Maybe this is just a silly thought, but I’ve always doubted that viruses naturally come and have developed on our planet. Ever since I was little, and have seen pictures of viruses, I never really believed those were actually natural disease-causing agents. They look like robots! I don’t mean to seem crazy or anything but honestly, no organism created on this Earth, by the Earth, is geometrically perfect. Even the viruses, such as HIV, that don’t contain the standard robotic look, are composed of geometrically regular shapes. Other than their appearance, its still being debated as to whether these microorganism are actually alive. Viruses cannot “live” or replicate until they are in their host’s (specific) cells. Bacteria can infect a person anywhere, yet viruses target certain cells.
I’m just wondering if anyone else might think that viruses aren’t natives to Earth. I’m not saying they were developed by extraterrestrials, but maybe just migrated came from a different planet. I just want to know how anyone feels about this.
I have no doubt that most viruses are unnatural, but I see no reasoning to accept that they are not from Earth. During the 1950’s the US military heavily invested into means for proliferating and creating new viruses such as the cancer virus. The primary means to create a new virus (of which there are 100s of thousands now) has been via radiation and thus mutation of a prior virus. Thus there are a great many more now than ever throughout the history of the Earth.
But diseases have been a means of warfare and population control since at least the Moses era and ever since. Even before anyone new exactly what a virus was, it could still be maintained and distributed at will. Today they can be designed/mutated to target some very specific cells of the body so as to bring the desired results allowing subtle control over intelligence, age, race, gender, appetite,… just about every human concern. It’s shell provides a “backdoor” to the DNA of mothers and infants.
The structure shouldn’t be a big surprise due to the extremely small size. Once you get down to the size of just a few molecules wide, crystal structures are pretty natural. Large germs can’t maintain a crystal structure. The partial DNA within is a typical long chain poly-genome, not all that much different than other life.
Usually by the term, “alien”, the rumor spreaders and films are referring to “alien to what you think Earthly life is”, not really referring to “outer space alien”.
A termite cannot exist without the symbiosis of housing an organism that can change wood into sugar.
IMHO, viruses are organisms that are caused by our war against nature,i.e. our devestation of the natural habitats of normal bacteria.
Did I anywhere say, Captain, that human interventions into natural processes is the sole cause of viruses? That viruses may be caused by human tamperings with the environment does not imply that only humans cause viruses. Other causes could be natural catastrophies, meteor bombardment of the planet, etc. Certain viruses such as HIV can be traced to devastation of jungle forests.
Geometrically perfect (or close) objects are common in nature as they’re often evolutionarily advantageous or (‘simple’ in the case of non-living examples). See: internal structure of bee hives, eggs, red blood cells. Water droplets and bubbles tend towards geometric perfection, however have too many forces operating on them / are too impermanent for it to really hold. Fundamentally, geometric regularity is simple; nature is rule-governed and basic shapes are efficient. Eggs are highly efficient at transferring / deflecting force and the hexagonal internal structure of hives is the most efficient way to generate the most storage space for the least amount of wax.
I think there’s an inherent flaw in the logic of supposing that a ‘thing’ which is fundamentally parasitic / requires a host could have developed elsewhere then migrated, rather than supposing it evolved with / was developed with certain cells in mind. It is not damning, not by any means, but it does not seem to be the best fit to the evidence and I would have to be confronted with significant evidence to support it.
This. the shape of object X is a result of the forces upon it. At the smaller scales the interactions of various forces are more regular and so the shapes produced are more regular.
Whilst I’m here, just gonna point out that cancer isn’t a virus. It may be caused by certain viruses, but is not in itself a virus.
I’ve seen testimony that Obama is a space lizard, that the moon is made of cheese and that smoking is good for you. Testimony proves nothing.
Any physical shape can be manifested, if it suits the needs of the physical environment. This is what evolutionary theory is.
Maybe billions of years ago, some viruses evolved from bacteria that did target specific cells. Even if they have an extraterrestrial origin, it would be difficult to prove.
