Can an STD be used to create a hive mind?

nyalathotep

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I wanted to take a different direction with the succubi/incubi mythos and make it more grounded by turning it into a disease for a horror setting. A fungus exists today which can take over the body of ants called the O. unilateralis, and decided to model a parasite in this setting off this creature. Although acting on instinct at first, it eventually grows more intelligent the further It spreads. It feeds on semen, and transmits itself by acting in a similar way to an STD by invading a host body and using it to infect other bodies. This parasite would make the host body infertile, and compel it towards spreading the infection to others.

Hypothetical scenario: This parasite originally infects a female host, taking up residence in the genital area. It slowly subsumes the host's mind, compelling her towards sexual activity with multiple males. The parasite helps this process by heightening her attraction to others, perhaps through hormones or altering features. It uses some chemical to strengthen orgasm, encouraging as much ejaculation as possible for it to feed. During climax, the parasite passes on a piece of itself into the unsuspecting male, turning them into a carrier. Over time, it subsumes their mind and compels them to use any and all methods to have intercourse with as many people as possible as fast as possible, passing on the infection.

Using this method, can a parasite successfully transmit itself into enough people to create a hivemind? How can this work?
 
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MaeZe

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I think it's plausible. You need to consider how the pathogen is being transfered during orgasm. From the male to the female, of course you have ejaculation. But from the female to the male?
 

RedRajah

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I seem to recall something like this being in use in the ol' Deadlands RPG (not with succubi/incubi, just the STD hivemind).
 

RolandWrites

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Yeah, I think the main issue here is how you then transfer the parasite from female to male. It makes sense how you get it from male to female. I mean, I suppose once the penis is in the vagina, as long as no one is using any protection, the parasite can just swim up the urethra, but I can see an infected female with altered mental status insisting on no condoms but there's plenty of men who will still want to use condoms (no matter the stereotype about all men liking to go without). How is the host infected originally? Have you thought about letting the parasite spread throughout the body (it would probably need to go up into the brain to help with the release of chemicals to alter thought processes) so there's an alternate method of transfer in case they can't have unprotected sex they could still transfer through saliva maybe?
 

MaeZe

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It's not the transmission per se I was talking about Roland. I was asking what the mechanism would be if it was transmitted during an orgasm.

It's not impossible to come up with something, I just noted one might want to consider it given this was the premise:
encouraging as much ejaculation as possible for it to feed. During climax, the parasite passes on a piece of itself into the unsuspecting male, turning them into a carrier.

Maybe you could use that same scenario but no need for transmission to be related to orgasm.
 

Feidb

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When it comes to fiction, it's all about suspending the reader's disbelief. Not many readers are that great with the real science and after all, the whole point is to stretch things a bit. What you've done is come up with a basic idea that in some form or tuther, might work. Whether it really could or not, so what? Leave that to the science freaks. As for the readers, who cares? All you should worry about is making it half believable. After all, when a fifty foot spider eats half the city, it's already breaking a thousand rules of physics and science, but who cares but real biologists, who probably don't read our type of stories anyway. Armchair biologists might, but they have to consider what we do is entertainment, not college textbooks. Grab the basics and stretch them into believable unreality. Make it fun and don't worry about it.
 

Noizchild

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When it comes to fiction, it's all about suspending the reader's disbelief. Not many readers are that great with the real science and after all, the whole point is to stretch things a bit. What you've done is come up with a basic idea that in some form or tuther, might work. Whether it really could or not, so what? Leave that to the science freaks. As for the readers, who cares? All you should worry about is making it half believable. After all, when a fifty foot spider eats half the city, it's already breaking a thousand rules of physics and science, but who cares but real biologists, who probably don't read our type of stories anyway. Armchair biologists might, but they have to consider what we do is entertainment, not college textbooks. Grab the basics and stretch them into believable unreality. Make it fun and don't worry about it.

It's all in the execution, isn't it?
 

Introversion

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It’s been done, sort of. “The Diamond Age” by Neal Stephenson. (Which is not horror, and the transmitted virus was engineered for a specific purpose.)

Not to say, “therefore, you can’t do it.” Just noting that a very well-respected SFF author thought it could be done, and did it.

You can do anything, frankly, if you can “sell” it convincingly.
 
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Spy_on_the_Inside

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This is the wonderful thing about fiction. As long as you can explain it properly, it can always be possible.

And I have seen lots of stories where STDs are capable of all sorts of things. In Contracted, an STD starts a zombie epidemic.
 

Albedo

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When it comes to fiction, it's all about suspending the reader's disbelief. Not many readers are that great with the real science and after all, the whole point is to stretch things a bit. What you've done is come up with a basic idea that in some form or tuther, might work. Whether it really could or not, so what? Leave that to the science freaks. As for the readers, who cares? All you should worry about is making it half believable. After all, when a fifty foot spider eats half the city, it's already breaking a thousand rules of physics and science, but who cares but real biologists, who probably don't read our type of stories anyway. Armchair biologists might, but they have to consider what we do is entertainment, not college textbooks. Grab the basics and stretch them into believable unreality. Make it fun and don't worry about it.
You can trip yourself up being gung-ho about this, though. It's all good to stretch the rules, but don't mistake stretching what you know for not knowing anything in the first place. Cos somewhere, a biologist is laughing/crying.
 

Helix

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You can trip yourself up being gung-ho about this, though. It's all good to stretch the rules, but don't mistake stretching what you know for not knowing anything in the first place. Cos somewhere, a biologist is laughing/crying.


Not the 'real biologists', obvs, because they're not reading 'our type of story'.
 

Spy_on_the_Inside

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You can trip yourself up being gung-ho about this, though. It's all good to stretch the rules, but don't mistake stretching what you know for not knowing anything in the first place. Cos somewhere, a biologist is laughing/crying.
Biologists are killjoys.
 

Albedo

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Not the 'real biologists', obvs, because they're not reading 'our type of story'.
Tbf I'm totally down with nyalathotep's idea. fungal infections changing animal behaviour is something that happens in nature, and there's nothing unbelievable about extrapolating it to some kind of zombifying superbug. There's a rich tradition in sci fi of 'borrowing' some of the more ... creative life cycles we know about, for horror purposes.

What makes me cry (as a purely armchair biologist) is when writers, usually Hollywood screenwriters, regurgitate a string of bio terms in word salad of meaninglessness. "Oh noes, people are being infected by a single celled virus that makes their DNA explode!" "It's the next step in human devolution!" "slightly greasy solar atoms!*"


*an actual example, and still a great movie despite that crowning moment of technobullshite.
 
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stephenf

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I have read a short story, submitted on a different writing website for critiques, that had the same idea and worked well as porn.
 
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WilkinsonMJ

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It does sound like a really great idea, I would love to see it done. On the scientific side of things, I think you've made it sound plausible enough as it stands. Just throw in a couple of lines about how the parasite alters the brain to output a transmissible and people probably aren't going to get too caught up with all the spooky sexy goings on. Alternately you could have some form of 'Mother Breed' which acts as the base of the hive-mind and has the drones come back to upload their knowledge if you don't want to go the psychic mind waves route. I wish you luck with it.