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"I realized there was a heavy-duty change coming in biology, and I could write a really compelling novel about catastrophic evolution, punctuated equilibrium."
- Greg Bear

Hive-Mind  
  A group mind.  

Very early use of this phrase, probably the first if you look at the mainstream science fiction magazines.

"Many very efficient life-forms aren't physically complicated, you know," she went on, letting the sound of her voice ripple steadily into its mind. "Parasitical types, particularly. It's pretty certain, too, that the Halpa have the hive-mind class of intelligence, so what goes for the nerve systems of most of the ones they send through to us might be nothing much more than secondary reflex-transmitters."
From Second Night of Summer, by James Schmitz.
Published by Galaxy Science Fiction in 1950
Additional resources -

If you poke around, you can find earlier usage of the idea, but not in science fiction. For example, in The Philosophy of a Commoner published in 1928, there is this idea:

Concerted action of ants, bees, indicates an intelligence not the aggregate of individuals—one intelligence apart directing—a hive mind instead of a bee mind.

Compare to the ring-table from The Universe Wreckers (1930) by Edmond Hamilton, a device which creates a group mind among participants. See also the group ego from Methuselah's Children (1941) by Robert Heinlein.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Second Night of Summer
  More Ideas and Technology by James Schmitz
  Tech news articles related to Second Night of Summer
  Tech news articles related to works by James Schmitz

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