.

I do think it's not something that will come up anytime soon. We're only 10 days removed from almost everyone joining the hive, so we likely have more people than we'll need for a while.

Plus, as you noted, food is a problem currently. I think for very small populations the hive could probably survive under their rules. Especially if the uninfected do the tasks the infected can't. The hive can only eat apples that have fallen, but an uninfected could pick the apples for them.

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kat_angstrom 2 points 10 months ago

I was wondering this also; but I'd bet it's probably a No given the whole "don't cause harm" proscription, in light of how pregnancy can cause harm and isn't a sure thing.

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signaleleven 1 point 10 months ago

They perform activities where the risk is not zero. They are indeed illogical with the food thing, but they are not entirely risk averse. That being said, I hope, if they address it, that's not going to be a big part of the story.

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JayFonduh 2 points 10 months ago

Im hoping some kind of 3D human printing comes into the plot at some point and Carol has to something something against an army of Carol's.

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