Well, it hasn't played out yet, so it seems we're yet to see what percentage of us die to the engineered virus.
It seems to me that there are plenty of instances in nature wherein once something passes a certain threshold then it's all downhill. Not unlike the process that happens to each and every living organism, with the possible exception of some immortals, I suppose.
Will this lab engineered virus be the enough to tip the ecosystem we inhabit into a new state? Maybe. It's a new introduction to the system after all, so nobody really knows what it's going to do to a certainty. But whatever happens it obviously won't all end for all things - the process will go on.
And, of course, there's a lot of space in between the extremes for living as well, until the balance tips us into a new state, as it must do eventually for each and every one of us and the ecosystem that each of us contains.
The bodies aren't stacking up yet though.
I imagine we'll eventually adapt and learn to live with it in time in any case. The bats did. There might be a lot of suffering between now and then though.
Taking a cold-blooded helicopter view of things, perhaps a big change could even be for the best in the long run? It's not as if the current arrangements don't appear to be on a fairly linear course to nowhere. Perhaps this event actually represents a negative feedback, such as you describe, that just sort of happen as if on que to prevent us from reaching an even worse, and possibly extinction level end point?
Just trying to be positive you know. And look, there are worse things than surviving the collapse of civilization. Humans lived for ages without all of this highbrow technology. Think of Hercules. Now there's someone to emulate. Nothing but his own godly intrinsic powers, a club and a lion skin, and he's off on adventures, smiting this and that, having sex with people all over the place, gods here and there, generally having a whale of a time.
Sex, death and the gods. . . turns out the best in things in life are free after all :P
no subject
It seems to me that there are plenty of instances in nature wherein once something passes a certain threshold then it's all downhill. Not unlike the process that happens to each and every living organism, with the possible exception of some immortals, I suppose.
Will this lab engineered virus be the enough to tip the ecosystem we inhabit into a new state? Maybe. It's a new introduction to the system after all, so nobody really knows what it's going to do to a certainty. But whatever happens it obviously won't all end for all things - the process will go on.
And, of course, there's a lot of space in between the extremes for living as well, until the balance tips us into a new state, as it must do eventually for each and every one of us and the ecosystem that each of us contains.
The bodies aren't stacking up yet though.
I imagine we'll eventually adapt and learn to live with it in time in any case. The bats did. There might be a lot of suffering between now and then though.
Taking a cold-blooded helicopter view of things, perhaps a big change could even be for the best in the long run? It's not as if the current arrangements don't appear to be on a fairly linear course to nowhere. Perhaps this event actually represents a negative feedback, such as you describe, that just sort of happen as if on que to prevent us from reaching an even worse, and possibly extinction level end point?
Just trying to be positive you know. And look, there are worse things than surviving the collapse of civilization. Humans lived for ages without all of this highbrow technology. Think of Hercules. Now there's someone to emulate. Nothing but his own godly intrinsic powers, a club and a lion skin, and he's off on adventures, smiting this and that, having sex with people all over the place, gods here and there, generally having a whale of a time.
Sex, death and the gods. . . turns out the best in things in life are free after all :P
The Ninth Mouse