writing astrobiology paper, distracted by Wikipedia articles. reading about slime molds, came up with horrendous idea for biopunk worldbuilding
so, my post a while back about shitty Minecraft structure generation that got derailed into a discussion of the horrifying concept of “thing that is pretending to be made by humans” led my thoughts to this.
So, slime molds. It’s an Ooze, but—we are starting to think—it Thinks. And I’m imagining a plasmodial slime mold having…on some level this really sophisticated intelligence, but of course, it’s very, very different from human intelligence.
What if slime molds could change color? Then they could spell FUCK YOU on the glass of their tank…if they knew what language was, which they probably don’t.
So imagine a biopunk sort of world that is just a capitalist nightmare hellscape. COVERED in advertising…signs, billboards, screens, just everywhere. So much so that you’re kind of numb to it, and you don’t pay much attention to it.
But every so often, you see an advertisement plastered on the side of a building or some surface that is just…weird. Wrong. In a place it shouldn’t be.
What I’m thinking of is those AI-generated cat memes:
There’s text, but it doesn’t say anything. It’s just…nonsense shapes that look like text.
And as you move closer, you realize it’s not a sign or a poster, it’s a gelatinous film coating the side of the building—a slimy living organism trying to look like something made by a person, but not quite getting there.
Is it trying to blend in? Communicate? Lure you in and make you a snack?
