Stupidity may be contagious!

I really had to read this carefully myself, and went to find more background after your reply. The fact it came out of such respected institutions at John Hopkins and U of N is what got my attention to give it more than passing interest.

I found a bit more and..yes, I admit. The media could make a trip to a porta-potty sound like a sensational epic to stop the presses and report over. Newsweek isn't quite so..sensationalist though and is more detailed in their assessment.


Visual centers seem to be most impacted by what they found, but not exclusive to those areas. Cognitive is also mentioned and the example of connecting numbers on a page is interesting. I'd have liked to see how that one was put together and presented for how much was cognitive and how much was visual tracking and pattern sorting. 

The tests run within mice are more telling on the deeper impacts of this little bug, or what may be the case anyway.

Source

Disturbing stuff, to be sure. Of course...all things in perspective. The fact they just discovered this as a brand new bug doesn't meant it IS brand new. I'd guess its something that has always been present, or been there a long time anyway. 

Its always interesting to learn more about how things work though, eh?

*********** CORRECTION:

The original OP story didn't address the issue much either way. Viruses are generally contagious in SOME form though (and in this case, they transmitted the virus perfectly well to other mammals for lab testing). Despite that, I need to note the Newsweek quotes indicate this is not "contagious" in the way the public might have kittens and flip out over...so it has been noted in both this last story I linked, and now by correction here. :)

@wrabbit2000,


Well, the pharmaceutical companies are  probably rubbing their hands together already coming up with a 'solution' for this so-called virus

Be expecting some high priced drug to help with the 'stupidity' virus, up until we start to see all the side effects from it which will be years later of course, then eventually the drug will be recalled but only after billions and billion of dollars have been made off of it

It's all about the money

 
 

Well, this makes an interesting question when you think about it. If you can find a virus in nature that has actual cognitive impact for making humans dumber? You can design a virus to tweak things in a way to have the opposite effect. Why not? Not instant.. I mean, you can't "gain" knowledge with a virus. You could suddenly find slightly better memory or visual tracking than before tho. Maybe, anyway. Like Lasik eye surgery can give 20/10 vision. Of course, done poorly.....you'll be "looking" upon a dog as more than a mere friend.

Before you know it, we'll have a pill or a poke for every desire. Including enhancements, both temp and permanent.

It reminds me of a Deus Ex game.

Me? I missed reading that. I just read a synopsis of it though, and it sounds really good. It would be interesting to see how he described the effects of time dilation, but I get the message of the book from what I did read. I may get that to read the whole thing.