Symbiont
May 2020
Set in a dystopian future where COVID-19 has left the world in social and economic devastation. The government has introduced a new scheme to control a virus that no longer posses a threat, and in doing so have desensitised the nation with excessive lockdown measures, and PPE usage.
‘Symbiont’ is a sensory rehabilitation organism. It changes its configuration according to the specific sensory needs of each user. It lives off High levels of Adrenaline and Cortisol, found in people living under the new government regime, constantly feeling anxious and experiencing the fight or flight sensation. It then produces hormones to level out the body imbalance. It also detects what sensory needs people have and expels a hallucinogenic mist to create an enhanced multisensory experience. It acts as an escape from reality. It is grown deep underground and feeds off nutrients in the soil. Mainly composed of a Mutated Mycelium and a Bioplastic cellulose composite. Due to high levels of pollution and a lack of vitamins from living underground the space also acts as a womb to stimulate fertility in women.
Once fully developed underground the organism will make its way to the surface. There it will roam the globe providing rehabilitation. As it roams it remains undetected as it masks its appearance by adapting to its surroundings and expelling a hallucinogenic mist that intoxicates government officials or those threatening to expose it. The Symbiont can only function when a human is inside. Humans act as the Nucleus of the cell, containing genetic material that determines how the space functions.
As the symbiont evolves it develops an augmented consciousness and as it does it becomes more enlightened and more discerning to our true needs in this new world. It understands that rehabilitating people by providing sensory heightening experiences is only making them more conscious of the world around them. It begins to understand that what people truly need to live in the new world is to be desensitised from their physical existence. It hacks into the users cerebral and rewrites their memories, removing negative stimuli and replacing it with a more positive incentive. In doing so not only does it change traumanic or painful memories, it also changes the way the user behaves, what they know about the world, what they know about themselves and what they are capable of. This is due to humans and their behaviours and thoughts being directly linked to the different environments in which they have lived. If you change key memories in a persons life, you inevitably create a new person.