October 11, 2004

People Are Human-Bacteria Hybrids.
posted by homunculus 20 years ago
  • I love all my little symbiotes equally.
  • Well, I can believe it of Bush supporters. Not sure about the rest of us
  • You cannot believe that non-Bush-supporters are human? I agree!
  • The rest of us are Superorganisms. Sounds cooler, you know.
  • I've had housemates who exemlified this principle and extended it to create entire ecosystems.
  • And Soylent Green is people
  • I'd say hybrid is very much the wrong word here, though superorganism is a fair one. I mean, is not a hybrid, biologically speaking, a genetic descendant of 2 different species? Sounds like we're fantastic hosts, but hybrid? Unless you account for an even deeper host relationship which may indicate true hybridization: mitochondria.
  • I just took an internal vote, and we believe you are right chimaera.
  • fuyugare: what? Perhaps I'm getting myopic in my old age. I could have sworn the title of this thread was "People are Human-Bacteria Hybrids", not "People are Humans". Thanks for putting me straight.
  • Oh I see. You don't believe non-Bush-supporters are people. What an odd thing to believe!
  • When even bacteria are politicized, the electorate wins! NO THIRD WORLD CANADIAN DRUGS! CANADIAN DRUGS KILLED MY UNCLE!
  • fuyugare: I have no interest in indulging in pseudo-banter with someone who wilfully misreads amd misrepresents in order to make puerile non-jokes. If I wanted that sort of interaction I'd take myself down to the nearest junior school playground. Bye.
  • Bye.
  • I much prefer AMDs to Intels.
  • I tired taking a internal vote but the other organisms living on me were attempting a coup d' état There have been recent medical studies using "alternative" treatments for disease. In one case a man had a crippling stomach disorder that was "cured" by ingesting a particular worm. Been instances where people get sick from not having enough organisms in their body. I find it all fascinating.
  • In fact, chimaera, I'd say that "chimaera" would probably be a more accurate term than "hybrid"...
  • Disinformation by misleading headline. Just FYI, this does _not_ mean that your evolutionary grandfather, the ape, mated with a single-celled organism. I think what's actually implied is that all organisms' DNA, including that of humans bears a surprising resemblance to the DNA of bacteria.
  • I think what's actually implied is that all organisms' DNA, including that of humans bears a surprising resemblance to the DNA of bacteria. No. That is not what the article implies. It suggests that humans are are best viewed as walking "superorganisms," highly complex conglomerations of human, fungal, bacterial and viral cells.
  • Like a Portuguese Man-O-War? Man, those things are gnarly...
  • Quite right, flashboy! With mitochondria in our very cells, chimaeraed are we.
  • Let's see. When I say "we" I mean me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me and me...
  • I'm marshalling my internal bacterial forces for a 6 to 10 minute sortie against your internal bacterial forces. To be immediately followed by a cigarette and a nap.
  • I think I'll go on a murderous rampage. /brushes teeth
  • oops. that's what i get for not reading the article. *cough* terribly sorry. I had that response prepared from some news story I saw years ago headlined "humans related to fungus" which really ticked me off.
  • some news story I saw years ago headlined "humans related to fungus" which really ticked me off. Why in the world would that tick you off? Relation is not identity, if that's what's got your knickers in a bunch...
  • Hey, people where I live get pissed off when you tell them they're related to monkeys. Now imagine trying to convince them they're full of shiitake...
  • The point is such a statement isn't precisely false but taken out of context as headlines so often are might lead to some odd misconceptions. Is eating mushrooms more like cannibalism, then, or like vegetarianism? Where do mushrooms fit into the evolutionary chain, before or after we crawled out of the primeval ocean? Anyway, right now my own point is so obtuse and unrelated to the above-linked article I think it's better if I just shut up.
  • This is kind of recursive, isn't it? Human are a mixture of bacteria and humans becomes Humans are a mixture of bacteria and (a mixture of bacteria and (a mixture of bacteria and (a mixture of bacteria and ... Putting it algebraically: H = H + B H - H = H + B - H 0 = B Substitue this back in the original: H = H + 0 H = H therefore humans are completely human, and contain zero bacteria
  • I enjoy being an ecology.
  • We? What's this WE stuff? Is that the Royal We, or do you have a mouse in your pocket?
  • Perhaps the only possible prof of humans being hybrids (instead of living in a symbiotic relationship with bacteria) is the possibility that the immune system is actually the product of the centuries long amalgamation of viral genes with animal genes. On the other hand, I wouldn't consider the "I" being an hybrid between my human cells and bacteria unless bacteria have an active roll on my thought processes. Although my rather erratic behaviour may prove otherwise.
  • So I am still trying to work out the Creationist angle on this. If humans are half-bacterial, then, uh, the bacteria are part of the "creeping thing[s] that creepeth upon the earth", right? So, they have dominion over the bacteria. Makes sense! And that whole thing about "therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh"... total bacterial imagery! Wow, it is so obvious!
  • "humans related to fungus" which really ticked me off. This guy would be overjoyed.
  • Mushroomed! Grand strands of mycelium, long white threads string out to internet the underland, and all the soil that lies below. As they think their mushroom thoughts, do they hatch up fungoid plots? Do they hate us all because we know mushrooms go beautifully in salads or in stockpots?
  • Ho. Lee. Crap. This is some interesting stuff. Great post. I keep getting this image that, given the old humans are 800% water, or whatever the fuck it is, we are like a rubbery human-shaped holding tank for murky pond water teeming with vile little beasties. That gets me hot.
  • Perhaps the thought of sharing my "me" with all those bacteria should make me feel inferior, but it happens to fill me with glee.
  • heh, like Swamp Thing, moneyjane? All humans are from the Black Lagoon? Right on.
  • Nice. Creedence playing "Run Through the Jungle" in the background. No, no, "Dueling Banjos." I'd like to think there's some toothless hillbilly bacterium trolling the backwaters of my colon, lookin' for some frogs to gig.
  • MonkeyFilter: we are like a rubbery human-shaped holding tank for murky pond water teeming with vile little beasties.
  • How does this figure into cloning? If a clone is only the organism that results from a single entities DNA, then at least some portion of the neccesary bacteria are presumably absent (instead of being inherited from the mother, which is what I assume happens now.) Is this compensated for somehow in the cloning operations that are currently being employed? If not, what are the consequences? Any one know of a good article on this subject?