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from the editors-are-superorganisms dept.
Besides your genes from parents, you are a mosaic of viruses, bacteria – and potentially, other humans. Indeed, if you are a twin, you are particularly likely to be carrying bits of your sibling within your body and brain. Stranger still, they may be influencing how you act.
"Humans are not unitary individuals but superorganisms," says Peter Kramer at the University of Padua. "A very large number of different human and non-human individuals are all incessantly struggling inside us for control." Together with Paola Bressan, he recently wrote a paper in the journal Perspectives in Psychological Science, calling for psychologists and psychiatrists to appreciate the ways this may influence our behaviour.
That may sound alarming, but it has long been known that our bodies are really a mishmash of many different organisms. Microbes in your gut can produce neurotransmitters that alter your mood; some scientists have even proposed that the microbes may sway your appetite, so that you crave their favourite food. An infection of a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, meanwhile, might just lead you to your death. In nature, the microbe warps rats' brains so that they are attracted to cats, which will then offer a cosy home for it to reproduce. But humans can be infected and subjected to the same kind of mind control too: the microbe seems to make someone risky, and increases the chance they will suffer from schizophrenia or suicidal depression. Currently, around a third of British meat carries this parasite, for instance – despite the fact an infection could contribute to these mental illnesses. "We should stop this," says Kramer.
The microbes made me do it.
(Score: 4, Funny) by WittyUserName on Wednesday November 18 2015, @08:37PM
I believe this may explain why some people are so obsessive about cats. The same microbe that affects rats, may affect humans as well, which may explain some peoples rather peculiar behaviour towards cats. Not something I personally understand being the one of those superior people who prefer dogs.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday November 18 2015, @09:10PM
https://xkcd.com/231/ [xkcd.com]
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2015, @09:38PM
I thought we mostly got Toxoplasma Gondii from cat and rabbit feces; infection rates among cat owners are near 100% IIRC.
Now the question is, do we have this parasite because we have cats, or do we have cats because we have the parasite?
(I'm typing this with one of my cats laying in my neck, the other one is right beside me trying to get some attention)
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday November 19 2015, @08:10AM
Laying *in* your neck? That doesn't sound healthy. You should really have a doctor take a look at that.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by zeigerpuppy on Wednesday November 18 2015, @09:59PM
Finally! I think it's all making sense now;
I'm a cat person and also drawn to varieties of self-destructive acts;
Most of them are fun; but I'm sure that must be the worm squeezing my nucleus accumbens...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Francis on Wednesday November 18 2015, @10:36PM
LOL, so being the one that carries the bag of poop around makes you superior to the people that have their pet trained to do it in a box for convenient removal? Or the ones that have the cat actually trained to use the toilet?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2015, @10:52PM
25 years ago I had a cat who sat on the toilet to do her things. Unfortunately she sometimes put her paws in the bowl afterwards. She also climbed on the handle and used her weight on the edge of it to open doors. Newer cats here are total retards in comparison - maybe pollution, cellphone freqs and food are really affecting the brain.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DeathMonkey on Thursday November 19 2015, @01:38AM
so being the one that carries the bag of poop around makes you superior to the people that have their pet trained to do it in a box for convenient removal?
I would recommend emptying your cat box with a bag.
Not going to fall for that one twice!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 19 2015, @07:11AM
the one that carries the bag of poop around...
Use a cat-carrier:
http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Cat+carrier_db5cb0_4729984.jpg [fjcdn.com]
No more pooping problems.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2015, @11:09PM
I don't really like cats but I like dogs. I eat garlic which is antimicrobic. Perhaps that's why I'm not a big cat fan.
So the question is what makes me more of a dog lover? Perhaps parasites that feed on dogs?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2015, @11:16PM
Dogs love stinky shit, like the garlic stench oozing from your pores.
(Score: 2) by physicsmajor on Thursday November 19 2015, @04:00PM
I know you're being witty, but Google "toxoplasmosis gondii" to see how chillingly close to reality you really are.
(Score: 2) by AnonymousCowardNoMore on Thursday November 19 2015, @05:09PM
It feels far too often that I see soylentils and similar characters telling others to look up this cool thing they probably haven't heard of, in a reply to the guy who was speaking of that exact thing. Or less obviously, to someone who is very clearly an expert in that field. Do we suffer collective autism? Or are we just so absorbed in our self-proclaimed geeky superiority that we can't imagine others having equal (or *gasp* superior) intelligence and arcane knowledge? Do geeks just become weird from interacting with "normal" people? I think I am exactly like that and can't see it. Sorry for picking on you. It's a more general point and you just happened to pass by at the right moment.
PS: Whoosh!