Gestalt
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Sa'arm Gestalt
One of the more strange aspects of the Sa'arm is their hive mind, or gestalt that guides their behavior and learning.
A gestalt is a unified collective intelligence that operates within roughly a planetary space that integrates all Sa'arm individuals in a mysterious communication system. The Confederacy cannot detect the nature of that interaction nor understand how it operates, but can only observe how it works and theorize about it with ideas such as the Moraes Conjecture.
Each ADULT Sa'arm unit contributes a small net gain in the gestalt's total mental ability. Each IMMATURE unit contributes a small net loss, since the gestalt must provide control processing for the unit but is not yet gaining anything back.
Standard Gestalt Behavior
If a group of Sa'arm gets far enough away from the hive, they lose their contact and become independent. However, intelligence is drastically limited by the number of units available to the new gestalt. It may well be instinctive to follow previous orders where possible, then seek a larger gestalt to join.
Reactions To Threats
When a gestalt observes a threat, it sends more resources to eradicate it until that threat is neutralized. Any attack on a single Sa'arm results in immediate reaction from other hive members in the immediate vicinity.
Reactions To Previously Unknown Input
New input may for a short time confuse a gestalt, but as soon as any improvisation yields positive results that approach will be used by all other Sa'arm in the gestalt until that approach no longer works.
Reactions To One Gestalt Encountering Another
A gestalt requires time to integrate information from another, and during that integration period all Sa'arm activity will cease. The time duration of this activity suspension may last from just a few minutes to perhaps twenty minutes or longer, depending on the amount of integration required.
Weaknesses Of The Gestalt
There is little individual initiative or creativity by the Sa'arm gestalt. It is much like a blunt-object approach to everything, and utterly predictable.
Strengths Of The Gestalt
The speed of communication among the Sa'arm appears to be instantaneous and it is universal. What one Sa'arm knows, all others instantaneously know.
References
The following quotes were taken from the stories archive documenting how this story element has been handled using get_paras.py v1.31 9/14/2019.
From Pyrrhic Victory by akarge relevance:5576 at paragraph 67 of 102
The fleet gestalt was in trouble. The majority of the units were in dormancy aboard the larger spheres. They were just starting the schedule to awaken. The gestalt had started with nearly three to the eighth active units and another three to the eleventh in dormancy. They had lost three to the seventh active units already and unknown numbers of dormant units. The enemy gestalt had started with smaller numbers and it had been in physical contention with native life forms for some time. Their numbers were perhaps reduced by a third. However, their units were all fully alert. Unless the dormant units could all be awakened before they had been scheduled, the gestalt would pass into oblivion.
From The Mercury Incident by Thinking Horndog relevance:2610 at paragraph 15 of 143
The Admiral waved assent and the G2 continued, "We needed to be able to assess the physical capabilities of an individual Sa'arm unit directly, so a squad from Recon got into chameleon Battledress and used the existing transporter node network to transport to the surface at the fringe of the Sa'arm's operating area." Riley touched a control and the display tank created a gestalt collected from sensors on the bodies of the penetration team. "It was clear that approaching a Sa'arm unit directly was dangerous and tended to get you nothing but killed from the data we had already," he explained, waving at the display, which showed a couple of Sa'arm units advancing through a horde of frozen Tulaki, wielding some kind of force-field knives to hack a path through the little beings, whose instinctive answer to the 'fight or flight' dilemma was to freeze in place, "so the initial mission was to collect and extract a dead unit for dissection." He paused a moment, but no one had any comment regarding how inhumane the idea was -- most of them were irritated that no other race in the Confederacy had ever essayed this particular task, despite the fact that the Sa'arm had already killed billions of sentient beings on a couple of dozen planets. "That's where we got our first surprise. Watch this..."
From Bunny Fide by Nuke Danger, 3rd Aye relevance:2424 at paragraph 16 of 56
If the Sa'arm had an Achille's Heel it was that the gestalt had to supervise so many functions that bordered on what, in a human being, would be considered autonomic. While breathing, eating and shitting are easy for us humans, the gestalt had to cope with being made of units that found those three activities taxing, leaving very little capacity left over for the gestalt to use for "shared thinking".
From Pyrrhic Victory by akarge relevance:1920 at paragraph 70 of 102
The incoming gestalt was doomed. The gestalt on the planet quickly overcame the remainder in space and now the entirety of the swarm units in the system were united under one purpose. A few more moments and the ships were allocated for their landings. Included were instructions for targeting. The nest on the ground had priority for survival. Those vermin ships were not ignorable. Destroy them; the largest ones first. The escort ships were released from their defensive roles.
From Nova Guardian by Benjin relevance:1892 at paragraph 27 of 62
The Confederacy scout ship had left the system forty days ago. Headquarters came to the conclusion that this was a good opportunity to hit the Sa’arm badly. Headquarters thought that if the Sa’arm gestalt suffered when there were too few of the lizards, it might have reached a new quality when the population of two planets was in reach of the gestalt communication. Headquarters had quickly joined all available forces and even authorized the use of planet-crackers.
From Stewart's Second Mission by John Lewiston relevance:1600 at paragraph 521 of 770
"This court finds that the error was in thinking that because each Sa'arm unit operates in a predictable, mechanistic manner, the Sa'arm gestalt operated in a predictable, mechanistic manner. The gestalt after several anomalous (to it) events, quit trying to locate it's enemy by sending units in ones and twos but drafted the resources of every Sa'arm unit in the local area to continue the search."
From Destination Azahar by deGaffer relevance:1516 at paragraph 3465 of 3596
The Sa'arm appeared to recognize the weapons because both Raphael Semmes and Sir Galahad were targeted even before they got within range of the space-defense guns. All fire was diverted to the missiles as soon as they came into range. This gestalt must have gotten information from the gestalt on Sa'Triste to have such a fear of the black cones falling from the orbiting ships.
From Ending This Mess by Zen Master relevance:1330 at paragraph 240 of 1455
We guessed that it was more of the hive mind thing. Any dickhead that left the area of the planet also left the gestalt and was “free”, and apparently that didn’t happen without a good reason. It occurred to us that this might be related to how small their courier ships were, those tiny ships that went from system to system that we assumed were just carrying the news. They may be that small for a reason beyond conserving resources. They may be small to limit crewing to the point where the crew could follow their orders but weren’t smart enough to think on their own. We certainly never had any trouble killing any of the courier ships that we caught.
From Destination Azahar by deGaffer relevance:1094 at paragraph 3491 of 3596
Budzinski's next stop was to check on Clark. He had taken a Sa'arm energy blade in the back when he charged in and tackled a few too many Sa'arm units. The technique had worked several times, but when a Sa'arm gestalt finally learns a new trick it is immediately shared with all the other units. One of the Sa'arm had shifted its blade from the delicate center arm to one of its gripping arms giving it just enough reach to get around Clark's shield. It was a clumsy blow, but points aren't awarded for form and style in combat, just for results.
From Glowing Recommendations by Just Jack relevance:1092 at paragraph 29 of 39
Since the Sa’arm never had to go through the “fission” phase of nuclear engineering, they didn’t have any appreciation for some of the by-products. Radiation— hard gammas and neutrons— is invisible, even to them, and, since they have no experience, they collect enough REDs (“Radiation Equivalent Dickhead” instead of REMs) long before they even can notice the fence poles… and the exposed units die of radiation sickness. I have no idea what the gestalt might think about these events but I really hope it gets to feel nausea.
From Destination Azahar by deGaffer relevance:1088 at paragraph 2445 of 3596
"After they have become established," McGregor admitted, "they'll take steps to prevent a disease from infecting other gestalts by attempting to cleanse the planet before being overrun. But we don't know how they react to persistent resistance from the day they land. They may opt for bombardment, but their pattern is to bring more and more resources to bear whenever resistance is encountered. If we can keep them from nesting and reproducing, then they may not be in a position to annihilate a planet. But they might muck it up with nukes."
From In Loco Parentis by Justin Radically relevance:1046 at paragraph 2651 of 3268
Eve stood. "The second part of our proposal is to send the Sa'arm on a psychedelic trip." A Sa'arm trooper appeared; an eight-centimeter strip of rose-colored clear plastic surrounded the head. It wore a chartreuse t-shirt with a peace signs emblazoned on it. This produced a good laugh. "Reading the published research and observation from our combat forces, we believe that if we induce sensory input hallucinations in a group of troopers it will adversely affect the gestalt mind geometrically." Eve sat. Theresa stood.
From The Mercury Incident by Thinking Horndog relevance:958 at paragraph 119 of 143
"I don't!" erupted the Doctor. "The Lieutenant is right! The Sa'arm do not use radio, and they do not use any technology that propagates electromagnetic waves faster than light speed -- they have no use for it! But an individual unit, dispatched with a gestalt of the current situation in one colony in his memory, would be integrated into the new colony upon arrival, updating it. No doubt the colony on Tulak saw the need to send out a species- wide update on a new threat..."
From Stewart's Second Mission by John Lewiston relevance:870 at paragraph 246 of 770
"We're going to be trying several tactics at several locations on the planet. Each test location is isolated by an ocean or sea from the others. We know that the Sa'arm will be able to communicate with each of the other test sites, but the water should keep them from rushing in immediate support. After we're done and have pulled out, the fleet quarantine the system. Nothing the Metek gestalt learns will be known to other gestalts."
From Chosen Frozen by lordshipmayhem relevance:670 at paragraph 1258 of 2027
At high noon local time, the lead elements of the 1201st began making contact with the enemy. Between the tanks and the infantry, they made short work of the Sa'arm pickets, but with the gestalt mind it was certain the main body now knew exactly where they were. Warily but with a will they plunged deeper into the Sa'arm landing zone.
Story Usage
A textual analysis of the story repository, current as of 9/2019 and performed on 2019-10-26 and using SS Lib ver 1.16.07 (10/21/2019) identified the following top ten usage counts for Gestalt:
- Destination Azahar by deGaffer (Timeline month: 30) 11 instances.
- Pyrrhic Victory by akarge (Timeline month: 162) 8 instances.
- Bunny Fide by Nuke Danger, 3rd Aye 6 instances.
- Stewart's Second Mission by John Lewiston 6 instances.
- Glowing Recommendations by Just Jack 4 instances.
- In Loco Parentis by Justin Radically (Timeline month: 45) 4 instances.
- Chosen Frozen II by lordshipmayhem (Timeline month: 46) 3 instances.
- Ending This Mess by Zen Master (Timeline month: 164) 3 instances.
- Nova Guardian by Benjin 2 instances.
- Pickup Loop Hole by corsair 2 instances.
See Also
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