sICK

Introduction

1984 was, well it was an interesting year...

~ It gave us an apple that flourished into one of the world’s most unique super powers. A force that draws its energy from a societal need for increased gigabytes, faster connections and angrier birds.

~ It sold us a rock that burnt its way through the west coast like wildfire leaving nothing but broken dreams and shattered lives in its wake. A flame fueled solely by the breathe of those daring enough to add fire and inhale its most inebriated of inebriations.

~ It showed us that a hillbilly named Ronald from Dixon, Illinois could rise beyond states lines and become the most power human being on the planet, not once but twice. That being a politician was anything but political.

~ It introduced us to an era in history laced with rythem, spiked with beats, and rolled tightly into a manufactured joint perfect for marketing. An era where the MTV Movie Awards debuted as true music perished, burning out as opposed to fading away.

~ And it forced us to our knees as the culprit responsible for crippling immune systems worldwide was finally identified. The retrovirus HTLV-III had played villain to so many unknowing victims of every race, sexuality, religion and net worth. The boogeyman referred to as AIDS was finally unmasked and IT was fucking terrifying.

Now you see viruses are rather unique entities, or “things” if you will. No one knows where they came from or even when they made their debut on the grand scale of what we perceive as life. Like a ghost, they leave no fossils and their genealogy is so convoluted that the mere attempt at unraveling it is clinically insane. Their sheer numbers alone eclipse all other biological species combined boosting their range of lethal potential the entire gambit of what Biology is defined as. Plants, bacteria, mammals, birds, ameba. Not one cell is immune to their all-powerful touch.

Life, or to be considered living, is defined as the ability to grow, react, reproduce, metabolize, and evolve. The question is does a virus exhibit each of these qualities? Well, yes, no, and maybe almost so.

If we take the literal definition of what life is a Virus would fall short of qualifying. It is a non-living “thing” grouped into the same categorical class as remote controls, stamps, and oversized rubber dildos.

But, and this is a gigantic one, with the addition of ANY living cell into their equation this non-living item is transformed into a creature capable of the global domination of every life form known to exist or ever exist.

Viruses are the shadows of beings on the brink of life waiting to transcend when giving the opportunity. The inability to reproduce on their own, an Achilles heal of sorts, is what prevents their evolution into a self sustaining greatness. But, does this hamper their evoltuion? Absolutely not, it excels it.

Like a remora, these microscopic vampires creep through life on the backs of anyone or anything that passes a little too close to their proximity. Insects, horses, birds, bees, that striper named Glitter, and even Whiskers your neighbors annoying Pomeranian that never shuts up. Anything, and I mean anything, that is alive has the potential to enhance their progress towards the ultimate goal of self-sustainability. They are preposterously almost perfect. Almost.

The question is why are these extraordinary forms of life, and non-life, always portrayed as malicious mother fuckers? The bringers of diarrhea, death and awkward phone calls?

Medical marketing tells us that viruses make you “sick”, classify you as “infected” and deem you to be in poor health or even contagious until you are “cured” from their grasp. Could something so powerful and so global be cast only as a villain and a malicious one at that. Not the anti-hero we tend to root for in the movies, just straight evil. The balance of life itself would forever be tilted in a direction of chaos and predestined misfortune.

No, I don’t believe this ideology for one second as I find it childish. Like something you would find in a movie starring Will Smith directed by Michael Bay. That the world’s most all-encompassing force is pure evil. Where’s the Ying to the Ying? The good vibrations to the Moody Blues? Where’s the Karma?

Newtons Third Law states that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction and I believe this applies to everything in life not just physics. Virology included.

Now let’s imagine for a second that the world’s most diabolical force can be turned on itself and made to work for us, not against? Morphing its potential of evolution into ours by using its power to create a better us, a newer us. One that makes us preposterously almost perfect. Or has it already?

Evolution is eternally linked to genetics, mutations and natural selections that accumulate into a species upgrade .Who’s to say the catalyst to these upgrades aren't un diagnosed viruses working like wizards behind some sort of genetic curtain. Imprinting their beneficial characteristics into each and every strand of our DNA. Making them and us faster, stronger, smarter… better?

Take the great divide between Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals who are said to have evolved from a common ancestor. What caused this greatest of splits and arguably the most important moment in our species history, not so much theirs?

Could it have been on lucky ape person that got “sick” from some heavenly viral organism's “infection” that just so happened to excel its brain capability past its rivals leading to an eventual “cure”, genocide, of all rivals. This same gifted infection spread through its lineage like a different type of wildfire creating a newer, smarter and more dominate species. One that continues to evolve even to this day, even to this second. And, lets not forget about that first fish to breath air, or bird to take flight.

Why did these massive leaps in how animals interact with the world take place? Does anyone really know? No.

Sometimes the best way to understand the none understandable is to look at it from the exact opposite angle. There is always a silver lining to every storm cloud or Robin Williams joke to depressing situation that keeps the universe homeostatic.

Maybe viruses are answer to the ultimate questions.Who we are, where we came from, and why the fuck are we are here. An unseen deity manipulating life on a global transcendent scale using us to unknowingly better them.

What if the devil was also your doctor. The sickness.. your cure.

But what would it cost...

Yes, 1984 was a very interesting year for how we view virus's in deed.

#infectmeplease