caroline arni, of human born: fetal lives — ideas
motivated by arni's historical account, this piece questions or goes around the early modern belief that a pregnant woman’s emotions and perceptions could imprint themselves onto the body of the unborn child or fetus, and asks what would happen if that doctrine were technologically revived and modified into existence by computationalism or geneticists.
in the seventeenth century, thinkers like descartes and malebranche imagined pregnancy as a deep unity between mother and fetus, where impressions, passions, and images circulating through the maternal body could shape the developing child. this model was shortly after rejected as shown by arni, replacing "imprint" with the weaker idea of maternal "influence." this piece re-develops some clear distinctions around these concepts and a few other things, and especially pieces them together with earlier christian writings that can connect to the idea of emanation more directly.
this ontology is engineered back into existence through a new organism: the biphasic human, who uses nanotechnological bloodstreams and neural implants so that maternal affect becomes a developmental force. this leads me to conining a new politics of birth, where institutions and various systems all participate in shaping life before it is born.
the 17th century belief that a pregnant woman’s sensations and emotions could physically imprint marks or deformities on the unborn through shared "vital spirits" was turned right in the 24th century through a new species of human, a biphasic mammal, the first of its kind, reigned in as a "homo biphasicus" or a two-phase human.
it can be said that marsupial embryos, such as the kangaroo joey who develops as its seperate species in the pouch, are the closest mammalian relative to insectiod nymphs, such as a cockroach nymph, interdependent species that take in oxygen and circulate some form of blood independently of the mother even in their earliest form of development. in this same way, the biphasic human can be said to be the closest mammalian relative to a metamorphasic butterfly.
as arni shows us, in the 17th century, theory assumed a bodily unity between mother and fetus; impressions in the mother were thought to travel to the fetus like signals in soft wax. the biphasic human embryo, has a unique feature in that it is somewhere in between a larvae and a joey, which is why it also was commonly referred to as a loey. the loey's usual trajectory tends to take the form of the offspring crawling into a unique part of the throat of the mother nearest to the brainstem, and physically parasitizing on the mothers mood.
arni tells us that philosophers such as rené descartes and nicolas malebranche offered common speculative mechanisms that would involve a transfer of such impressions from the mother to the offspring, often involving blood or nerve fluids moving to the imagined site. these ideas were later taken up directly in the creation of biphasics. instead of scientists creating a new layer of tissues, they simply repurposed the arteries, sending in billions of nanobots through the bloodstream that act as pseudo-neurons that relay images into the offspring.
arni shows us how "without the “communication between the brain of the mother and that of her child” that is entailed by their union, malebranche concludes from his discussion, it would be impossible to understand “why a mare does not give birth to a calf, or a chicken lay an egg containing a partridge or some bird of a new species.”.
experimental researchers took this anecdote literally, going so far as to make it so that not only can the loey fail to correctly turn into a human if the "type" of mental influence isn't correctly planned and definitively restricted to "proven" influences, but they also made it so that in rare cases, the loey can actually turn into a more gimmicky version of a different animal, usually a mix between a human and a rat, monkey or rarely a marsupial, with the ocassional house cat, but one that is built off a virtual script of the animals behaviors and genetically encoded through this virtualization, producing a hybrid or simulated version of this animals behavior that, when compared to a live organic version appears increasingly distorted or even at times offensive, but, when reported from outside observers on average, ultimately "doesn't appear all that different from the real thing".
the reason for this is because the intellectual and historical context behind the creation of the biphasic animal is proto-religious, more specifically, a cult of capital worshippers hailed the mother as the site of the origin of mankind rather than god, and allowed her to "emanate" influences onto the child. this idea was then taken up into the empirical domain, where scientists wanted pre-natal influences to directly impact the species that comes out on the other end, after which, they evaluate it based on a categorical script. the reason that researchers even wanted the emanation effect to happen besides the idea of divine influence is that it also was thought to create an original type of mental influence seperate from the later effects of post-natal nurture.
as donald ross shows us "the fundamental fact about human nature according to gregory of nyssa is that humans were created in the image of god. this means that because in god a transcendent nature exists which projects energies out into the world, we would expect the same structural relation to exist among human beings vis-a-vis their bodies. and in fact that is precisely what gregory argues concerning the human nous". the human nous then was exemplified through the later use of the stimoceiver as a cross-communication device between larvae rather than a physiological device between the mother and the loeys.
more specifically, a larva would have the spectroscopic implant in the form of an electronic receiver pre-emptively born into its basic embryional physiology that actually already works with the built in electronic bloodstream (green blood), whereas the bloodstream would continue to use nanobots to relay emanative frequencies as was done before.
arni says that research into maternal–fetal physiology grew directly from attempts to refute maternal imagination. in the same way, the conscious revival of maternal imagination grew directly from researcers inspired by the existing physiology, mostly scientific fetishists like sortino and also david gangaham who drew from neural research and protein folding research to devise alternative body shapes. the same way that in the 17th century the vague concept of “influence” replaced the earlier idea of direct physical imprinting, in the 24th century, the eastern orthodox christian influence of st. gregory of nyssa influenced the creation of the biphasicus.
the idea of influence was taken as intrinsicially tied to the idea of an impression, and directly borrowed from gregory's concept of the energies to create the actual understanding of maternalistic interlinking as "emanation" whereas the idea of exfluence (external influence) was subsequently tied to a neural sphere of intrinsic connection between every larvae during the stage of metamorphosis, that communicates cross-corporeally in the throat-womb.
the difference between emanation vs influence vs imprint lies in the concepts of belonging, immanence and distinguishing quality. ross says "elsewhere, gregory explicitly uses the term “energies” to cover those qualities that are immanent in the physical world. energies, gregory contends, are the “powers” and “movements” by which substances are “manifested”; the energy of each thing is its “distinguishing property” (idioma)–a technical stoic term for a specific, as opposed to a generic, quality." if emanation works through energies which are the distinguishing powers of a thing that only inferiorly borrow from an original source (god) which generates and sustains them through its own power, imprinting is a higher-order concept whereby maternal imagery actually transfers new ideas onto an equally generative subject but one that is not only influenced by the causal moves and impressions of another being, but also the exact affective expressions that arise as a result of the phenomenological experience of a seperate being.
beyond both of these, influence works not just by the generation of images but by a latent cross-connection between both every influenced being, between the origin point of the mother as an imprinting being, and as the ability for the mother to actually ontogenetically alter the conditions and results of a birth in real time by shaping the subject through her own experiences (first-hand creation) rather than being simply a type of futile second-order creative origin (spawning, designing, etc). emanation in a technological context simply then means that energies themselves go from being unreachable manifestations of things to both reachable and non-projectable, actually generative forms of power, but ones that still carry their entire symbolic and phenomenal power through a pre-emptive idea of origination as emancipation (natality as not just origin but actual consequence and significance-in-result)
even though arni tells us that thinkers like albrecht von haller and james bondel denied a bloodstream-mental connection or failed to see exactly which tissues would do this, and even though most researchers agreed that they would turn the bloodstream directly into this tissue, some researchers did manage to experiment on existing subjects to create a new type of tissue, a "green bloodstream", that would only exist during the pre-metamorphosal stage, and transmit mental influences directly through neural connections.
this thinking was spearheaded by sortino, an italian experimental researcher who went by this avatar (legal name not discovered) and, inspired by the 20th century brain experimental research, revived yale professor jose delgado's "stimoceiver" concept, an electrode implant spanning the entire range of the human body then becomes a wired network capable of transmitting electric signals. the problem was political, researchers then connected devices to the stimoceiver and sent loaded signals or shut the entire green bloodstream off, influencing the brainstem of the human too.
the actual speculated theoretical undercurrent of the green bloodstream idea is due to mediated gestation, or in other terms, it is sometimes believed or theorized that biphasic reproduction was a technological attempt to re-engineer the lost unity between the mother and fetus, or in other words, to create a fetus that is actually connected to the mother. in this sense, the loey is actually less a joey than the existing homo sapien fetus is, specifically due to the way in which it is already seen as disconnected from the entire workings of the mother, and only visibly connected to a few specific parts of her, only those parts that are able to properly give rise to an entirely otherwise autonomous being.
biphasic humans are literally malenbranchists, because, as arni says "up to the eighteenth century, the idea of an individuality bestowed by animatio was combined with that of a unity of mother and fetus bestowed by shared experience. this was put succinctly by the philosopher nicolas malebranche in his recherche de la vérité (search after truth) of 1688: infants in their mothers’ womb, whose bodies are not yet fully formed and who are, by themselves, in the most extreme state of weakness and need that can be conceived, must also be united with their mother in the closest imaginable way." the reason this unity was later desired by politicians and scientists alike is because, beyond the outdated notion of a soul, the actual physical conjoining of their mental states creates the conditions for a new type of birth, one where the actual mental conditions around it facilitate its existence. this benefits both an increasing need for anti-war rhetoric, creating an actual latent need for liberty from negative states for every single birth-capable human, but furthermore, allowing the idea of birth itself to be blessed, to reach a state of fruition where the pre-birth world is commodifiable, or ultimately alterable
another way in which the green bloodstream idea was weaponized was that it led to a cultural shift where certain political institutions would enroll mothers in a pre-given "influence education programme", partially also driven by mothers own concerns into accidentally miscarrying or mutation-carrying their babies, but also partially driven in some cities through a weaponization of the green bloodstream directly, devices would be built to coincide with educational facilities and their particular programmes, and this double-bind caused mothers to be influenced not just by propaganda and institutional systems of power, but by doctors commands more directly. purity rhetoric emerged as an increasingly thin set of standards for the nurturing and raising of influences surrounding pre-natal mental work which would directly coincide with particular "electronic weapons" built to influence the thought processes of the pre-loey embryo.
one common example that doctors often warn against is negative images specifically pertaining to paratisism, such as visuals from the alien movies where parasites negatively impact the mother's well being, or any type of symbolic treatment of hosts that behaves negatively towards interdependency to any specific being, which is why mothers are strongly urged against watching most if not all nature documentaries, any type of sci-fi movie with alien portrayal, most pornographic films that feature normally pregnant women and especially pregnant biphasic humans, and any type of media portrayal of metatherium novomorphum — “new-form changing beast," that isnt a human but falls in the biphasic line (usually illegal experimentation on non-human entities), which is known to heavily trigger loeys.
loeys are naturally incapable of actually damaging the mother, but they share their negative thoughts back to her, creating essentially a negative or anxious spiral known as a "phase delirium" which is often settled through hospitalization and anaesthetization, and a forced vr-headset experience that shows a set of imagery that loeys are usually fond of. arni shows us that in the 18th century, as the causal logic shifted and the prevailing idea was that maternal feelings might disturb fetal development rather than imprint shapes, even skeptics admitted that strong emotions—fear, anger, distress—could trigger miscarriage or weaken the fetus.
arni tells us that physician jean-baptiste demangeon around the beginning of the affective turn proposed investigating the role of emotions (“affects”) in reproduction rather than literal visual imprinting, with the example that seeing beautiful statues might lead to the cultivation or creation of beautiful children not through visual copying but through maternal happiness. this led to the cultivation of a new institutional form, an emotivity center, built pseudo-religiously through materials and geometric patterns previously evaluated to be "loey-friendly". meanwhile, certain other communities became "beastial" in nature due to this political consequence, intentionally attempting to spawn novomorphums (non-human biphasical mammals) through intentional negative influence.
although this set of practices was limited due to the genetic pre-encoding of the embryos themselves, a few successful parents did manage to meticolously re-code the entire base of the virtual components, although this practice was severely limited due to not just the illegality but scarcity of the bio-hacking materials required to engineer such a feat.
arni says that antoine jourdan urged readers to separate mythical visual imprinting from actual emotional influence, where violent fright could cause miscarriage but milder emotional disturbances could only do things such altering maternal blood and indirectly affecting the embryo.
arni also shows us how "in millot’s view, all passions are expressed in the contraction and relaxation of nerve and muscle fibers". researchers took this idea only quasi-literally, allowing future biphasic mothers the "privilige" of full-blown sensations around every single muscle and nerve fiber, not just through the existing layers of tissue and sensation that the body has, but through highlighted layers that make mothers hyperaware of their positioning in the world. this form of existence itself is closely related to white room torture or people without circadian clocks, who's entire body is consistently highlighted, however, biphasic mothers are also equipped with a certain compound that latches dopamine through this process, countering some of the negative effects.
the first line of of biphasic mothers were monophasic (homo sapiens) who did not have the privilidge of hypersensitivity, and as such gave birth to novomorphums to a much greater extent than the future mothers. however, this very process was partially normalized, because there was no exact scientific or cultural expectations for how biphasicicus was supposed to look like or behave. this is also the first example of a universal species, one who's destiny is fully dictated by the whims of faster forces rather than slower ones (natural-biological ones).
arni tells us that some theorists like christoph wilhelm hufeland proposed multiple mechanisms for maternal influence and imprinting, including nutritional changes or excess nervous force. the biphasic mother dietary programme developed by emotionaries was actually integrated through existing gym-networks and food supply chain networks, and pushed through existing strongman rhetoric, massively parasitizing on existing systems of commodification rather than requiring an entirely new mode of operations. arni says that geoffroy saint-hilaire compared unmarried mothers who were thought to be more distressed than married ones to see whether persistent sorrow alone could cause negative influences, and determined that only sudden emotional shocks had a damaging effect. his idea was that certain more sudden modes of disruption could detach membranes that then adhere to the embryo and interfere with development, calling the process process “influence consécutive.” biphasic mothers bodies are built in specific ways, contracting along with the embryo.
the curriculum behind the emotionary programme is pretty straightforward - mothers are subjected to a series of perfectly affectively calculable enviornments, the classes themselves literally "encompasse" the perfect conditions for the nurturing of the baby. the "teaching" is more about the simulation of a "dedicated enviornment". this process itself is not much different than the actual political or ideological reason for education facilities as it stands - which rely much more on the cultivation and organization of social capital than actual skill acquisition or intellectual preservation - but cruically, no mother actually sincerely believes that she is there to learn how to experience emotion anymore than she is there to actually consistently be surrounded by the type of affective states that the state or military organizations prefer.
as for the offspring, it goes through several stages. firstly, it is an embryo that emerges already wholemade from a uterus. more specifically, the biphasic mother has a transmittor chip that automatically "builds" the embryo in her living body by consuming a few particular reserves of resources consumed previously by the mother through government mandated pills. then, as the embryo leaves the body, it takes the form of a joey and enters through the vagina into the womb-pouch area, which opens up to an outside and inside layer. the inside layer slowly builds the organism itself along with its core intrinsic characteristics, and as the loey comes out to the external part of the womb (the pouch area) it builds its metamorphosal requirements. at some point, the vagina widens to allow it to still enter the internal area, but not for long, as the vagina eventually shuts entirely to avoid further reproductive activity until the loey is allowed to fully metamorphosize.
the loey has a few characteristics, a softer or simplified skeleton that is formed in the womb but slowly thickened in the pouch, and ocassionally capable of elastic bending and re-transformation, a very limited set of pre-metamorphosal limbs only useful for grappling and attaching, a massively enlarged digestive structures for rapid growth and immature sensory systems, most variants being both blind and deaf, with only one higher-risk variant that exists in the deep south capable of vision exclusively. the later metamorphosis then reorganizes tissues into the adult mammalian form—full limbs, mature brain structures, reproductive organs, and specialized teeth. the metamorphosis itself happens in a specialized tube, but importantly, the pouch area of the mother has three seperate neural networks necessary for this transformation, requiring the active participation of the mother for the full transformation. the final product is partially a superhuman predator, an advanced human who is constantly subconsciously connected to the mother's neural "participation" through a specialized sense capable of immiting electronic radio-like frequencies back and fourth with the parent host.
the political backdrop for the biphasicus is not only contextualized through experimental research but also through increasing global scarcity, requiring units of two humans to merge and work together to bypass global war and security systems. the biphasical human itself was built as a last-ditch effort to preserve humanity in the face of global dystopia by elites who hailed it as as a superior race, but the project quickly failed and went outside of the aristocratic-restrictive regulatory system and into wild-forms that did not support these expectations. arni shows us how in the the late 19th century, ideas of pre-natal influence appeared in studies of prenatal danger.
cases such as the “children of the siege” of paris were used as natural experiments linking wartime maternal terror with later abnormalities in children. psychiatrists like henri legrand du saulle gathered statistical data from police medical records, and charles féré used individual cases to illustrate “psychical influence” during pregnancy. arni comments "their “bodily and mental stigmata,” ballantyne notes, are due at least partially to “the continued and severe terror and constant anxiety incident to a time of siege in modern warfare.” in the samee way that a war-like economy influenced questions around successive natal influence in the earlier centuries, it influenced presessive questions around natal danger in the later centuries, similarly tied to scarcity rhetoric and political emergencies.