What is an egregore?

An egregore is a group mind, a "watcher".

Egregore in Greek means "watchers."  In the way I use egregore for Mabon Dane is in three aspects:

• Mabon Dane acts like a watcher over an allocated zone, working towards an ultimate ending.
• Mabon Dane is split into many minds, that would be better described as a group mind.
• Mabon Dane could be as like a corporate entity overseeing a memeplex.

A scenerio: street lights

A council looks after 2000 street lights in a geographical zone.  Each street light is fitted with a processor that monitors the integrity of the street light, and transmits information to Mabon Dane.  At a central location is Mabon Dane, who will receive a constant stream of data from all 2000 street lights.

Mabon Dane has an ultimate ending to make sure all the street lights are working.  Mabon Dane may have a split of minds as follows:

1. Watcher : monitors all the street lights.
2. Critic : tests street light data for mismatches, throws up error messages.
3. Investigator : looks into the mismatch to seek the problem and the solution.
4. Enabler : harasses a decision maker to go and fix the problem.


Suppose a street light is vandalised.  The processor in the street light ceases to function.  In Mabon Dane the Watcher fails to receive data from the vandalised street light; the Critic throws up an error message, as no input has been received from the street light; the Investigator has access to logs of patterns of motion in street lights, and of previous incidents involving the street light, which concludes the street light has been vandalised; the Enabler sends an immediate message to a decision maker to go fix the light, and another to a police patrol to check out a potential crime.  The street light is then fixed.