A Fragile Society

Stochastics... the end of reality and maybe the beginning of the end.

Read on...

The human element as some evolved intellectuals refer to themselves is composed of a fair number of basic elements, with Oxygen (65%) being the most common of all. Carbon, the basic unit of all organic molecules comes in at distant second place. Since the cells are composed of 65-90% of water weight, it is no wonder that Oxygen is the most prodigious element within the human element. Aside from Oxygen, Carbon (18%), Hydrogen (10%), Nitrogen (3%), Calcium (1.5%) and Phosphorus (1.0%) round out 99% of the total element base. Most of the remaining 1% is composed of, Potassium (0.35%), Sulfur (0.25%), Sodium (0.15%), Magnesium (0.05%) and other traces of Copper, Zinc, Selenium, Molybdenum, Fluorine, Chlorine, Iodine, Manganese, Cobalt, Iron (0.70%)Lithium, Strontium, Aluminum, Silicon, Lead, Vanadium, Arsenic, Bromine (trace amounts) – The elements of “Star-Dust.”

Why would I spend regurgitating such a litany of chemical names to bore you? Well consider the domain of the human element itself. It is this, a rather fluid and almost ripe medium for an external invasion, wouldn’t you think? I mean, seriously grasp the basic tenet of this argument by the neck and you can see that the ebb and flow of other microbial life can easily find “the rivers of plenty” in the human body to float in, proliferate, cohabitate and prosper, even to the detriment of the host.

The eco-system that some espouse, via agencies such as EPA to prevent and preserve the environment, fail to conceive of the environment within their own human element! But finding fault in others is the incomprehensible, but state of the art, schoolyard gambit of the elite. It maybe time for them to contemplate on their own navels. You see just like "tampering with nature" by exterminating one species ends up with unintended consequences. Reducing or eliminating minor stressors in daily life will lead to future tumult. 

We are a society, given to the excess of thought (sometime useless) like everything around us, we wish everything to be in a smooth and orderly fashion. There should be no rip-roaring ragged cliffs or deeply gashed valleys, just the smoothened road like Route 80 from Coast to Coast. But therein in the stochastic of our existence, we have also invoked and unveiled the most terrible of all curses. We have brought to bear the concept of sterility in all things, big and small. We have turned ourselves into the “bubble-populace!”

The human element is an evolving piece of ingenious machinery, conceived and crafted by the Great Tinkerer. By Creating the largesse of an “eco-system” of life from where to gather and learn from each other, becomes the single opportunistic directive for this human species that has managed to forge an intellectual bent some 2.5 million years ago (The dent in the left temporal region and the frontal region of the skull: where language, speech and decision-making lie).

Anyway, here we are floundering at the ragged self-replicating Mandelbrot’s .......

......coastline of disorder creating more chaos. We fail to see the ordered intelligence within the fractal coastline. We are busy bringing mounds of sand to smooth the coastline, knowing full well in the back of our minds that eventually there will be price to pay, through the ravages of a tsunami or an earthquake. We fail to heed that nature makes its own tracks.

A Mandelbrot Fractal

Think, how the species has evolved? Somewhere a long time ago, a unicellular organism (archaea) ingested a plant life (mitochondrium) and together they forged the self-organized, energy-independent cellular system that was to become the basis of all life form.

Now let us think some more about this incorporation of another life for a second.

The presence of Junk DNA in different species

Dwelling just a little on the DNA itself. There are Introns and Exons present in the helix of our life. Majority of the DNA used to be called “Junk DNA” because of our limits of understanding. 

Now comes the world-view that indeed here lie the species transforming gateways delivered onto us humans via the microbial life itself. Resplendent in their invisible but very able selves are the very essence of making life the fittest for survival.

Rut Roh!

Junk DNA may also be the very reason that life evolved as it did. Humans have the largest component of Junk DNA compared to all other forms of life

Translating Invasion through Invasion

What?

Oh yes! Indeed. Our exposure to microbial life is conducive for survival for both species. The microbes, be it viruses, bacteria, fungi, all serve a purpose in propagating and strengthening the future of life and by extension humanity.

I show this to show that exposure to constant radiation to certain form of bacterium resulted in the Radioduran Duran bacteria that is Resistant to high doses of radiation!

How?

Well, think about this little paradigm quietly. How many “bubble babies” can survive this harsh climate where microbes make our population look puny in numbers and abilities? The constant tug of invasion by the microbes, cohabitation within the human body, purge of the weak and Immune tolerance by the adaptive is the hallmark of survival. Isn’t that true?

Now, proceed with me into out modern current-day culture, where the definition of survival is based on how many “Purell Containers” line the hallways. What have we here? The modern day version of the “Bubble babies.”

True washing hands is a way to avoid getting infected, but to the point of fanaticism is beyond common intelligence. Some would snark and bark right about now. If washing hands is good, using Purell is better! Ah but something is lost on these souls. Washing hands is a prerequisite before attempting to eat a meal or where exposure to unsavory environment has been undertaken, but using Purell at every bend in the hallway is tantamount to eliminating the very elements that makes us resilient humans and gives us the wherewithal to survive. We are in essence trying to make our bodies so clean that they will not possess the ability to fight an errant germ.

Why?

There is a process called Hormesis. In this process is the small amounts of “bad” or “harmful” substances, both organic and inorganic constitute a certain strengthening of our  “exposed” flesh immunity. 

The purpose behind Hormesis is the small harmful elements exposure over time lead to Desensitization

A simile would be the desensitization to an allergen in a person who has allergies to a particular food or environmental product. The process of desensitization is the small but periodic irreverence of this exposure, which ultimately leads to acceptance and tolerance by the immune system for one’s survival.

Does the Flu virus mutate? Why of course it does, every season or even intrseason. We humans have the crafty science of mathematical modeling that determines which strain is most likely to strike and through that we predict the make of the Infuenza Vaccine (we are proven wrong more often then not). Even with the correct recipe, only 60% of the healthy and 48% of the sick are protected by the vaccination (CDC/NIH). It so happens that the crafty viruses are more adept at mutation due to their proliferating abilities. You see, a human generation changes every 15 years or so, while the viral generations grow at the speed of light; doubling of a virus takes minutes and thus is more adaptable to the environment via mutation, then the slow plod of human destiny. Here lies the wrath from the Influenza of 1918 where 500 million people were infected and 20-50 million died, the “Black Death” in 1848-1850 circa Europe that killed between 75-100 million people. Both had the commonness of an unprepared (immunity-wise) population to the ravages of a new pathogen, a lack of understanding, a virus in the former and Yersinia Pesitis in the latter.

Even in slow plodders amongst bacterial agents, mutation is the likely transformation that has created the pharmaceutical industry. Every generation of antibiotics is limited in functional time, because the bacteria mutate and acquire abilities to conform and survive the antibiotic attacks. There are a plethora of bacteria that have shown those capability; MRSA, TB, VRE, C-Diff etc. We are constantly trying to “kill” the “un-killable.” In so doing, we are creating bigger monsters. Equally, viruses have the same capabilities; Hepatitis B virus which has transformed from HBV-A to HBV-I with multiple layers within each subdivision is a product of selection bias of the HBV exposed to various vaccines, Hepatitis C virus with its four subdivisions and of course who can forget HIV.

But aren’t the viruses bad all the time?

Not really. You see our DNA as I mentioned is made up of many viral particles that reside within our DNA as inclusions (junk). These viral DNAs portions can come to reside next to genes that are in the business of proliferation. The viral inclusions can thus act either as “Inhibitors” or “Promoters” of that gene function. If that gene is triggered in a cancer the adjacent viral DNA if it exists, can enhance either of those duties, which can either shut down the gene and prevent cancer or enhance the gene and make the cancer become more aggressive. The c-myc, n-myc, ras and scores of other genes all conform to these ideologies. Read further here~> http://phys.org/news114266805.html

Economics 101

Our thinking of mitigating risks has reached a new climax, which is also inherent to our precepts of “sterility.” The use of Purell in every hallway is like “bailing out a company in distress.” Using an orderly bankruptcy due to the limited exposure to self if not allowed in a rational and systematic manner of enhancing the immune surveillance and survival, will lead to a large “Failure” of the entire body later.

Giving everyone a house with a picket fence with “cheap and easy” money that the top-down politicians deemed a winning strategy for re-elections, lead to the financial debacle of 2008. The sense of bundling mortgages into traunches (CDS, CDO, CLO,MBS) was an attempt by the mortgagors to limit their own exposure by spreading the risks to the many. And that “Risk” became the calamity that is today. But the intellectuals at the seat of government remain ignorant based on their ongoing behaviors and foster a newer version of the failed mandate. Oh but for the profligate idiocy in humanity!

Will the human species survive? Maybe to a yes. (As long as we don't destroy ourselves)

It is the miracle of the "Jumping Genes" or the Transposons that have helped in finding the answers for the evolving human race (See http://jedismedicine.blogspot.com/2011/02/human-diversity-in-genes.html?spref=tw )

I would be classified as a nihilist by many waiting to pounce on the above words. For if anyone dares to express an opinion differing from the "experts," then he or she must be reclassified through the artistry of demonizing.

So what have we wrought?

A panacea against disease?

A plague for the future?

Or just “kick the can down the road” towards a colossal calamity?

You decide.

I'll pay that doctrine, or else die in debt. ~ Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare