This was written December 11th, 2025
Phytomorphization
We tend to like to Anthropomorphize different things and that’s a common human phenomenon. And obviously, there’s a large spectrum to it, starting from presuming animal behavior is motivated by the same kind of emotions that reign over us, crossing in a mid-point of animals that talk and interact with each other like humans (think of Disney movies, e.g.: The Lion King), going all the way to furries, fully human-looking and behaving animals. That’s a classic scale everyone knows and is familiar with, but that’s a rather boring one. Wouldn’t the dual be more interesting?
But, what exactly do I mean by the dual? Welp, instead of anthropomorphizing animals, what if animals zoomorphized us? That already sounds like a much more interesting concept, and way less explored! Welp, where should we even start? We could obviously start with the psychology of it, but that tends to be a bit more challenging. After-all, it’s not like we can exactly get in the head of an animal, can we? We could also go for the type of behavior, a common trope we see in slapstick comedy when a dog and a human’s mind get swapped around.
Ok then, what about physical attributes? Well, here we start to broach the interesting topics. The classic example of this would be the werewolf, a human that transforms into a human-wolf hybrid, with all the usual animosity. However, in my opinion, the result remains too wolf-like in nature. If we wanted to dual, we would expect the creature not to suddenly grow fur, but instead for their appearance to gradually become more grotesque, imbued with traits we consider as more wolf-like. The posture, the different limb positions, the different proportions. Ability to speak? Gone, replaced with howling.
Attributes that wolves consider a strong part of their identities, what would those include? Obviously, pack mentality, hunting coordination, etc… You’d also expect a better smell and innate ability to track prey. They predatory hunters, so the important attributes we’d inherit from zoomorphization should reflect that. Claws would probably be there. Our teeth would probably be stronger, jaw more powerful, although they would still reflect a human’s. Hearing increased, but still human ears. Ah, what would wolves imagine a zoomorphized human would look like?
How about birds? Well, depends what kind of bird. But for most of them, we’d expect humans our whistling abilities to be enhanced, and for our appearance to turn into a monstrosity that would make Cronenberg proud. Smaller stature, smaller skeleton comprised of hollow bones. Wings instead of arms, except while still being covered with skin/fat, instead of wings. It might be modified version of skin and fat that are lighter, but in appearance, pretty much the same. Meanwhile, our skin would probably be somewhat floppy, in order to gain airlift. Meanwhile, our legs would be much smaller compared to our body, feet mostly unrecognizable with the bridge being dropped, now composed of a few frontal toes, along with a back toe. What a picture!
And how about insects? Well…speaking of Cronenberg…I think “The Fly” covered enough of that, no need to dive too much into it.
We could go all day imagining such creatures, but that’s not the main point here. What I wanted to share with you is completely different. I wanted to share with you the vision I’ve seen, a nightmaresque view into a different world.
The reason I introduced you this sort of concept was as an intermediary to what I’ve seen: phytomorphization of humans! Indeed, what humans would look like if they turned into a plan analog. More specifically, I was a forest of human-trees, and it was no pretty picture. Let me paint it for you!
First, you look around and the tint of everything is a bit off. There were two causes for that First, the trees were not covered in bark, but rather in human skin. It rather odd, but nothing too revolting. Instead of finding moss or the likes around, there would be patches of hair here and there. Unexpected, since I would have expected it to be a separate entity altogether, but it was what it was. The other reason for the tint to be off was more revolting. Up in the branches, themselves also covered in skin, were what I presumed was to be an analogous for leaves. Turns out it was all made of lung tissue, little alveoli visible along their surface, the expected pink hue to them. Clearly, the reflection of light on them caused the environment to look even more alien. A canopy of lung tissue above your head, what an unexpected and repugnant sight.
And what joy I had, those trees were in season…which means their “flowers” were blooming. Of course, reproductive organs…they did look somewhat as you might expect for humans, although adapted in ways that clearly helped the “pollen” travel (assisted by insects). And why would it end there? Of course some of those would be fruiting. A small seed that looked like an amniotic sac filled with odd bits and pieces of meat. This was reaching truly grotesque and nauseating levels.
Let’s take a break from these and head south, what about the roots? Well, they were made of a spongy, pinkish material. I presumed they were composed of a tongue analogue. Nothing too surprising there I guess. Any detail I’m missing? Ah, yes, those trees were actually pulsating. Why? Seems like in order for the inner fluids to circulate, bringing nutrients from the roots to the rest of the body, this monstrosity had retained a specialized organ, the heart.
Speaking of this, Let’s discuss some gruesome details. Unfortunately, there were some animals in there, which allowed me to be exposed to the innards of these “trees”. I reckon these were this world’s equivalent of herbivores, but this still was terrifying to witness. Some of them used their teeth to puncture the skin, and then simply drink the fluid that leaked…blood. If you’ve ever seen a horror movie with a blood-thirsty rabbit, that’s basically what this looked like, an innocent-looking animal suddenly drenched in blood. But of course, not every animal would be content with this, others would actually bit off chunk, simply eating the out layer. And obviously, others would grab morsels of flesh and meat, and devour it.
Surprisingly, most of these didn’t actually destroy these “trees”, their regeneration seemed surprising efficient. The bleeding would slow down fairly quickly. Still, “rot” in the form of an infection would still get to a few of them, and that would be game over.
So, how did I even see this wild world? Well, this was the doing of a mysterious benefactor, who wanted to warn me about a potential future. And their philosophy was of the “show, don’t tell” variety.
Somehow, research into sustainability, trying to make humans more like plants, able to generate their own food, turned oh so wrong. The plan had be to modify human genetics in order to generate chlorophyll, along with some other mechanisms, in order to allow humans to feed on the sun, simply taking some extra nutrients in a more direct way. This way, we wouldn’t need to consume other living beings, we could give up not only on meat, but also vegetable life. However, the plan was to also retain most human functions, mobility, means of communication, cognitive ability, etc…
It was obvious the plan had turned awry, humans becoming such monstrosities that, seemingly even lacking most senses. Hard to imagine they’d even retained sentience at this point. Well, somehow research churned a virus that propagated through humankind, gradually changing the people, and completing within two generations. After this point, this new seed of humanity, so to speak, simply propagated.
Since then, I’ve been terrified of being phytomorphized. If this future is to come to be, no where is safe. Such a virus will simply spread like wildfire, until it reaches everyone. True, I didn’t see the entire planet, so some people might have been immune. Still, I do not like my odds, nor do I think any member of the human race would want to be faced with such a new reality. Therefore, I’m now trying to find a way to prevent such a future.
The only options I’ve come up with is spreading awareness, but I often worry that this could simply be opening Pandora’s box, exposing this idea to the wrong person, and in turn, fulfilling this unbelievable prophecy, making me a modern Cassandra. But no, inaction would be much worse.