PARASITE open thread!

I was wondering exactly how self-aware the tapeworms were before they went mucking about in the human nervous system. Mostly because I was thinking about sense-of-self and how much of the tapeworms' senses were shaped by their container, so to speak -- if you have something using a human brain to think its thoughts, a lot of those thoughts would end up human-shaped*, with the worm-secreted neurotransmitters on top of that. Then again, Sal did think of herself as human (albeit one with quirks and a few that couldn't be explained by 'had to go through childhood two times, once with an effectively adult mind'), and AFAIK, she was the only character who didn't go through life knowing what was in her brain. It could be that self-image is set by what you are told (which seems really obvious when I put it like that); that being 'raised' knowing you are a genetically engineered tapeworm put in a brain-dead human body makes it hard to feel empathy for humans who keep their tapeworms in their guts.

Since what's his face (I read this at 2AM, and have forgotten all names except the protagonist's) the PA tapeworm mole seems to present the tapeworms trying to take over still-thinking hosts as acting consciously, rather than on instinct, but... well, I know plenty of people (including myself) who use language that implies intent when we know there is none, and we're not even trying to make some kind of point of solidarity.

Sal seems to have fragmentary memories of not being wedded to Sally's central nervous system, which supports some idea of memory and consciousness. (I think my vertebrate bias is showing: something the size of a tapeworm in a boring environment like the human gut, doesn't seem like a candidate for needing a centralized nervous system, and I can't imagine why the designers would think one was a good idea**.)

* Granted, human thoughts come in a lot of shapes, especially when you consider that many of tapeworm characters we meet had hosts sufficiently brain damaged that there was nothing left in the driver's seat, so to speak.

** Then again, mad science is full of 'What the Hell were you thinking in putting that in there!?' moments. Like putting genes from protozoa known for having effects on human neurochemistry in symbiotes. (Then again, if you want to, say, medicate for mental illness, that might be a feature, not a bug, until it starts doing things you don't want it to do.)

I got the impression that part of the reason the tapeworms had consciousness was related to them having had human DNA added to them to help keep them from being rejected. But I totally could be wrong with that one.

Fair enough, but they'd still have to develop some sort of nervous system analog with that DNA. Humans only do their thinking with one part of their body, jokes aside.

True. They must be somehow be able to interact with the host nervous system to be able to take over people. I wonder if they 'learned' thinking by being able to do that?

I think the tapeworms ARE human, or at least become human, specifically because wearing a meat suit will do that to you.

That should lead to an interesting discussion in book 2 about are tapeworms people to and should we just kill them all because there's a new person in there or not....