Pluribus Poses a Hive Mind Dilemma The Expanse Never Got to Explore

This article contains spoilers for both Pluribus and The Expanse.

It didn’t take long for Apple TV’s Pluribus to use a nearly complete takeover of humanity to pose a philosophical question. Is the loss of individuality a price worth paying for the end of all the killing, lying, wastefulness, and greed that our species is responsible for? Wouldn’t the planet and all of its inhabitants be better off if the dominant life form stopped getting in its own way and started working for the common good, free will be damned?

Science fiction television has explored the idea of humans being part of a single mind before, whether it be the well-known Borg story arc in Star Trek or the more obscure Glorious Evolution in Arcane, but there’s one popular series that never got the chance to prove that personhood with all its foibles outweighs any utopia that involves human drones. The six seasons of The Expanse got two-thirds of the way through adapting James S.A. Corey’s space epic, but the final novel, which explored a hive-mind solution to the solar system’s woes, sadly never made it to the small screen.

In Leviathan Falls, the ninth and final book in The Expanse series, Winston Duarte went well beyond the ambition of his television counterpart, who had only begun establishing a totalitarian foothold while the Sol system was distracted by the Free Navy that he secretly funded. Using the protomolecule to grant himself near immortality, Duarte’s initial plan was to unite the gate worlds under his Laconian Empire, and hints of this in the series finale temper the celebration of the treaty being signed between Belters and Inners.

But whereas The Expanse television show leaves the rest to the viewer’s imagination, the books explore Duarte’s innovative solution to defeating the silent alien killers lurking inside the gates. His unique use of the protomolecule gives him the ability to merge the thoughts and experiences of every human inside the Ring space, and, as a single mind under Duarte’s control, humanity could succeed where the Ring makers failed in defeating the “dark gods.” That was the plan, anyway.

“I dreamed too small before,” Duarte says in a climactic Leviathan Falls scene in which the god-emperor has nearly achieved the deity status his title suggests. “I see that now. I thought I could save us by organizing, by keeping us together, and I was right about that… but I didn’t understand how to do it.”

The final solution presented in Leviathan Falls won’t be spoiled here, but the big difference in The Expanse is that the transformation was much more gradual than the viral spread in Pluribus. People in the Ring space had the chance to experience the horror of the loss of privacy and their sense of self while maintaining a tenuous hold on their individuality. All that the infected people in Pluribus could do before “awakening” was convulse a bit.

Zosia (Karolina Wydra) makes a big deal out of Carol (Rhea Seehorn) not knowing what it’s like to be “them,” and that she shouldn’t judge before experiencing the joy of a joined mind. For the Belters, Martians, and Earthers of The Expanse, however, that argument falls flat. While a merging might have brought unity to the warring factions of the solar system, the idea was universally rejected by the characters that experienced it, especially as the bond grew stronger.

Carol doesn’t get much cooperation from her fellow immune humans in Pluribus because the hive mind serves them willingly and even gladly plays the role of loved ones, like Lakshmi with her son, so that they can continue in their denial. Carol would find many more like-minded malcontents like herself in the world of The Expanse. It’s a shame we never got to see their rebellion on screen.