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[Naturegirl1999]

I dunno, viruses are malicious genetic information that alters the behavior of your cells, I'd be more surprised if there wasn't any viral behavior-alteration, especially considering how much of the human genome is ancient retroviral DNA.  And that's not even getting into the weird zone of memeshit where you can model the behavior of unintelligent systems and concepts as if they were agents and have it be predictive.

oh yes, I wasn’t thinking of retroviruses at the time of the posting

[TamerVirus]

All of the stock market gains made during the Trump presidency has officially evaporated, like dust in the wind.
Easy come
Easy go

[Naturegirl1999]

Anyway the wind blows

[Bralbaard]

I dunno, viruses are malicious genetic information that alters the behavior of your cells, I'd be more surprised if there wasn't any viral behavior-alteration, especially considering how much of the human genome is ancient retroviral DNA.  And that's not even getting into the weird zone of memeshit where you can model the behavior of unintelligent systems and concepts as if they were agents and have it be predictive.

Oh yes, diseases can definitely do mind-control. Think of rabies; which makes it victims aggressive and likely to bite others so it can spread to new hosts. There are also examples like this creepy parasite that infests snails, and makes them climb to the highest branches (very unnatural for a snail) and lets them do a disco display, so that birds spot the snails and eat them. All of this to make the parasite complete its life cycle for which the bird is needed:
https://www.wired.com/2014/09/absurd-creature-of-the-week-disco-worm/

Found one of those a couple of years back. Really weird and creepy.

[scriver]

Sigh.

Rabies do not make people or animals aggressive. It's just really fucking painful. If you approach an animal in pain, they will defend themselves out of fright and pain. There's no "mind control" involved. Unless you also want to make the argument that, say, cut wounds can "mind control" animals into attacking people so the wounds "can spread".

All of the stock market gains made during the Trump presidency has officially evaporated, like dust in the wind.
Easy come
Easy go

Anyway the wind blows

I see a little silluetto of a hand

[Dostoevsky]

There are several parasites that mess with brain function (perhaps most famously these days Cordyceps), but I don't believe I know of any virus-type thing that does so. That said I don't think such a thing would be hypothetically impossible.

[Rolan7]

I heard there's a virus that inflames mucous membranes, causing humans to spread infested droplets of it everywhere they go.

(Seriously though, what is up with mucous membranes?  That and neck swelling closed from allergy.  Why does the body think clogging up airways is a good defense plan)

[scriver]

Because airways in the ways diseases enter the body (diseases, as we all know, being vafts of bad air). Closing the airways means less diseases can enter the body.

It's very logical.

[Naturegirl1999]

All of the stock market gains made during the Trump presidency has officially evaporated, like dust in the wind.
Easy come
Easy go

Anyway the wind blows

I see a little silluetto of a hand

Scaramoosh scaramoosh will you do the Fandango

There are several parasites that mess with brain function (perhaps most famously these days Cordyceps), but I don't believe I know of any virus-type thing that does so. That said I don't think such a thing would be hypothetically impossible.

i find it interesting that other creatures can take control of a new body, I am curious as to how something like this even starts to occur

[Dostoevsky]

i find it interesting that other creatures can take control of a new body, I am curious as to how something like this even starts to occur

Again adding the caveat that I'm not a scientist by profession, I think this book gets at the concept? Basically that process of evolutionary selection can be thought of as applying to not just the internal organism, but also to how it affects the world around it. In the case of parasites, evolution over time leading to manipulating another species' body. One of those things that seems really unlikely, until one gets a sense of just how much natural selection has occurred over millions of years at a global scale. That's a big N value.

[Iduno]

That shit is going straight to my bank account. Or maybe I'll splurge on one of these gutted stocks. Luckily I work in tech so my hours have not been affected by the Corona Virus yet.

Shorting stocks is probably the safer bet right now.

Again adding the caveat that I'm not a scientist by profession, I think this book gets at the concept? Basically that process of evolutionary selection can be thought of as applying to not just the internal organism, but also to how it affects the world around it. In the case of parasites, evolution over time leading to manipulating another species' body. One of those things that seems really unlikely, until one gets a sense of just how much natural selection has occurred over millions of years at a global scale. That's a big N value.

Evolution is just random changes that don't get the originator killed off before they pass the genes on. In general, that means the bad changes don't stick around, and the good ones do. So that thing you said sounds possible.

Same reason MRSA is a problem. It doesn't take bacteria that long to breed a population that is immune to a particular antibiotic, because their generations are measured in hours (or as little as 20 minutes).

[Dostoevsky]

Shorting stocks is probably the safer bet right now.

I have been unhealthily reading the 'WallStreetBets' subreddit for a week or two, which is all about people doing wall street gambling. These days it's all about crazy shorts, gaining or losing giant sums of cash as the massive volatility continues. (Surely what the stock market was designed for!)

Evolution is just random changes that don't get the originator killed off before they pass the genes on. In general, that means the bad changes don't stick around, and the good ones do. So that thing you said sounds possible.

Same reason MRSA is a problem. It doesn't take bacteria that long to breed a population that is immune to a particular antibiotic, because their generations are measured in hours (or as little as 20 minutes).

Yep, didn't mean to sound doubtful. If you think about it, the inside of another organism is just another ecosystem - surviving in a savanna v. surviving in a species of ant. They're both quite complex.

Back in AmeriPol news, Senate has passed Corona bill #2 - the paid leave one that's pretty roughly watered-down over its original form. Bill #3, which is the giant bailout and/or checks for everyone, could see text public later this week. Things are moving fast.

I'm betting we see 4 or 5, maybe 6, large-dollar-figure relief bills total over the course of 2020 and early 2021.

[Bralbaard]

There are several parasites that mess with brain function (perhaps most famously these days Cordyceps), but I don't believe I know of any virus-type thing that does so. That said I don't think such a thing would be hypothetically impossible.

Some insect viruses do stuff like that, they basically cause their host to die at places where they are best able to spread the virus particles to new host.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29144213

But back on topic.. I'm only observing American elections from a distance, but personally I would find it terribly depressing if I had only two parties to (reasonably) choose from on election day. It amazes me that there is never any reasonable attempt to break the stalemate. What would it take for people to create a viable alternative to this mess?

[Naturegirl1999]

I wonder if it would be possible for plants to grow in animals, similar to the Mystville ones

[WealthyRadish]

But back on topic.. I'm only observing American elections from a distance, but personally I would find it terribly depressing if I had only two parties to (reasonably) choose from on election day. It amazes me that there is never any reasonable attempt to break the stalemate. What would it take for people to create a viable alternative to this mess?

Surprisingly easy, as congress has control over almost all aspects of the election process. The first-past-the-post single-member-districting which is the main driving force behind the two party system could be ended with a normal piece of legislation declaring each state to be a multi-member district with ranked choice or party-list voting, but this would require a concerted effort by one party to give up their unshakable monopoly on half the country's votes (or rather, half the ~1/5 of the population placed in a swing district or state).

The american constitution is already not very well-suited to this whole democracy business thanks to the senate and presidency (which would be at their worst in a multi-party system), but those would need to be removed by amendment which is even more unimaginable than even an act of congress in this direction.