Mind control in Nature???

I just thought this story was too amazing not to share, with everybody talking about government mind controll and such, well now I say why not? Made me open my eyes a little bit!!!

www.livescience.com...


The governments make 'designer' viruses, why not make some 'designer' parasites?

Very good find. Interesting information.

...and pointed speculation. Designer parasites indeed. Entirely plausible.

Oh Yeah!

When your dog stares at you, what do you think is going on there?


Is that an attempt by dogs at mind control?

There was a neat thread on here before about a wasp that stings cockroaches and makes them walk back to the nest where it lays an egg in them, and then the larva eats the roach from the inside out.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
There was a neat thread on here before about a wasp that stings cockroaches and makes them walk back to the nest where it lays an egg in them, and then the larva eats the roach from the inside out.

The Jewel Wasp

www.abovetopsecret.com...

A very interesting insect

Great thread jta79 I find any parasites that can manipulate the behavior of host organisms very fascinating. This Toxoplasma gondii is even more scary though since it already in "Half of the world's human population"

The Hairworms mentioned are also very interesting. A parasite that makes grasshoppers drown themselves by effecting their central nervous system.

Great find, jta79. There are actually quite a number of examples of this kind of thing in nature. Dawkins describes a fluke that gets into the eyestalks of a species of snail, causing it to change its behaviour and head towards sunlight instead of away from it. So the snail crawls out into the open from under cover and promptly gets eaten by a bird, inside the gut of which the fluke can begin the next stage of its lifecycle.

I suppose it's possible that such a parasite mechanism could be used as a weapon of mass destruction. Imagine the scene....

With every milkshake sold at Brown's Drugstore, the deadly protazoan infects another victim....

Soon all of Slobsville is overcome by a violent epidemic of itching...

"Gaah -- I can't bear it!"

"It feels like my pants are on fire!!"

As one man, the inhabitants of the town head for the local reservoir....

"I can't take it anymore!!!"

SPLASH

SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH

*gurgle*

Three hours later, the parasitologically-savvy Invaders' tanks are rolling through the deserted town...

Back in grandpa's time, every issue of Astounding Science Fiction was full of stories like this. But it was the Second World War or the Korean War or the Cold War of whatever war it was at the time and paranoia was justified, right, you ate it on the news and heard it in your rice krispies...

And of course we all know better now, don't we?

Frankly, I think this kind of fantasy somewhat pedestrian and lacking in imagination -- a very unambitious use of the huge amount of potential paranoia locked up in this parasite/behaviour-control idea. The thought of people (even people from outer space) using parasites to control human behaviour is far less tingle-triggering than the possibility that the parasites themselves may be controlling us, and have been doing so for millions of years!

Have there been any studies to establish whether being infected with the malaria fluke makes people more or less inclined to sit around outdoors in tropical countries at dusk, causing themselves to be bitten by mosquitoes?

What if there was a parasite-vectored sexually-transmitted disease that made people want to have more sex with more people?

It's not that far-fetched. After all, tapeworm infestation does make people hungrier... and people with chicken-pox have an almost unconquerable urge to scratch at their pustules, which breaks the skin and helps spread the infection.

Now take this kind of speculation to the next level: consider the possibility that human evolution itself has been affected and influenced by the parasites that live off us. If not for our parasites, we would be something completely different from what we are now. To me, that's pretty creepy.

The more so, since it seems to be what actually happened, at least according to the best theories of evolutionary biology...

Hope this ramps the paranoia level up a bit.

Originally posted by Astyanax

Now take this kind of speculation to the next level: consider the possibility that human evolution itself has been affected and influenced by the parasites that live off us. If not for our parasites, we would be something completely different from what we are now. To me, that's pretty creepy.

The more so, since it seems to be what actually happened, at least according to the best theories of evolutionary biology...

Excellent stuff Astyanax.

Doesn't make me paranoid though. I see microbes as the mechanism of "oneness" and earth's interconnection. Just another one of Gaia's little tools.

Welcome to Nirvana.


...Just the kind of thing the military-industrial complex would jump all over. IMO - a population control parasite would be at the top of their priorities list - and ultimately at odds with a successful ecosphere.



[edit on 10-4-2006 by soficrow]

The first thing I thought of when I read the topic was, "if these are guys, they should know there's mind control in nature. They're called females."

Originally posted by T_Jesus
The first thing I thought of when I read the topic was, "if these are guys, they should know there's mind control in nature. They're called females."

Yes, I'm with you one hundred percent. Just so long as you're willing to add:

"if these are girls, they should know there's mind control in nature. They're called males."

For a really interesting discussion of this, check out the description of genital arms races among different species of wasp in Richard Dawkins's The Extended Phenotype. Sorry I can't provide a link to something about it on the Web, but maybe someone out there can help...

Wow, this is an awesome article. Kind of makes you wonder if any animals effect us in a mind control way similar to that.

Originally posted by Omniscient
Wow, this is an awesome article. Kind of makes you wonder if any animals effect us in a mind control way similar to that.

Not sure about us (although I'm leaning towards probably somewhere down the line) , but I think my two pet cockatiels are being mind controlled... Everytime I let them out of the cage the first thing they go for is the phone cord (first strike... cut communications... right? smart birds...) But the second I see them building little weapons out of the woodchips on the bottom of the cage I'm outa here....Lmfao!! Damn Little green men..... lol Its all their fault!!



[edit on 24-4-2006 by jta79]