Rindon Johnson’s Symbiosis Hypnosis is a video game grounded in the evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis’ (1938-2011) symbiosis theories. Margulis provided valuable theories about the evolution of life and the origin of modern cells challenging central tenets of neo-Darwinism. She argued that inherited variation, significant in evolution, does not come mainly from random mutations, rather, new tissues, organs, and even new species evolve primarily through the long-lasting intimacy of strangers. She suggests that the fusion of genomes in symbioses followed by natural selection leads to increasingly complex levels of individuality.

Players start the game as a unicellular organism centrally floating in a wide monochromatic universe, their goal is to integrate other passing organisms into their structure. Accompanied by a crescendo soundtrack–Chopin Etudes Op 25: No.4 in A Minor–and a countdown, players fight against time and constantly changing conditions as well as the multiplicity of rotating forms that appear and disappear from their visual plane. Upon reaching a certain level of attraction, the forms accumulate to then disjoin themselves to return to a condition of organic solitude. Taking the perspective of a unicellular organism players increasingly aim at a symbiotic relationship with both the surrounding environment and the entities they assimilate.