From Panem to Pluribus: Shared Beliefs, Not Shared Minds
What The Hunger Games and Apple's Pluribus warn us about our future
As usual, The Hunger Games taught me something new. The three-book series by Suzanne Collins debuted in 2008. I must have watched the movies dozens of times. Each revisit reveals something newly relevant—this time, the danger of a society built on short-form content consumption.
In a plot twist in The Hunger Games, the heroine, Katniss Everdeen, is reunited with a captured ally, Peeta Mellark. Unbeknownst to her, Peeta was brainwashed into believing Katniss was the cause of his torture and the civil war underway. Images of Katniss were presented to him during his torture as he was injected with venom, binding her to his pain. Over time, this manufactured association became Peeta’s reality. He believed that, to save himself and the country from civil war, she had to go. He was allowed to be rescued and, at their reunion, Peeta nearly strangles Katniss to death.
Peeta’s “hijacking” is a perfect example of how a manipulated stream of images can overwrite a person’s perception of reality.
As we scroll videos on our phones, in short bursts, all day long, the algorithm builds our reality for us. Will this constant stream of content replace our agency? Instead of life experiences, will we look to this constant flow of algorithmic content for our decisions?
Real life is slow, cumbersome and complicated.
Who has time for that? Why deal with the logistics of meeting in person and talking face to face when I can swipe through my phone anywhere, anytime?
This extends into AI as well.
The enormous data sets of LLMs and the speed at which AI sifts through them to provide a response make search engines look ancient. Answers appear instantly. Are they right? How often do we check? Who has time for that? This frictionless access to information is quickly becoming the default way we understand the world.
I see the algorithm, AI and content consumption collaborating to build this shared foundation. Our knowledge is being assimilated. Eventually, we are too.
Join the Hive in Pluribus
Assimilation is exactly what’s happening in the new fictional series, Pluribus, on Apple TV.
In the series, an alien virus unifies the minds and knowledge of every person. The result is a global population with a hive mind, called the Others. They live in unified bliss, where they all think the same—there is no anger, no disagreement because they are all exactly of one mind.
That is, except for 13 people who are immune to the virus.
One of the 13 is Carol, who finds all of this horrifying. She voices her anger, which the hive is sensitive to, and millions die. But the Others still want to make her and all of the 13 happy, providing them anything and everything they want. The Others try to convince the 13 to join the hive manually, but a person must give their permission.
Carol connects with the other 12 (the Others arrange it because they want to make them happy) to work on a plan to change the world back. But the 12 are enjoying this new world and want to keep it. Why change things? They can ask for whatever they want—food, vacations, cars, planes, homes—even nuclear weapons.
The point is clear—comfort can seduce people into surrendering their agency.
If we aren’t careful, our destination is the hive mind. I see it as the natural progression, the end game, for the knowledge ecosystem being built. Short attention spans, centralization of information, and a lack of desire to verify or challenge define the hive mind. The hive only grows as knowledge digitizes, unifies and creates a shared reality.
We will be one giant mass, infected with groupthink.
The acceleration of digital content creation and consumption will continue. All of human history and knowledge will be absorbed into the hive. How we access it will evolve (through glasses, implants or voice). There will be more than one hive at first. They will compete with one another in the marketplace. This ecosystem is comprised of the data models themselves, the AI interfacing with us and the hardware we use. They will compete for market share and profit, which will lead to consolidation. A single dominant hive—much like modern search engines—becomes the inevitable outcome.
Shared reality isn’t necessarily truth. We would be at the mercy of whoever controls this ecosystem, distracted with whatever content they feed us.
Who is feeding this reality? Who controls it? Are the answers correct? How do we question it? What happens when truth becomes whatever the hive says it is?
Panem for All
The name of the country in The Hunger Games is Panem (Latin for “bread”). This came from the Latin phrase panem et circenses from the Roman poet Decimus Junius Juvenalis, specifically from Satires, Satire X, lines 77–81.
Juvenal wrote the poem criticizing his Roman government for distracting society from its troubles by providing free food (bread) and entertainment (circuses, gladiator games). As long as people were fed and entertained, they were less likely to rebel or question the government during its economic, military, political and moral decline.
As we go deeper into the hive through technological advances and as the friction to obtaining information becomes less, we will become more distracted, oblivious to reality and to the idea of truth.
Here is the famous “bread and circuses” line from the poem, translated from Latin to English:
For long ago, ever since we sold out our vote to no one,
the people have abdicated our duties;
for the people who once bestowed command, consulship,
legions, and all else, now restrain themselves
and anxiously desire only bread and circuses.
Shared Foundational Beliefs, Not a Hive
Being able to question information and having access to a variety of sources is critical to living freely as God intended.
We must stay curious and read direct, human-written, sources. Physical books are ideal. We must challenge ideas held by individuals, not algorithmically generated personas optimized for engagement. Challenges allow us to gain unique perspectives that train our brain, the most complex LLM ever created.
We weren’t created to be in a hive. We can handle a diversity of information. The alternative is the hive. So, discuss, inform and learn. Our shared foundational beliefs—freedom, safety, family, love, and a higher power—unify us. A hive mind erases us.
Peace.