In my SF milieu (which has a nuch of half-written stories and a lot of background), one of my main alien races, the Murr, have an extremely complex social system and communication based significantly on pheromones and other chemical communicators. They have spent centuries expanding their genome so that they can switch themselves into a multitude of possible forms (basically, just as a caterpillar and a butterfly contain exactly the same full set of DNA and it's just a matter of what's being switched on at any given time). On the other hand, I have toyed with a screenplay adaptation of this which DID involve a hive-mind/gestalt type approach to this, so clearly I'm not quite over my fear of communism yet... uh, shurely shome mishtake... ed.)
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In my SF milieu (which has a nuch of half-written stories and a lot of background), one of my main alien races, the Murr, have an extremely complex social system and communication based significantly on pheromones and other chemical communicators. They have spent centuries expanding their genome so that they can switch themselves into a multitude of possible forms (basically, just as a caterpillar and a butterfly contain exactly the same full set of DNA and it's just a matter of what's being switched on at any given time). On the other hand, I have toyed with a screenplay adaptation of this which DID involve a hive-mind/gestalt type approach to this, so clearly I'm not quite over my fear of communism yet... uh, shurely shome mishtake... ed.)