
Some insist that viruses are not alive. But then, what about this?
In a recent study published in Nature Microbiology, Rafael Sanjuán, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Valencia in Spain, and his colleagues used a combination of theory and experiments to explore viral cooperation and conflict. They found that the spatial structure of a viral infection — the way that different sets of viruses can be isolated in separate compartments of the infected body — matters tremendously. In an evenly mixed system, altruistic viruses fall victim to “cheaters” that take advantage of their sacrifices, but if pockets in the body can isolate and shelter the altruists, they have a shot at survival.Viviane Callier, “Viruses Have a Secret, Altruistic Social Life” at Quanta
A long discussion ensues, re Darwinian competition between altruists and cheaters.
But for now, how can viruses have altruism if they are not alive? Let’s assume that this is not an argument for panpsychism (You are conscious, sure, but so is your coffee mug.) It seems to be an argument that viruses behave as life forms do. But somehow the issue never gets settled.
Before you go: One way viruses get spread “never should have evolved”
Reset! Different segs of virus genome can exist in different cells but work together
Viruses devolve. (PaV)
Virus expert highlights the conflict over whether viruses are alive In short, it is an open question. The question relates to the role viruses can play in evolution, among other things. Are they precursors of life, detritus of life, or something in between? Or all three? Keep the file open.
Viruses invent their own genes? Then what is left of Darwinism?
Why viruses are not considered to be alive
Another stab at whether viruses are alive
Phil Sci journal: Special section on understanding viruses
Should NASA look for viruses in space? Actually, it’s not clear that RNA came first. Nor is it clear that viruses precede life. A good case can doubtless be made for viruses being part of the scrap heap of existing life. But no matter. If you think you can find viruses in space, boldly go.
Why “evolution” is changing? Consider viruses
The Scientist asks, Should giant viruses be the fourth domain of life? Eukaryotes, prokaryotes, archaea… and viruses?
and
Are viruses nature’s perfect machine? Or alive?
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News,
Unrelated, but the fire beetle is now believed to be able to sense heat at levels barely above thermal noise:
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/artful-amoeba/how-a-half-inch-beetle-finds-fires-80-miles-away/
How did it get those fancy senses? Ain’t evolution amazin’? 😎
I think life has been greatly underestimated.
And I guess evolutionary biologist can stop saying Altruism evolved from some Ape of some kind, Because guess what viruses definitely get the claim that they were before any primate species
AaronS1978, do biologists really say that altruism evolved from some ape? If I remember correctly, it has been demonstrated in all sorts of animals.
Brother Brian – I don’t know that any biologist has argued that. The classic story about altruism is in ants.
Morally noble altruistic behavior of any type is simply completely antithetical to Darwin’s ‘survival of the fittest’ theory.
If evolution by natural selection were actually the truth about how all life came to be on Earth then the only life that should be around should be extremely small organisms with the highest replication rate, and with the most ‘mutational firepower’, since only they, (since they greatly outclass multi-cellular organism in terms of ‘reproductive success’ and ‘mutational firepower’), would be fittest to survive in the dog eat dog world where blind pitiless evolution ruled and only the fittest are allowed to survive. The logic of this is nicely summed up here in this following Richard Dawkins’ video:
In other words, since successful reproduction is all that really matters on a neo-Darwinian view of things, how can anything but successful, and highly efficient reproduction, be realistically ‘selected’ for? Darwin himself stated, “every single organic being around us may be said to be striving to the utmost to increase in numbers;”
The logic of natural selection is nicely and simply illustrated on the following graph:
As you can see, any other function besides successful reproduction, such as much slower sexual reproduction, sight, hearing, abstract thinking, and especially self sacrificial altruistic behavior of any sort, would be highly superfluous to the primary criteria of successful reproduction, and should, on a Darwinian view, be discarded, and/or ‘eaten’, by bacteria, as so much excess baggage since it obviously would slow down successful reproduction.
Yet, contrary to this central ‘survival of the fittest’ assumption of Darwinian evolution, instead of eating us, time after time we find micro-organisms helping each other, and us, in ways that have nothing to with their own ‘survival of the fittest’’ concerns.
The following researchers said they were ‘banging our heads against the wall’ by the contradictory findings to Darwinian ‘survival of the fittest’ thinking that they had found. And even stated, “,,, Maybe Darwin’s presumption that the world may be dominated by competition is wrong.”
And again, directly contrary to the central ‘survival of the fittest’ assumption of Darwinian evolution, we find that bacteria are also directly helping us in essential ways that have nothing to do with their own survival of the fittest concerns:
In fact, Darwin himself offered this following ‘anti-altruism’ standard as a falsification criteria for his theory, “Natural selection cannot possibly produce any modification in any one species exclusively for the good of another species”… and even stated that “If it could be proved that any part of the structure of any one species had been formed for the exclusive good of another species, it would annihilate my theory, for such could not have been produced through natural selection.”
And yet, directly contrary to Darwin’s claim that “Natural selection cannot possibly produce any modification in any one species exclusively for the good of another species”, it is now known that “Microbial life can easily live without us; we, however, cannot survive without the global catalysis and environmental transformations it provides.”
As well, in the following article Dr. Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig reveals that “in thousands of plant species often entirely new organs have been formed for the exclusive good of more than 132,930 other species.”
Moreover, to dive a little bit deeper, the falsification of this ‘survival of the fittest’, i.e. ‘selfish’, thinking occurs at the molecular level too.
Dawkins’ ‘selfish gene’ concept is more of less directly based on Darwin’s own ‘survival of the fittest’ thinking about competition. Yet genes are now found to be anything but selfish. Instead of being ‘selfish’, genes are now found to be existing in a holistic web of mutual interdependence and cooperation (the antithesis of selfishness).
Such ‘holistic cooperation’ is, needless to say, the exact polar opposite of being ‘selfish’ as Dawkins had envisioned. (And should, if Darwinism were a normal science instead of being basically a religion for atheists, count as a direct falsification of the theory).
In fact on top of genes being in a holistic web of mutual cooperation, the genetic responses of humans are designed in a very sophisticated way so as to differentiate between hedonic (selfish) and ‘noble’ (altruistic) moral happiness:
Moreover, to claim that one cell transforming into the tens of trillions cells, (of extremely cooperative, even altruistic, cells that make up our ONE human body), is anything less than a ‘altruistic’ miracle is either sheer arrogance or profound ignorance (perhaps both).
Thus in conclusion, the claim that Darwinian evolution can produce altruistic morality of any sort, besides being directly contrary to the core ‘survival of the fittest; assumption within Darwin’s theory, is directly contradicted by the empirical evidence at every turn.
One final note, Objective Morality of any sort can only be realistically grounded within Theism,
,,, and I would further argue that the ‘noblest morality’ of all, to be found within any particular Theistic worldview, is clearly to be found within Christian Theism alone:
Of supplemental note. Here is a moral nuance that reflects altruistic behavior within Christians that I found particularly interesting to read about. In short, “Is God worth the sacrifice of you giving up your sins?”
Verse and biblical background:
So you know I wasn’t including all biologist just the ones that make the claim that are altruism evolved in apes or it stems from apes. the evo psych corner (not biologists, some are) are the ones that most often make the claim, But on the same token not all biologist believe that altruism evolved biologically either
I was being sarcastic though, and so you know my sarcasm does have a hint of truth it is often attributed to Bonobo apes where we get our kindness, sharing and motherly feelings from. Also that we can learn from these apes because they evolved to do it.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/abs/10.1098/rspb.2018.1536
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5754315/Midwife-apes-seen-helping-bonobos-birth-changing-idea-assistance-unique-humans.html
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171107122904.htm
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/06/140610-bonobos-great-apes-animals-science-evolution/
Again I was being sarcastic in my original post but there are people a lot of biologist to do a tribute many of our behaviors to our apes cousins, Almost anytime we find a parallel between what we do and what they do, and it’s never that we came up with it first it’s always that everything else did it before we did. Or at least that’s how it comes across to me