Your post confused me a bit so I want to clarify: you're proposing an alternate path for Pluribus, where instead of one strain of the Joining virus there are two; one strain is the classic "no room for individualism" as we see in the show, and the other gives room for individualism but also creates a shared pool of knowledge between the "infected"? And there are still those who can't be "joined" by either virus strain/version?

Do I have that right?

That is wild.

Jesus, so you're Skavau. Did this dude seriously just edit every single comment they made under this post just to mess with you?

If the entity truly connected all human minds, it would be of no significant consequence to murder the handful of people that didn't 'connect'. Period. Ever. Humanity has proven that a handful of deaths is nothing in the face of progress.

Why should that change now that everyone is connected?

Because they value life and are extremely empathetic beings. If your priority is preserving life in all its form, if you are driven to sharing what you experience with the rest of existence, then murder is no solution. Do they want progress? Sure: they are still highly curious beings after the joining, but not at the expense of another life, regardless of how easy or convenient it might appear to be from a "rational" standpoint.

And as for the plane, could it not be seen as arrogance symptomatic of the joining? I mean sure, those things you mentioned could happen – heart attack, complications – but the collective is so confident in its knowledge and ability that it doesn't think the likelihood of complications ensuing is high enough to crew the plane with more than one person.

Woah, stunning!