Lao Tzu expressed the minimalist view of “less gain, more confusion” in Tao Te Ching.
Minimalism, like its representative point of view “less is more”, is a life attitude that strives for simplicity. It is also extended to no longer pay attention to the outside, but only pay attention The principle of inner peace and comfort in doing things sounds more like a cognitive exploration of the self.
There are many people who pursue minimalism in the world. They use the method of “breaking away” to abandon complexity and desire, keep their own “Tao”, and enjoy their own simplicity, ethereal world.
There is one form of life in the world that is different from all other life forms. They have no complex structure, no meticulous functions, no strong desires; they were born by chance and did not fight fiercely, but they lived to be the ultimate winners.
It is such a life form, which has continued since ancient times. Although it sometimes emerges as the focus of the world stage, most of the time, it is quiet in one’s own corner, watching with cold eyes. As time passes.
This form of life is the virus.
One, born by accident, but lived inevitably
The Tao Te Ching says: “It is selfish because of its selflessness.”
The virus, a kind of creature, has not taken “for its own benefit” as its original intention since it appeared. Everything starts by accident.
In ancient times, the first virus born in the world may have originated from DNA mutations in cells, that is, DNA replication errors.
It was a night (or maybe noon, don’t mind the details) billions of years ago, and some ancestral cell somewhere was getting ready to replicate itself. This progenitor-level cell is likely to be an ancient bacterium. During the process of replication of the bacterium’s DNA, a certain segment mutated by chance and with a very small probability.
This small DNA fragment just has the ability to cut itself from the DNA chain of ancient bacteria because of this mutation, and this cut DNA fragment is just able to carry out self-replication.
The perfect combination of “just” and “just” can only be explained by “fate” (otherwise, one can only believe in the theory of intelligent design, which holds that “life on earth originated from higher Smart Design Creation”).
One of the great things about life is its infinite possibilities, and everything happens by chance.
This small clipped piece of DNA may just have some information about the ability to synthesize proteins. In the long years, these small fragments have been continued with the self-replication of the ancient bacteria, and can survive in all the progeny bacteria, and continue to replicate and mutate in the bacteria.
With the accumulation of chance over time, the proteins synthesized by these DNA fragments eventually evolved into a shell that can wrap the DNA fragments, and there are some special proteins on it, which are just able to adhere to and Open the cell membrane.
The perfect combination of “just right” and “just right” can only be explained by “fate” (otherwise, one can only believe in the theory of intelligent design).
The second great thing about life is its continuity across time. In the face of time, all small-probability events will happen sooner or later.
With the protection of the protein shell and the ability to enter and exit cells, even if the cells in the body die, these small things can spread in the environment, looking for opportunities to contact and enter other cells .
Finding a new cell (aka “host”, like its hotel), it can inject its own little piece of DNA into the cell, continue to replicate, and continue to make the shell .
Wait until new cells either die from exhausted resources, or rupture by natural death, these little things can continue to release large numbers of copies of themselves into the environment. Week by week.
These little things behave in a simple way, seek and contact the host – enter the host – self-replicate – leave the host. They have only one small goal in mind, self-perpetuation. Simple and pure.
Virus behavior: seeking and contacting the host – entering the host – self-replicating – leaving the host
This may be the story of the birth of the world’s first virus.
Since the emergence of single-celled organisms on the earth about 3.8 billion years ago, all life has been accompanied by viruses for such a long time. These little things are still alive on Earth today in more numbers than all other life forms combined.
It is selfish because it is selfless. Don’t have desires, do the best thing in the simplest way, this may be the way of “success” of the virus.
Second, viral ultimate minimalism
The Tao Te Ching says: “What you have is beneficial, and what you don’t have is useful.”
The virus has reached the extreme on the road of minimalism. In addition to self-continuity, it has abandoned all desires, so that most of its characteristics as a creature itself have been abandoned. But there are only a few things left, and the virus has used it to the extreme.
Survival, it gives up almost everything.
The virus has pinned its entire life on other living beings, the host. They eat and live in the host’s body, living a life of nothing.
Organs that harvest energy? Not required. Defense and escape ability? Don’t consider it.
Even self-reproduction is accomplished with the help of ready-made tools and materials in the host cell.
The dignity of life? nonexistent.
And once it leaves the host? The ultimate minimalism of the virus makes it impossible for the virus to keep its name as a life after it leaves the host.
Beyond the host, the virus does not obtain energy from the outside world, nor does it consume energy itself, achieving perfect energy conservation, with “0” in and out; it does not eat, drink, or consume Pulling, not spreading, not moving, not multiplying, it has achieved perfect stillness and silence, and the whole world has nothing to do with it; it will be scattered in the dust and scattered in the wind, or it will be in a quiet corner to watch the years calmly.
In 2013, two professors of microbiology at the University of Aix-Marseille in France obtained samples of permafrost from Siberia, an extremely cold place in Russia, from permafrost 30 meters below the surface. soil layers.
Using high-resolution microscopy to analyze permafrost samples, the pair discovered a virus in the permafrost: Pithovirus sibericum. This is a very old giant virus that has been in permafrost for over 30,000 years. What made the two scientists very excited was that the virus they discovered was still alive.
The way of reproduction, it also gave up almost everything.
Other creatures on the earth are basically a reproduction logic:
First, they store all their biological characteristics in a DNA molecule, keep their own copy when they need to reproduce, and then make a copy of the DNA molecule to produce offspring. After that, each progeny also uses the information carried by the parent DNA molecule to transcribe the corresponding RNA molecule, and then uses the information of this RNA molecule to manufacture the same protein as the parent, officially forming the offspring biology.
The process is so tedious.
So…the virus of minimalism, just throw it all away!
Some viruses do use DNA to record genetic information, such as hepatitis B virus. However, the DNA of hepatitis B virus contains only 4 genes.
In comparison, more than 20,000 genes are recorded in human DNA, and more than 4,000 genes are recorded even in E. coli DNA.
This is the ultimate simplification.
But don’t underestimate the four genes of hepatitis B virus. After it comes into contact with the host, the hepatocyte, it will enter the hepatocyte and insert its own DNA fragment with only four genes into the DNA of the hepatocyte.
Hepatocytes are a veritable chemical factory. They produce a large amount of various proteins every day. The drawings for producing proteins are DNA. Therefore, the hepatitis B virus uses its drawings to mix its drawings into the pile of drawings. The strategy of allowing liver cells to produce large quantities of 4 special proteins for themselves – proteins P, X, C, S.
Although there are only 4 proteins on hand, it is enough for hepatitis B virus. The P and X proteins are responsible for replicating the DNA fragments of the hepatitis B virus, and the C and S proteins are responsible for forming the protein coat of the hepatitis B virus. With the DNA fragments and the shell, a new hepatitis B virus is assembled.
Simple yet extremely efficient.
There are also a large number of viruses that have abandoned the use of DNA molecules to record genetic information – they record genetic information on a variety of molecules, such as single-stranded DNA, double-stranded RNA, Both positive single-stranded RNA and negative single-stranded RNA may be the genetic material that records the genetic information of the virus.
The virus has abandoned all reproduction laws centered on “DNA RNA proteins”, and also abandoned the ability to reproduce independently. However, between “yes” and “nothing”, the virus has grasped what it should grasp, and abandoned what it can. This allows the virus to continue for a long time.
Third, the road is simple, and there is no contention
The Tao Te Ching says: “The Tao is always inactive and nothing can be done.”
From the day the virus was born, it seems that it knows how to follow the principles of nature, follow the trend, do not do unnecessary killings and fights, and only seek its own continuation.
The virus is very virulent and lethal after it has just come into contact with a new host or undergoes a large mutation into a new species, but over time, the virus will grow with Mutation to gradually eliminate the “hostility”, gradually become milder, so as to be able to coexist with the host for a long time.
The most interesting example was in Australia in the 1950s.
AustraliaAsia, as an island country that hangs in the ocean, originally had no rabbits in the country. Because British immigrant farmers wanted to hunt hares for fun, 24 rabbits were imported from Europe.
As a result, by the beginning of the 20th century, the number of these 24 cute rabbits had exceeded 10 billion due to the absence of natural enemies in the area. A large amount of cultivated land was destroyed by the rabbit army, which aroused people’s deep hostility to these rabbits. When hunting and poisoning were uncontrollable, people thought of viruses…
In 1950, a virus, Myxomavirus, was released into mosquitoes in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, and the mosquitoes quickly passed it on to rabbits. It is an extremely deadly virus for rabbits, with a fatality rate of 99.8%. According to statistics in 1952, myxoma virus killed 80% to 95% of wild rabbits in Australia, keeping the number of rabbits at an acceptable low level.
However, the virus mutated later, and the lethality rate to hares plummeted. In 1952, it was found that the lethality rate of myxoma virus to rabbits dropped to 90%. In just 6 years, the fatality rate continued to decline, and finally dropped to about 25%, and the number of wild rabbits quickly recovered. Now that the myxoma virus is no longer a threat to hares in Australia, people have to find new ways to reduce wild rabbit numbers.
The same is true for the Spanish flu virus that began in 1918. In the early stage, it only took 3 hours for patients to get sick from infection, and only 10 hours from the onset to severe death. It is conservatively estimated that the Spanish flu has Killed at least 30 million people worldwide.
In 1933, when scientists extracted the virus from the specimens preserved in that year, they found that its pathogenicity had dropped significantly, even milder than that of the common cold virus, which would only make people sick produce mild symptoms.
In order to be self-perpetuating, viruses appear to have evolved characteristics that reduce virulence and allow long-term coexistence with their hosts. Is this a very deep “strategy” of the virus city government?
Actually, when has a virus ever had intelligence, and how has it ever learned what strategies game theory possesses?
All of this is a natural result of constant evolution.
Evolution is random, and there are opportunities to move in all directions at the same time, but in the end what remains is the one that has advanced the furthest.
The same is true for viruses. In the process of infecting the host, only those evolutionary branches that reduce virulence and can coexist with the host for a longer time can obtain a longer reproductive cycle and more A wider chance of transmission (a virus that is too intense will die with the death of the host before it has time to spread).
No contest.
Tao is natural, Tao always does nothing and does nothing.
The virus neither seeks to eliminate anyone, nor does it deliberately compromise with anyone to seek coexistence.
The virus has no strategy, no city government, everything goes with the flow, just survive and multiply on its own.
It is precisely because it has no purpose and does not fight that the virus can make random attempts in all evolutionary directions, thus gaining more opportunities to continue itself.
What is the ultimate form of life?
Perhaps unlimited opportunities and possibilities are the ultimate form of life.
This may be the “way” of the virus’s survival, and people who understand it with heart can naturally get inspiration from it.
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