3 ms·

Viruses?

• scotty79 13y ago
  Did you see recently any virus that is able to propel itself through interstellar space or replicate there? Viruses are just tiny chemical programs that hijack replication system existing in their environment. But there has to be some replication system to hijack.
  • zeckalpha 13y ago
    Viruses could travel via asteroids.
    • scotty79 13y ago
      Travel, but not replicate. The only idea I can come up with to fit viruses into exponentially self-replicating alien probe goes like this: Life is abundant in universe, chemistry everywhere leads to DNA, and life mostly comes out of DNA. Smart aliens designed viruses to travel by asteroids. Those asteroids at some points meet planets with life. Viruses hijack this life to replicate themselves and change the life to develop intelligence. Intelligence that will eventually develop and use technology powerful enough to blow up whole planet. That event will release cloud of asteroids containing viruses that will infect other life bearing planets. I don't like this idea. It's slow and has many assumptions that I don't believe are true.
• gizmo686 13y ago
  Viruses don't self replicate. They inject their DNA/RNA into a host cell at let it clone them.