
An Ancient Virus May Be Responsible for Human Consciousness - QueensGambit
https://www.livescience.com/61627-ancient-virus-brain.html
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donclark
The Matrix - virus scene

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aezikcoCr4o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aezikcoCr4o)

“I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had during my time here. It came to
me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you’re not
actually mammals.”

“Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with
the surrounding environment. But you humans do not. You move to an area and
you multiply and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only
way you can survive is to spread to another area.”

“There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do
you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease…A cancer of this
planet. You are a plague... And we are the cure.”

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parliament32
Eerily similar to the storyline in the sci-fi book _Snow Crash_ by Neal
Stephenson -- genetic viruses and all that.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash)

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senectus1
have always thought this idea was bloody scary.

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jfarlow
It's been talked about a few times on HN already, but it's a very interesting
protein. It suggests a genetic delivery mechanism that is already in the body
- and thus doesn't invoke a lot of the immunogenic properties of using viruses
for gene therapies.

If you want to play with the Arc protein check it out here:
[https://serotiny.bio/notes/proteins/arc/](https://serotiny.bio/notes/proteins/arc/)

~~~
QueensGambit
Can you please point me to the earlier HN thread on this?

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thismachine
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16326517](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16326517)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16289846](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16289846)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16139798](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16139798)

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Analemma_
With the usual crummy standards of science reporting, this leaves me more
confused than when I started. Is Arc in the human genome or not? If it's not,
then where does it come from? And if it is, why do neighboring neurons die if
they do not get a transmission of the encapsulated Arc RNA? Can't they build
it themselves?

I'm sure there's a straightforward answer to this that I'm missing, but the
article isn't helping.

~~~
slowmovintarget
From the article:

Arc was originally a virus and is now encoded as a gene within the human
genome. (part of the point of the article)

The neurons don't die, the synapses wither, and not for lack of the gene, but
for lack of the encoded messages ordered up by the gene within neighboring
synapses.

The article suggests that synapses are using some sort of chemical
notification system, out of band of the synapse-to-synapse firing that permits
reorganization. When there is a defect in the notification system, you get
autism or worse.

All of that was in the article. Maybe slow down a bit?

~~~
luk32
To simplify it a bit more (but not to lose correctness) it seems like this
molecule is a maintenance signal, meaning the path is in use.

If it's not present the channel gets closed.

The whole purpose is to make it possible for a synapse to wither, because to
_re_ organize something needs to be tore down.

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ahmedfromtunis
I know this is a huge oversimplification, but the idea that consciousness is
but a 'disease' is interesting, to say the least!

~~~
WA
Furthermore, what if another virus cures that disease? Or what if another
virus triggers some other form of consciousness?

~~~
bytefactory
The idea of a virus that "cures" consciousness seems to be dangerously close
to creating of zombies - or heavens forbid - P-Zombies
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_zombie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_zombie))!

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empath75
I don't have the slightest idea of whether this is something that's plausible
-- but is there any mechanism that this rna could use to go from mother to
child during pregnancy or vice versa?

~~~
kovrik
Isn't it what they said in the article?

If there are any problems with Arc gene -- if it is not transferred properly
to a child -- then child might develop various conditions (autism etc.)

~~~
empath75
I don’t mean the gene, I mean the actual rna capsules.

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djmips
Fruit flies have Arc genes, I guess they're conscious.

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ggm
So experiment on other species and report back.

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david-cako
eternal recurrence, just wait for transhumanism to spawn machine
consciousness.

