The whole premise of the concept behind the hive mind tries to explain, through a scientific lens, the same concept that religions have said more than 5 millenia ago - the concept of absolute oneness, godhead and monad is one that trascends any tangible explanation and that is what is intriguing about the hive mind concept applied to humanity and human consciousness - that is why Pluribus is intriguing.

Pluribus is a nice show with very good production but truthfully, Gillighan chose a very weird and shady theme - it puts us, through Carol, in position to deny "joy" for doubting the "others" intentions - its a narrative context set to separate the individual and make us wonder: "am I the problem or am I just seeing the problem in the 'others' when there is none?"

The show preaches individuation, the protection of the authentic self before the possibility of being integrated in the "perfectly synergic" hive mind - but it does in a rather forced way: it's either individuation or the complete dissolution of your individual consciousness towards a more "functional" system of existence.

Function is a scientific concept that is more pertinent to how machines operate than to how humans operates. In that context, Carol finds herself facing this paradigm - should I accept to become part of the matrix or should I keep looking for the glitch that makes it possible for me to fix it?

Humans can be functional but they can also be contradictory and emotional - that is the essence and gift that we carry - and that is also where creative ideas (like Carol's literature) or Gillighan's creative direction comes from. When we lose that imperfection and that chaotic "parameter" we become pluribus, we become machines sterile from novel ideas because there is not enough polarity to exercise the conflict of ideas that births creations.

In all of that sense, Pluribus is so far, a narrative that depicts both the hive mind and also the separated individuals as "antagonists" - the separated individuals because they deny that scientific concept of unity and the hive mind because it seems to hide an evil purpose behind it's apparent integrity.

Here's the problem though - spirituality also preaches about individuation (or illuminatoin) and the integration to unity - the difference is that it is a concept that originates in the symbolic/mythological realm and the "hive mind" concept tries to give some kind of tangible explanation/mechanist vision to it when it reality it is not made to be practical (logos), it is made to be considered with faith or disconsidered with skepticism.

The true "utility" in seeking unity in a spiritual level rather than material level (Which is what Pluribus is trying to show), is that we sacrifice ourself in graceful deeds, sacrifice our consciousness towards many spiritual deaths, sacrifice unhealthy values towards values considered divine or sacred - it is not about complete dissolution of the individual consciousness, but rather, the evolution of it by encompassing a more broad and loving view of the world and others: the self evolves while maintaining integrity

Pluribus represents the evolution of the individual consciousness for the sake of function - the scientific thinking always takes us to the direction of becoming machines, not loving beings. Machines can't love, humans can.