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I am reading these negative neural impacts ranging from bad to worse, and I cannot help but think, how come there is not something in nature, a virus or bacteri
by NiceWayToDoIT 6y ago
I am reading these negative neural impacts ranging from bad to worse, and I cannot help but think, how come there is not something in nature, a virus or bacteria, on the whole planet that can do something good?
I do not know help boosting confidence, making people happier, increasing cognitive abilities, maybe improving your sense of smell or direction, gain muscle... at least something, instead it is always a very long list of destruction.
Sorry guys, I am trying to offset, reading this paper made me depressive.
EDIT:
After reading all the answers, I remember a quote, probably answer to my question. It is not possible because we are very complex organism, and regardless how some virus or tiny bug can find flaws in our complexity, in the same way as randomly injected piece of code cannot improve application, the same way, is an equal chance that a virus will introduce positive change in our genome which will improve parameters we desire.
Quote was Hoyle's Fallacy used for something completely different: "the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junkyard might assemble a Boeing 747"
So it seems we need to wait for few million years or to really on marvel of genetically engineering.
p.s. Thank you guys!
- bitdizzy 6y agoYeast and Lactobacillus are the best friends you never knew you had.
- troughway 6y agoThe intent behind most of this is to drive a constant sense of fear and worry without any rational cooldown, so expect to be depressed among other things. Until HN wakes up from fearmongering and "doomscrolling", the beatings will continue.
- DenisM 6y agoOk, but who and why is spreading the doom and gloom? I just don't see the profit motive.
- throwaway29102 6y agoDo you have any sources to back up this claim or are you just issuing edicts?
- NiceWayToDoIT 6y agoIt is scientific paper, not a daily news, my outcry was more as frustration with the universe than fear from pandemic or economic impact.
- magicnubs 6y agoThere are tons of bacteria that are either neutral, good for you, or that you even *need". You just only hear about the ones that are bad for us, because they are comparitively rare.
- NiceWayToDoIT 6y agoI know about good bacteria in fact 10 times as many microbial cells in the human body than human cells. We are more symbiotic organism than anything else. Someone said that "No one noticing when you are healthy because you are healthy", I was referring more to enhancing nominal abilities, something that will positively change our body, maybe make it stronger, more resistivity, maybe act with our T cells to clean bad bacteria in gut that may cause depression ... Instead process is always painfully slow, evolution over millions of years, just to get one positive trait.
- aqme28 6y agoToxoplasmosis does a whole host of negative things, but a few that could be considered positive, e.g. "Toxoplasma-infected male students are about 3 cm taller than Toxoplasma-free subjects and their faces are rated by women as more masculine and dominant." (https://jeb.biologists.org/content/216/1/127 https://jeb.biologists.org/content/216/1/127)
- delecti 6y agoThere are a few examples of adaptive addons that we've integrated to the point that we almost don't think of them as separate anymore. Going back really far, mitochondria are eukaryotic organisms that are now just part of our cells. Gut bacteria are likewise pretty vital, especially in ruminant species. It's just comparatively rare because it's easier to benefit off of an environment non-sustainably (at least in the short term).
- LargoLasskhyfv 6y agoThere are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage which are used in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phage_therapy
- NiceWayToDoIT 6y agoIn addition to my comment to @magicnubs this is nice but again it is like form of probiotics, it makes your body function in nominal state. Is there anything that will enhance abilities permanently? For instance *(I know it is bad example) Caffeine will temporary enhance your state of alertness... etc...
- LargoLasskhyfv 6y agoArguably https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin ?
- NiceWayToDoIT 6y agoNow we just need to package it into virus and make it contagious, then mob will go after us for ruining their business :D
- LargoLasskhyfv 6y agoI just remembered something, another arguable thing. There is some tick, or insect whose bite/sting makes you allergic to eating meat. Forcefully vegetarian, so to speak. edit: [1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alpha-gal-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20428608 https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/alpha-gal-syn...
- JoshuaDavid 6y agoThe basic answer is that humans are an evolved system, and any simple unambiguously helpful change in the context of the environment of early humans spread fairly quickly throughout the entire population. If there was an infectious disease that improved sense of smell through any simple mechanism, it's almost certain that either some human somewhere had a mutation that did the same thing, or that "infectious disease" will become a symbiote (see gut bacteria for example). So the basic answer is "you don't see them because you'd only notice them in the time between first being seen and being present in everyone in the population, which is a very short time compared to the time before they first occurred and the time after they reach 100% of the population".
- seesawtron 6y ago>> that can do something good? I do not know help boosting confidence, making people happier.. Plants are doing good for the planet and for the living beings all the time (mostly). They provide you oxygen, cooler temperature and food which definitely makes me a happy person. And yet we value consumer products, building commercial centers, roads (for cars), infrastructure for industries over preserving forests.
- NiceWayToDoIT 6y agoAll true, I have not tried to diminish that in any way. Being healthy is one of the most important things for happy life. I was wandering is there something that make you more than you are, positive DNA change, constructive instead of destructive. Some naturally "engineered" CAS-9/CRISPER that will make our nominal values better, more adaptive to environment...
- seesawtron 6y agoNot biological but technological innovation and medicine has enabled us to increase our survival rate in adverse conditions.
- eximius 6y agoThere are. Gut flora, whatever proto-germ gave us mitochondria, etc. Most won't be and new ones are unlikely to be very transmissible (because transmissibility would imply features that would immediately make it negative) not would it be very noticeable (hey doc, my joints feel better than they did yesterday).