17 thoughts on “A Virus”

  1. “Could be”
    I’m willing to bet it already has, and wouldn’t be surprised if there was some link back to some top Secret weapons research programs

  2. Not to worry. Script kitties will be releasing weaponized DNA not too many years from now. When I say script kitties I mean people with just enough knowledge to be dangerous but not enough to actually know what they’re doing.

    The tools exist and are easy to use. The problem is it’s code manipulation which will range from random scrambling to direct malicious intent and all the kiddies in between.. Most will have no idea of the impact of what they’re doing, but it will have impact regardless. We already know how to completely wipe out any species we choose, not to 99.9% but to 100%.

    Even those that know what they’re doing could make serious mistakes. Anything fast breading could be eliminated before we could react.

    If this doesn’t scare the hell out of you… nothing will. Some say not to worry because they know what they’re doing. Don’t believe them. Code is powerful stuff.

      1. More than that. We need to archive the code (not the life itself because the tools available now make that unnecessary) of every living thing.

        Then instead of transporting animals to new colony planets we simply transmit the digital codes and let the colonists build any plant or animal they like including some that have never existed.

        1. This, BTW, answers the biblical question, “Do we have souls?” The bible, unlike what many religions teach, says we do not. It says we ARE souls. The souls of both man and animals can be cut with a sword.

  4. The article didn’t make it clear whether or not these “viruses” actually self replicate, as I read it all they do is kill bacterial cells by attacking the membranes.

    1. I thought no self replication was part of the definition of a virus which always requires a host? Otherwise they’d be bacteria.

      1. OK, but that doesn’t change my point which is that, by my interpretation of the article, these synthetic viruses don’t use the bacterial cells to replicate themselves.

        1. Either they replicate or they die out. If they don’t replicate, they’d have to constantly be introduced until they finished their job. Not sure that’s at all viable (quantities being too extreme.) They would then die out if not transferred to a new host.

          1. the abstract of the paper:
            The spread of bacterial resistance to antibiotics poses the need for antimicrobial discovery. With traditional search paradigms being exhausted, approaches that are altogether different from antibiotics may offer promising and creative solutions. Here, we introduce a de novo peptide topology that—by emulating the virus architecture—assembles into discrete antimicrobial capsids. Using the combination of high-resolution and real-time imaging, we demonstrate that these artificial capsids assemble as 20-nm hollow shells that attack bacterial membranes and upon landing on phospholipid bilayers instantaneously (seconds) convert into rapidly expanding pores causing membrane lysis (minutes). The designed capsids show broad antimicrobial activities, thus executing one primary function—they destroy bacteria on contact.
            ……………
            Capsid – Wikipedia
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsid
            A capsid is the protein shell of a virus. It consists of several oligomeric structural subunits made of protein called protomers. The observable 3-dimensional morphological subunits, which may or may not correspond to individual proteins, are called capsomeres. The capsid encloses the genetic material of the virus.            .

            The shell, the whole shell and nothing but the shell . . .

          2. these synthetic viruses don’t use the bacterial cells to replicate themselves.

            Ok. It just seems like you had some bigger unstated point. If not, pardon me.

            This actually seems like a very prudent use of this technology.

  6. Don’t worry, PETA will soon come out against bacterial genocide. That’s what this is, after all. Viral privilege, viral supremacy.

    1. Then at the right moment we inform PETA they are guilty of mass murder for every moment of their lives!!!

      But, then they never follow through when it’s about their own lives. I like how D’Sousa always asks students when will they withdraw from school to show they’re serious about white privilege.

  7. Thinking about this it occurred to me that it might be possible to use naturally occurring viruses that use bacteria as hosts as medical antibiotics, I found this and perhaps we could be heading that way.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage

    . . The technology for phages to be applied to dry surfaces, e.g., uniforms, curtains, or even sutures for surgery now exists. Clinical trials reported in Clinical Otolaryngology[43] show success in veterinary treatment of pet dogs with otitis. . .

    1. You wouldn’t want to call them anti-biotics for a number of reasons the primary being using a virus is specifically used to avoid the downsides of anti-biotics.

      The problem with using natural viruses (a general problem common to many lazy programmers) is it introduces variables you should never introduce. Programmers, even if well taught, commonly have the problem of not properly encapsulating their code. In worst cases, borrowing code may introduce gigabytes when only a handful of bytes are required.

      I used to produce a lot of code, but spent much of my time removing more code than I should ever have, had to. If not carefully guarded against the natural limitation of all humans leads to a dangerous mess that has to be revisited multiple times when it should never have to be visited at all.

      In the case of virus code we’re talking about something that is massively parallel. No human mind could keep track of it all. DNA is often explained like a zipper but functionally it’s a soup.

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