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BIO 21i Creative Project

Last updated Aug 15, 2023

#BIO21i

# Concept Paper + Pitch

# Instructions

# Ideas

# Novum

“My project will focus on a [novum] that uses [biological concept/s] as signifiers to stand for [social/cultural idea/s] as signified.” 

“My project will focus on a zombie outbreak that uses the ant-zombifying cordyceps fungus as a signifier and uses it to stand for ruthless, inhuman survivalism in a crisis as the signified.”

# Form

# Format

# Writing

# Version 1

# Weight Loss Pills

My project will focus on weight loss pills that uses genetically engineered parasites as signifiers. They will be used to signify misinformation-fuelled diet culture and its victims: people who will resort to desparate measures just to get their desired bodies.

One inspiration behind this novum is my mother, who happens to be one of these people. Being overweight is one of her greatest insecurities. Rather than committing to sustainable healthy habits, what she’d often do instead is buy all the popular diet powders, teas, pills, etc. She’d even offer these to me as well, knowing that I also want to lose weight. Whenever I’d question her on the effectiveness of these products, she’d never be able to defend them properly (she’d always gain the weight she initially lost from trying them); however, even after being reminded of their unreliability, she’d still continue buying them. Thus, I can’t help but recognize this kind of cognitive dissonance whenever I see a popular diet supplement.

Another inspiration is the dangerous tapeworm diet. I find it disturbing how people — particularly women — have been purposefully infecting themselves for years (even since the Victorian era) despite all the unpleasant side effects. Aside from tapeworms, I am also considering the giardia parasite as the signifier. Here is an interesting excerpt from Schrage’s “High-Tech Tapeworms Could Be the Diet Fad of the Next Century”:

Actually, it turns out that tapeworms are probably the wrong parasite for weight management. “There’s a lot of mythology surrounding tapeworms,” says Dickson Despommier, a Columbia University professor of public health and microbiology. “They don’t really induce weight loss; they don’t eat enough to compete with our digestive systems for food.”

However, Despommier points to giardia lamblia as a parasite with potential. A protozoa (basically, a flagellate with an attitude) that’s responsible for creating particularly nasty cases of diarrhea, giardia does have one fascinating property: It generates a chemical that prevents the human digestive system from absorbing animal fat.

The trick, says Despommier, would be to figure out giardia’s active ingredient and synthesize it. “That would be outstanding,” he says. “If you could find out from giardia what its molecular secret was to prevent the absorption of animal fat . . . it’s a straightforward logical extension for the biology of this organism.”

Theoretically, you could create “anti-fat” pills from this agent or even cultivate specially bred bowel colonies of giardia that block the fat without generating the runs. It’s not clear if pharmaceutical companies have begun to explore this parasite’s potential–but there’s no question that such research would be both technically feasible and possibly enormously profitable.

Consuming parasites already makes weight loss terrifying and bizarre, but it’s still too close to reality (unfortunately). Genetically engineering parasites to become symbionts would bring weight loss pills into the realm of the unreal. However, I worry that removing all the negative side-effects of infections would diminish the novum’s signified. To tackle this, I’m considering making zombification the pills’ main consequence (similar to Mira Grant’s Parasitology series). Perhaps taking these pills would turn wannabe dieters into perpertual salespeople; their living days would be fully consumed by trying to market these pills to others (Yes, I’m cracking down on MLMs. Looking at you, USANA!).

For the form of this project, I want to make a website for promoting the fictional weight loss pills. This would feature the benefits of these pills, results from clinical trials, and success stories shared by customers. These main parts (along with other sections like FAQ and Disclaimer) will be used to showcase the novum. I am still debating whether I want to make this website look professional, or as scammy as possible (through dark marketing tactics).

# Mail-to-order Partners

My project will focus on artificially made mail-to-order brides/husbands. Human reproductive cloning and genetic engineering are used as signifiers to stand for the commodification of life and love, along with the unequal power dynamic behind many transnational relationships.

The main inspiration behind this novum is Yvette Tan’s “Seek Ye Whore”, which features siquijorbrides.com: a fictional website for inhuman mail-to-order brides. The protagonist, a middle-aged American male, orders one to use as a servant and blow-up doll, and ends up getting more than what he wished for. While reading this story, I was reminded of how acquiring this kind of relationship is so easy nowadays; technology (the Internet) mediates it, media (90 Day Fiance) promotes it, and culture (colonial mentality) sustains it. Aside from this, I also find inspiration in AI humans like Star Labs’ NEONs and Replika’s companions. I’m intrigued by technologies behind these creations and people are reacting to them. A notable example: Replika’s recent shutting down of its erotic roleplay functionality left much of its community devastated, to the point that many of its members were sharing suicide prevention resources. Putting these two inspirations together, I can’t help but think about how dehumanization seems utterly inescapable in a capitalist system; even non-human species like monsters and robots don’t seem to have a chance. What better way of reflecting this truth than the production of humans for the sake of “marriage”?

Thus, this project will be centered on a biotech company making and selling such humans, aiming to provide everyone in the world (who can afford it) the perfect match. However, since perfection is contextually dependent, the company will be providing a variety of humans to choose from. The only characteristic shared by all the models would be their physically optimal condition (i.e. youthful and healthy, high libido). A particular question I’d like to explore (inspired by Ted Chiang’s “The Lifecycle of Software Objects”) is the personality expression of an artificially made human: if a person purchases their dream partner, would this partner come with a personality or not? While I think the buyer would be able to dictate certain inclinations (e.g. less aggressive, more social), I believe that the partner’s personality would develop further when they’re already in contact with the buyer.

For the form of this project, I will make a website for selling these mail-to-order partners. The design of this will be based off existing dating websites, where potential partners can be filtered by physical characteristics (e.g. age, ethnicity, height and weight, hair and eye color, body type, etc.). If a user doesn’t find anything they like from the ready-made selection, they can choose to order their own. The made-to-order page will allow a user to choose the physical characteristics they’d want for their partner. The website will also contain pages (such as “Learn More” and “FAQ”) that dive deep into the production process of these partners. I’m planning to use AI-generated art for the visuals of these partners in order to make them look both perfect and uncanny.

# Influencer Hivemind

My project will focus on a human hivemind consisting of content creators that uses eusociality, nanotechnology, and the group mind as signifiers to signify the exploitative nature of the social media industry — for both influencers and their audiences.

For the form of this project, I will write an exposé that also serves as an interactive article (similar to the Guidon’s interactives).

# Version 2

# Outline
# Writing

My project will focus on weight-loss shakes that involve genetically engineered tapeworms as signifiers. They will be used to signify misinformation-fuelled diet culture and its victims: people who will resort to desparate measures just to get their desired bodies.

On the Novum In a world saturated with diet products, Shapeshifters Co.’s Trim Tonic™ weight-loss shake is the latest gamechanger, reknown for its unprecedented efficiency and effectiveness. Instead of following a routine for 7 or 30 days…all you have to do is drink this once, and let it do its magic! Over the span of a month, your metabolism will drastically increase in speed, making burning fat as easy as pie. This change comes with no harmful side-effects (unlike most laxatives), and it will remain long-term for sure. Forget about exercise programs and meal plans; all you need is one drink to change your life. It costs just $200 — a bargain price for a worthy investment.

Marketing voice aside, the secret ingredient behind this powerful shake is its special tapeworms. Each ready-made shake comes with its own eggs. Once these are consumed, they go to the consumer’s intestines; here, they hatch and develop in adults over the course of 3 weeks (a sped-up growth rate thanks to genetic engineering). They then attach themselves to the intenstinal walls in order to start absorbing nutrients from food digestion. This is when the consumer will start experiencing rapid weight loss.

Besides the intestines, the tapeworms are also designed to migrate and attach themselves to the brain. These would then influence the consumer to become an avid network marketer for the company: buying, promoting, and selling the shakes so that more people would try them out. The company, Shapeshifters Co., altered the tapeworms this way in order to use them as a growth strategy; why spend millions on influencer marketing when you can make your customers do it for free? All the aforementioned behaviors are also advantageous for the tapeworms (in a reproductive perspective), so they encourage these by hijacking the brain’s reward system (a.k.a. the mesocorticolimbic circuit). Pleasure is experienced everytime a sale is made, and motivation is high for relevant activities like finding leads.

However, this modified system can also turn on the consumer; if they aren’t succeeding with sales for a certain period of time, they can experience withdrawal-like symptoms such as irritability, depression, and anxiety. These effects on mental health are further exacerbated by the consumer’s infected intestines, given that the gut and the brain are intimately connected. When it comes to real-life multi-level marketing, many people trapped in the system feel addicted to it; thus, I thought it would brain-hijacking parasites would be a good signifier for this.

Despite their secret, Shapeshifters Co. is able to make these shakes without problems. The Food and Drug administration (FDA) does not have the authority to approve dietary supplements (for their safety and effectiveness, and/or for their labelling) before they are marketed. It is the company that is responsible for ensuring that their supplements meet safety standards. However, the FDA still plays a role in regulating these supplements (e.g. inspecting manafacturing facilities, reviewing product labels, monitoring adverse reports). To ensure secrecy, Shapeshifters Co. utilizes genetic engineering techniques to make the tapeworms difficult to detect using traditional testing methods. Aside from this, the product’s label hides this from the ingredient list (which is already difficult to read). Misleading health claims and testimonials are also used to make the product look legitimate (thanks ChatGPT for the suggestions).

On the Form This project will consist of two components: a website that promotes the fictional weight loss shakes, and an article that aims to expose the shakes’ secrets.

The website will feature the benefits of these shakes, results from clinical trials, and success stories shared by customers. These main parts (along with other sections like FAQ and Disclaimer) will be used to showcase the novum. Along with the website, I will be designing the label of the product, along with possible advertisements. For this, I think I will be taking inspiration from the designs of “gym bro” supplements, “natural” detox products, and vintage tapeworm diet advertisements.

The article will serve to show the progressive stages of the parasite. It will be a post published on a fake r/conspiracytheories; I’ll recreate a single page of the subreddit through design and code. This post will include a link to the Shapeshifters website, connecting both of this project’s components as one interactive experience. The story will start with background context on the product’s popularity, showing screenshots of Instagram posts and Tiktok videos from fictional influencers. Then, this will segue to the writer’s mother, who tried out the shake for herself. The author then witnesses her mother become a whole new person. At first, she experiences rapid weight loss and is raving all about it. However, she also starts having an obsessive personality; all she cares about now is sharing the shakes everywhere. Concerned, she acquires a shake from her mother just to investigate it herself, being a medical school student. She is then shocked to find tapeworm eggs inside (To be honest, tapeworm eggs look a lot like rice grains…and rice shakes exist so…). Aware that her mother wouldn’t believe her (she wasn’t open to criticism at all), the author resorts to desparate measures by sneaking antiparasitic medication in her mother’s food. While this sends the mother to the bathrooom (and keeps her stuck there), her mind is still on hyper-salesperson mode. Lost, the author asks the subreddit for help, unsure of what to do next. I’d imagine the comments are filled with people confirming the effects of the shakes, along with those theorizing what they do.

# Final Project

# To-do

# Notes

# AI Research

Backlinks

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Interactive Graph