\r\nThis was written December 11th, 2025<\/i>\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\nPhytomorphization<\/h2>\r\n
\r\nWe tend to like to Anthropomorphize different things and that’s a common human phenomenon.\r\nAnd obviously, there’s a large spectrum to it, starting from presuming animal behavior\r\nis motivated by the same kind of emotions that reign over us, crossing in a mid-point of\r\nanimals that talk and interact with each other like humans (think of Disney movies, e.g.:\r\nThe Lion King), going all the way to furries, fully human-looking and behaving animals.\r\nThat’s a classic scale everyone knows and is familiar with, but that’s a rather boring\r\none. Wouldn’t the dual be more interesting?\r\n<\/p>
\r\nBut, what exactly do I mean by the dual? Welp, instead of anthropomorphizing animals,\r\nwhat if animals zoomorphized us? That already sounds like a much more interesting concept,\r\nand way less explored! Welp, where should we even start? We could obviously start with\r\nthe psychology of it, but that tends to be a bit more challenging. After-all, it’s not\r\nlike we can exactly get in the head of an animal, can we? We could also go for the type\r\nof behavior, a common trope we see in slapstick comedy when a dog and a human’s mind get\r\nswapped around.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nOk then, what about physical attributes? Well, here we start to broach the interesting\r\ntopics. The classic example of this would be the werewolf, a human that transforms\r\ninto a human-wolf hybrid, with all the usual animosity. However, in my opinion, the result\r\nremains too wolf-like in nature. If we wanted to dual, we would expect the creature not\r\nto suddenly grow fur, but instead for their appearance to gradually become more grotesque,\r\nimbued with traits we consider as more wolf-like. The posture, the different limb positions,\r\nthe different proportions. Ability to speak? Gone, replaced with howling.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nAttributes that wolves consider a strong part of their identities, what would those include?\r\nObviously, pack mentality, hunting coordination, etc… You’d also expect a better smell\r\nand innate ability to track prey. They predatory hunters, so the\r\nimportant attributes we’d inherit from zoomorphization should reflect that. Claws would\r\nprobably be there. Our teeth would probably be stronger, jaw more powerful, although they\r\nwould still reflect a human’s. Hearing increased, but still human ears. Ah, what would\r\nwolves imagine a zoomorphized human would look like?\r\n<\/p>
\r\nHow about birds? Well, depends what kind of bird. But for most of them, we’d expect\r\nhumans our whistling abilities to be enhanced, and for our appearance to turn into a\r\nmonstrosity that would make Cronenberg proud. Smaller stature, smaller skeleton comprised\r\nof hollow bones. Wings instead of arms, except while still being covered with skin\/fat,\r\ninstead of wings. It might be modified version of skin and fat that are lighter, but in\r\nappearance, pretty much the same. Meanwhile, our skin would probably be somewhat floppy,\r\nin order to gain airlift. Meanwhile, our legs would be much smaller compared to our body,\r\nfeet mostly unrecognizable with the bridge being dropped, now composed of a few frontal\r\ntoes, along with a back toe. What a picture!\r\n<\/p>
\r\nAnd how about insects? Well…speaking of Cronenberg…I think “The Fly” covered enough\r\nof that, no need to dive too much into it.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nWe could go all day imagining such creatures, but that’s not the main point here. What I\r\nwanted to share with you is completely different. I wanted to share with you the vision\r\nI’ve seen, a nightmaresque view into a different world.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nThe reason I introduced you this sort of concept was as an intermediary to what I’ve seen:\r\nphytomorphization of humans! Indeed, what humans would look like if they turned into a\r\nplan analog. More specifically, I was a forest of human-trees, and it was no pretty\r\npicture. Let me paint it for you!\r\n<\/p>
\r\nFirst, you look around and the tint of everything is a bit off. There were two causes for\r\nthat First, the trees were not covered in bark, but rather in human skin. It rather odd,\r\nbut nothing too revolting. Instead of finding moss or the likes around, there would be\r\npatches of hair here and there. Unexpected, since I would have expected it to be a separate\r\nentity altogether, but it was what it was. The other reason for the tint to be off was\r\nmore revolting. Up in the branches, themselves also covered in skin, were what I presumed\r\nwas to be an analogous for leaves. Turns out it was all made of lung tissue, little\r\nalveoli visible along their surface, the expected pink hue to them. Clearly, the reflection\r\nof light on them caused the environment to look even more alien. A canopy of lung tissue\r\nabove your head, what an unexpected and repugnant sight.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nAnd what joy I had, those trees were in season…which means their “flowers” were blooming.\r\nOf course, reproductive organs…they did look somewhat as you might expect for humans,\r\nalthough adapted in ways that clearly helped the “pollen” travel (assisted by insects).\r\nAnd why would it end there? Of course some of those would be fruiting. A small seed that\r\nlooked like an amniotic sac filled with odd bits and pieces of meat. This was reaching\r\ntruly grotesque and nauseating levels.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nLet’s take a break from these and head south, what about the roots? Well, they were made\r\nof a spongy, pinkish material. I presumed they were composed of a tongue analogue. Nothing\r\ntoo surprising there I guess. Any detail I’m missing? Ah, yes, those trees were actually\r\npulsating. Why? Seems like in order for the inner fluids to circulate, bringing nutrients\r\nfrom the roots to the rest of the body, this monstrosity had retained a specialized\r\norgan, the heart.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nSpeaking of this, Let’s discuss some gruesome details. Unfortunately, there were some\r\nanimals in there, which allowed me to be exposed to the innards of these “trees”. I\r\nreckon these were this world’s equivalent of herbivores, but this still was terrifying\r\nto witness. Some of them used their teeth to puncture the skin, and then simply drink\r\nthe fluid that leaked…blood. If you’ve ever seen a horror movie with a blood-thirsty\r\nrabbit, that’s basically what this looked like, an innocent-looking animal suddenly\r\ndrenched in blood. But of course, not every animal would be content with this, others\r\nwould actually bit off chunk, simply eating the out layer. And obviously, others would\r\ngrab morsels of flesh and meat, and devour it.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nSurprisingly, most of these didn’t actually destroy these “trees”, their regeneration\r\nseemed surprising efficient. The bleeding would slow down fairly quickly. Still, “rot”\r\nin the form of an infection would still get to a few of them, and that would be game over.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nSo, how did I even see this wild world? Well, this was the doing of a mysterious benefactor,\r\nwho wanted to warn me about a potential future. And their philosophy was of the “show,\r\ndon’t tell” variety.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nSomehow, research into sustainability, trying to make humans more like plants, able to\r\ngenerate their own food, turned oh so wrong. The plan had be to modify human genetics\r\nin order to generate chlorophyll, along with some other mechanisms, in order to allow\r\nhumans to feed on the sun, simply taking some extra nutrients in a more direct way.\r\nThis way, we wouldn’t need to consume other living beings, we could give up not only on\r\nmeat, but also vegetable life. However, the plan was to also retain most human functions,\r\nmobility, means of communication, cognitive ability, etc…\r\n<\/p>
\r\nIt was obvious the plan had turned awry, humans becoming such monstrosities that, seemingly\r\neven lacking most senses. Hard to imagine they’d even retained sentience at this point.\r\nWell, somehow research churned a virus that propagated through humankind, gradually\r\nchanging the people, and completing within two generations. After this point, this new\r\nseed of humanity, so to speak, simply propagated.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nSince then, I’ve been terrified of being phytomorphized. If this future is to come to be,\r\nno where is safe. Such a virus will simply spread like wildfire, until it reaches everyone.\r\nTrue, I didn’t see the entire planet, so some people might have been immune. Still, I do\r\nnot like my odds, nor do I think any member of the human race would want to be faced with\r\nsuch a new reality. Therefore, I’m now trying to find a way to prevent such a future.\r\n<\/p>
\r\nThe only options I’ve come up with is spreading awareness, but I often worry that this\r\ncould simply be opening Pandora’s box, exposing this idea to the wrong person, and in\r\nturn, fulfilling this unbelievable prophecy, making me a modern Cassandra. But no, inaction\r\nwould be much worse.\r\n<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 … Continue reading Writing Challenge 2025 \u2013 14 – Phytomorphization<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2531,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions\/2531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnmeanders.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}