3 ms·
If this is real and a cure can be developed, think about the huge free boost it gives to humanity in total since it might affect such a large amount of people.
by Gravityloss 12y ago
If this is real and a cure can be developed, think about the huge free boost it gives to humanity in total since it might affect such a large amount of people. On the other hand, I'm skeptical. With such drastic effects, wouldn't the evolutionary pressure for the immune system to deal with it have been tremendous?
- GFK_of_xmaspast 12y agoYou could have said the same thing about hookworm, and yet: material reality.
- TeMPOraL 12y agoSince it apparently doesn't affect sexual performance much, would it? Also it might be the case that the infection vector is something relatively new to us, something not present in the ancestral environment, like the tap water idea of ChuckMcM - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8608780 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8608780.
- AnimalMuppet 12y agoIf it lowers intelligence and/or increases response time, it could affect survival. It's not enough to be able to reproduce, you have to live long enough to do it. So, yes, it would be subject to selection pressure.
- pm90 12y agoSubject to pressure yes, annhilated by it, no. Does natural selection really affect human population anymore? Genuinely curious, because what I see is that the the people with tons of kids aren't usually the most intelligent one (anecdotal evidence, of course)
- jobu 12y agoThis virus may also give us more clues at which parts of our DNA affect intelligence - something that has difficult to pin down: http://www.nature.com/news/smart-genes-prove-elusive-1.15858 http://www.nature.com/news/smart-genes-prove-elusive-1.15858