If viruses could think more clearly, maybe they would realize why they've failed so miserably to achieve their goal of world domination. Okay, it's a given that cold-causing rhinoviruses are ubiquitous and that HIV has wreaked some havoc. But then again, our bodies conquer the sniffles in a matter of days, and HIV has irked enough people that researchers are bound to foil it someday. And then there are bugs like smallpox and polio that have been nearly erased from the planet.
Biologist Paul Ewald points out that doctors used to believe all infectious agents would evolve toward benignity. It seemed logical at the time: If bacteria or viruses killed everyone, who would they have left to infect? But if you think about it, viruses with more voracious appetites for human flesh can beat out more benign versions when inside a person. Think of it like your hungriest cousin eating all the food at the Thanksgiving dinner table - no pumpkin pie left for anyone else! So instead of evolving to be harmless, viruses strive to be as nasty as possible (provided they keep you alive long enough to make it to someone else).
It's too bad viruses feel that way - if they wouldn't be so virulent, maybe we'd stop making vaccines and they could spread to everyone on Earth! They're just too short-sighted and insist on racing each other to eat our insides.
Obviously, viruses don't attend electrical engineering courses. If they did, maybe they would have learned about the Greedy Algorithm. As my buddy Tyler once told me, it's a programming strategy that always chooses the next closest point, or easiest solution at that point in time. At first it seems like a decent strategy, but imagine: If you take a roadtrip to visit all the state capitals, you might be able to plot a nice sweeping path that minimizes distance to save gas money. But if you always insist on traveling to the next closest city, you could end up going from Indianapolis to Columbus straight to Charleston, West Virginia. That means you've skipped Lansing and need to cross back into Ohio before heading through Michigan. Bummer!
It should be easy to avoid using the Greedy Algorithm when any electrical engineer can tell you it doesn't give the optimal solution. All you need is a little foresight. But we might repeatedly fail to have that kind of will power in our daily lives. We eat McDonald's because it's cheap and pay hundreds for gym memberships. We stay up cramming for tests and sleep in class. We save time by speeding and are stuck in traffic when someone crashes.
It's not just you and me - our whole world seems to apply the Greedy Algorithm for way more purposes than counting change. This (rather depressing) website chronicling the world's biggest problems suggests that it's not inter-species conflicts, but rather intra-species conflicts that are plaguing humanity. Massive debt, our demand for oil, unsustainable water use...it's not surprising that short-sightedness causes our biggest problems when it's the very nature of nature for us to be climbing all over each other to get ahead.
It's hard to compete against our instincts, but that's what our brains are for. Personal responsibility, compassion, and great ideas can help. Like this one about a new pump-operated water filter. It has 15 nm pores that are smaller than even the miniscule polio virus.
So we can beat microbes. But can we beat ourselves?
Biologist Paul Ewald points out that doctors used to believe all infectious agents would evolve toward benignity. It seemed logical at the time: If bacteria or viruses killed everyone, who would they have left to infect? But if you think about it, viruses with more voracious appetites for human flesh can beat out more benign versions when inside a person. Think of it like your hungriest cousin eating all the food at the Thanksgiving dinner table - no pumpkin pie left for anyone else! So instead of evolving to be harmless, viruses strive to be as nasty as possible (provided they keep you alive long enough to make it to someone else).
It's too bad viruses feel that way - if they wouldn't be so virulent, maybe we'd stop making vaccines and they could spread to everyone on Earth! They're just too short-sighted and insist on racing each other to eat our insides.
Obviously, viruses don't attend electrical engineering courses. If they did, maybe they would have learned about the Greedy Algorithm. As my buddy Tyler once told me, it's a programming strategy that always chooses the next closest point, or easiest solution at that point in time. At first it seems like a decent strategy, but imagine: If you take a roadtrip to visit all the state capitals, you might be able to plot a nice sweeping path that minimizes distance to save gas money. But if you always insist on traveling to the next closest city, you could end up going from Indianapolis to Columbus straight to Charleston, West Virginia. That means you've skipped Lansing and need to cross back into Ohio before heading through Michigan. Bummer!
It should be easy to avoid using the Greedy Algorithm when any electrical engineer can tell you it doesn't give the optimal solution. All you need is a little foresight. But we might repeatedly fail to have that kind of will power in our daily lives. We eat McDonald's because it's cheap and pay hundreds for gym memberships. We stay up cramming for tests and sleep in class. We save time by speeding and are stuck in traffic when someone crashes.
It's not just you and me - our whole world seems to apply the Greedy Algorithm for way more purposes than counting change. This (rather depressing) website chronicling the world's biggest problems suggests that it's not inter-species conflicts, but rather intra-species conflicts that are plaguing humanity. Massive debt, our demand for oil, unsustainable water use...it's not surprising that short-sightedness causes our biggest problems when it's the very nature of nature for us to be climbing all over each other to get ahead.
It's hard to compete against our instincts, but that's what our brains are for. Personal responsibility, compassion, and great ideas can help. Like this one about a new pump-operated water filter. It has 15 nm pores that are smaller than even the miniscule polio virus.
So we can beat microbes. But can we beat ourselves?
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