3 ms·
Calling out bacteria as parasites is pretty silly. One might as well call out the appendix (which is composed entirely of human cells) as parasitic. Bacteria ar
by lukeschlather 15y ago
Calling out bacteria as parasites is pretty silly. One might as well call out the appendix (which is composed entirely of human cells) as parasitic. Bacteria are much more like shared libraries. Libraries can of course have malicious code embedded in them, and human systems are prepared for that inevitability, but that doesn't mean the wholesale removal of shared libraries is very desirable.
- ars 15y agoFunny that you mention the appendix in a post about bacteria - because that is the function of the appendix: To tend to and maintain bacteria during times of intestinal illness.
- bermanoid 15y agoHell, we might as well call our mitochondria "parasites", if we're going all the way - those things have their own DNA, which evolves in tandem but separately from our own, in a rather different way from "normal" DNA.