Michael Stevens

And that this proved the notion of pre-formation.

Absolutely.

That when life began...

Every individual that ever would be already existed.

And that like my children are in my sperm as little tiny things.

And inside them, the boys have some sperm.

They're Russian dolls, my friend.

It's Russian dolls all the way down.

Yeah, and it gets bigger and the woman's egg provides some kind of, maybe it's a life force, maybe it's just whatever.

It turns out that's not true.

No.

But on the way over here... I think the woman's got a bit more to do with it than that.

They maybe have a little bit more to do with it.

But on the way over here before the show, I finished...

Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others.

And he's got a short story in here.

This is all sci-fi where he imagines a world where pre-formation is true.

And the story is set in Victorian times where some scientists have found a way to – I won't give too much away.

They found a way to look closer and closer at all these like nested homunculi, little people that are inside the sperm.

And they realized that after the next five generations, it doesn't keep going.