Madness. Have we not learned about abusing nature. Genetically modified fluorescent mosquitoes to be released. Psychobizarre.

The surreal combination of high technology and gothic horror aesthetics suggests a profound lapse in judgment, crossing the threshold of the unnervingly odd into the psychobizarre.

What could possible go wrong-GM mosquitoes? Click below.

Update on the GM Mosquitoes. Click below.

Click below to access the full paper.

Before I discuss the madness of the GM Mosquitoes, I want to introduce a ‘new’ word.

The term “psychobizarre” does not appear to have a widely recognized or established meaning in psychology, psychiatry, or general discourse. It may be a coined term or neologism, possibly meant to describe behavior, thoughts, or experiences that are both psychological and highly unusual or bizarre. However, without additional context, its meaning remains speculative.

After conducting a thorough search, I couldn’t find any widely recognised references or definitions for the term “psychobizarre.” It doesn’t appear in standard psychological literature or dictionaries.

However, I did come across a concept called “Psycho-Bizarreness Theory,” which is an anti-psychiatric theory that views madness as a rational coping mechanism adopted by individuals out of expediency. I am not talking here about the theory, I am creating a new word “Psychobizarre”, that could be symptomatic of a psychiatric condition I may have but I can reassure you I dont (IMHO).

https://www.madinamerica.com/2021/04/psycho-bizarreness-theory/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

During the past 5 years, I have used the terms "bizarre," "bizarrely bizarre," and "psychotically bizarre" to convey increasing levels of oddness, strangeness, or abnormality, often with distinct contexts.

Bizarre is something unusual, strange, or out of the ordinary, but not necessarily indicative of a mental health issue. For example a person wearing a heavy coat on a sunny beach, a house painted entirely in neon colours, person walking a pet pig in a crowded urban mall, a restaurant serving spaghetti with chocolate sauce as a specialty dish or a house designed to resemble a giant teapot. These describe quirky or eccentric behaviours, attire, or events without implying pathology.

Bizarrely bizarre is an amplified or exaggerated form of "bizarre," implying an extreme or particularly striking level of strangeness. For example a wedding ceremony performed underwater with everyone in scuba gear while dressed as pirates, a man dressed in a full tuxedo, running a marathon while balancing a glass of champagne on his head, a clock that ticks backward and chimes in Morse code, located in a public toilet or an art installation consisting entirely of mannequins wearing sunglasses and posed as though arguing with each other, something you may see in a modern art gallery. These are often used humorously or hyperbolically to describe something so unusual that it stands out even among other strange things. It doesn't typically imply mental illness but emphasises how remarkably odd something is.

Finally we come to my new term Psychobizarre (Psychotically Bizarre), psychotic behaviour or thought patterns that are strange to a degree that suggests they stem from a severe mental health disorder, such as a psychosis, but the individual is not clinically psychotic. Represents the most extreme level—an overwhelming, unsettling, or almost incomprehensible oddness, pushing the boundaries of sanity, without reason.

For example, someone insisting they are communicating with aliens through their necktie, a person persistently claiming they are invisible while standing in plain view, or a person at the beach arranging hundreds of crabs into intricate geometric patterns and singing to them as though conducting an orchestra. Used in clinical settings to describe behaviours associated with conditions like schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders. These behaviours are not just unusual but are disconnected from reality and may include delusions, hallucinations, or severely disorganised thought processes. However, there appears to be technological advances that place some people in this category, people using technology as expressions of their madness, only ‘thriving’ in society because of their position, power or money.

The progression of the above reflects a deeper engagement with the unexpected- "Bizarre" is odd but digestible, "Bizarrely bizarre" is complex and layered in its oddness and "Psychobizarre" suggests a surreal, almost unnerving intensity to the strangeness, which brings me to the red-eyed mosquitoes and Mr. Bill Gates.

The project involving genetically modified mosquitoes with a red fluorescent marker, proposed to be released in Queensland, could be aptly described as psychobizarre.

A group of researchers, backed by influential biotech leaders and government officials, embarks on a grandiose plan to genetically engineer mosquitoes to combat diseases like dengue and malaria. These mosquitoes are designed to carry a gene-editing mechanism that renders their offspring sterile, aiming to collapse mosquito populations. To track their deployment, the scientists introduce a feature causing them to glow red in darkness—a nightmarish, dystopian touch.

At face value, the project aims to save lives and appears innovative. But the psychobizarre aspect unfolds when considering the blind enthusiasm of its proponents, the surreal characteristics of the mosquitoes, and the potential consequences ignored by the leaders championing it.

The idea of releasing genetically modified mosquitoes to control populations is already strange—altering nature with tools of synthetic biology. It's bizarre but comprehensible as a modern scientific approach.

When these modified mosquitoes are engineered to glow red, the strangeness escalates-it becomes bizarrely bizarre. This characteristic evokes imagery out of a horror movie: swarms of blood-sucking insects glowing like embers in the night. The unnaturalness of their appearance becomes a layered peculiarity, something you’d expect in a dystopian novel rather than a real-world scientific venture.

The psychobizarre dimension emerges when one considers the behaviour of the project’s champions and the potential for catastrophe. The project is driven by influential biotech leaders, whose unchecked optimism borders on megalomania. They portray themselves as saviours of humanity, dismissing ethical concerns or the possibility of unintended ecological consequences. Their grandiosity and inability to acknowledge the complexity of natural systems hint at a disconnection from reality. In some cases, a complete ignorance of biological systems and their natural management.

Young scientists working on the project, mesmerised by cutting-edge genetic tools, fail to grasp the broader implications. They act without malevolence but with a naïve confidence in technology’s infallibility, oblivious to the Frankenstein-like potential of their leaders. What happens when these glowing mosquitoes disrupt food chains or unintentionally transfer genes to other species? Mosquito populations may adapt, rendering the intervention useless—or worse, making them more dangerous. And in the wrong hands, glowing-eyed mosquitoes could be manipulated into vectors for biological warfare, who knows. Furthermore, entire communities might suffer from the trauma of encountering swarms of glowing insects, their presence a persistent reminder of human hubris.

The glowing mosquitoes, meant as a tracking mechanism, becomes symbolic of a god complex among the project’s leaders—a psychotic belief that humanity can master nature without consequence.

And as Craig has stated, there are other ways of controlling mosquitoes, including infecting them with their own deadly bacteria. The World Mosquito Program demonstrated a 76% reduction in dengue cases in Queensland using Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes. Wolbachia does not affect humans.

And remember Dengue is a virus and patients can be very effectively treated with high dose intravenous vitamin C.

The surreal combination of high technology and gothic horror aesthetics suggests a profound lapse in judgment, crossing the threshold of the unnervingly odd into the psychobizarre. While the project’s goals might be noble, its execution and implications are so deeply unsettling, disconnected, and fraught with potential danger that it exemplifies the psychobizarre. It represents a surreal, almost hallucinatory intersection of science, hubris, and unintended consequences, where those driving the project are blind to the absurdity of their actions, yet wield the power to irrevocably alter ecosystems—and human lives.

Ian Brighthope