How could a hive-mind without true individuals create technology?

Imagine a species in which the ego never developed. There is no self-direction. This species is always making noise, however, and it is through this noise that the society itself experiences the world. Every individual member of the society hears the noise generated by those members closest to it (within earshot, really), and it adds its own voice to the sound.

We might think of each individual as a more complicated neuron in a brain, that communicates through the constant sound.

By what processes might this species develop technology? I know that bees and ants create "technology" in the form of their nests, and this is due to instinct. I am interested in having this species, through the apparently random actions of its individuals, create ever enhanced technology.

The motivations are unimportant. I am thinking that the creatures create more and more advanced technology simply because they keep working with what they've created until they make something different, and that difference gets added to the sound and thus the collective memory. However, does this species sound so limited that it could never create, say, space travel? If not, by what process would such technology evolve?

posted about 5 years ago

Michael Stachowsky‭

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