Thursday, November 1, 2007

Anybody Believe/Think This Could Happen In Real Life?

**SPOILER ALERT** If you have not seen 28 Days Later, this post will make no sense to you. Before you read this, get a babysitter, drink an energy drink, drive to your local video store, it doesn't matter, but whatever you do, WATCH THIS MOVIE!!!!! It's great and then you'll be able to share your views on this topic.

I was so impressed with the movie I took the time to research viruses, especially those of the airbourne and/or bodily-fluid-passed on gender. In my research, I found some interesting material.

The whole "Rage Virus" scenario in my mind is extremely likely to happen. It's not as much of a 'what if?' as it is a 'when?'.

Medically speaking, if certain parts of the left hemisphere, temporal lobe, and amygdala were bombarded through virus with mutated mitochondria that made electrolytes look like double A batteries compared to a generator. Viruses are living things, and thus evolve...and because their life cycle is so much shorter than that of humans or higher animals, they mutate faster....based on this: yes, this sort of "Rage Virus" could potentially be created. But no virus on the planet has ever shown that particular kind of mutation.

Has anyone ever thought about a mutated or scientifically altered (a.k.a. messed up) version of RABIES? Even though we have a treatment for it if you go in almost immediately after you're bitten, rabies actually has a lot of the same symptoms of the rage virus. It can be past on by saliva, blood, and other bodily fluids AND from species to species, people, dogs, rats, monkeys, bats, nearly everything. Infected become photophobic, in that they are extremely sensitive to light. It causes dementia if not treated, a person would forget they are a person, they may think that people are trying to help them, they may even think that people are out to get them, or even that humans were food. It also causes increased aggression, infected family pets have attacked their owners without provocation, spreading rabies to them. The only aspects of rabies that don't fit are that it causes paralysis, or at the least stiffness and trouble walking, and the infected usually die in about 10 days due to dehydration because can't drink or speak. However, if somehow the virus mutated or was altered scientifically for some God forsaken reason, we could have a pretty scary disease on our hands.

Plus if the US Department of Defense actually considers building a 'Gay Bomb' (which is an interesting weapon on its own scale URL Link: http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4174519.stm), it's not that much of a reach to think that they would go so far as to weaponize rage in a way similar to that in the movie.

I'm not saying that anyone infected will die and then come back to life, that's just idiotic, besides, in the movie the 'zombies' don't die, they just go insane with rage. I'm also saying that unlike in the movie, it would take longer than a minute to become fully infected. I'm no doctor, but I'd think that you would probably start out just irritated, then grow fully grumpy, finally progressing to madness in a longer incubation period, possibly taking at least a day or two to fully change you.

It is probable going that within the next 50 years biotechnological advances will be madi that will enanabe us to make a weapon that turns humans into homicidal maniacs. A variety of hormones and brain areas are involved in aggression. A virus that activated and deactivated certain parts of the brain could probably lead to an extreme aggression level.

Think about it: before WWII, people didn't think that nuclear weaponry atomic bombs were possible, now almost every country is working on biological warfare.

3 comments:

Pulcheria said...

I do love your abstract thoughts - 9 days and counting!

Ahenobarbus Textor said...

Well... Historically speaking biological weapons have been around a whole helluva long time. Hannibal (the Carthaginian, not the cannibal) catapulted vipers onto the opposing Roman-manned ships. Scary. Besides, in Medieval Europe, a common tactic was to launch the bodies of those who died of plague over the walls, to infect the besieging/defending troops.

Just FYI.

Ahenobarbus Textor said...

Ooo, another thought. The supreme advantage of a hyper-evolutionary virus, is that it would very, very quickly evolve into something that wouldn't effect humans at all. That's comforting.