Suppose there is a sentient, intelligent species that has developed similar to a superorganism in that there is a species-wide repository of knowledge and individual members of the species are capable of instantaneous communication with any other member at any distance, but there is no controlling member, such as the queen of an ant colony, and each member has its own identity and personality. Would such a species ever have need to develop a verbal or written language prior to contact with another sentient, intelligent species or the development of computers to perform complex calculations? Would such a species even be likely to develop technology as we know it?
Consider:
- Whenever an individual learns something new, that information is automatically added to the communal pool.
- Any individual can freely access any piece of information in the communal pool at any time.
- Distance between individuals is not a factor for any form of inter-member communication or accessing or updating the communal pool. (This implies FTL communication.)
- Information in the communal pool is likely to consist of thoughts, feelings, and concepts, the foundations on which any language is created.