Explaining magic from a genetic point of view

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Since ancient times, people have dreamed of superpowers. Think about it, in all pagan beliefs, the gods are humanoid. In addition, according to the beliefs of the ancients, giants wandered among people - children of gods and mortals. And the gods themselves, even though Olympus, even Asgard, even though Iria, have repeatedly wandered among people.

In the end, even the heroes of their time were numbered among the gods for their great deeds. Naturally, people tried to explain something incomprehensible or supernatural through the gods. But why are all gods like humans? After all, nothing happens just like that …

Fairy tales or history?

At archaeological excavations, the remains of humanoid creatures have been repeatedly discovered, but many times more than that of a modern man … Thus, we come to the conclusion that the giants are not such mythical creatures, but quite a place to be.

Heroes are, apparently, people who worked on themselves twenty-five hours a day. But the gods, as they are called in myths and odes, who are they? Think about it, if they repeatedly descended to earth, wandered the world and even copulated with mortals, were they gods, or is this another lost niche of human evolution?

Pipe dreams

One way or another, human superpowers have always interested humanity. So in 1938, Superman appears - the image of who every boy, big or small, would like to become.

The military is still racking its brains over the creation of a super soldier. It began even before the birth of Christ. Before the battle, the Vikings ate hallucinogenic mushrooms, Mexican Indians still use the intoxicating peyote cactus, also many Indians smoked various herbs, ate raw animal hearts, and all to discover new abilities, new powers …

Such rituals have always been carried out, and in the forties of the last century, they probably reached their peak. When Germany and the USSR were more than interested in creating a super soldier, without emotions and needs for food, water, sleep.

In the conditions of the world war, all means were used. But, unfortunately, neither genetic research, nor the work of chemists and biologists, nor even experiments on humans have given the desired result.

Meanwhile, here and there superhumans appear. Some have tremendous physical strength, without any training there, others can bend like snakes, others absolutely do not feel pain … There are a huge number of such options and these are by no means comics …

Underdeveloped or … just different

So, for example, the well-known fact about the superpowers of autists in the exact sciences makes one think. Autism is a genetic mutation that causes brain damage. People suffering from this disease most often have very low social skills. They have problems with verbal speech, but at the same time they can carry out such calculations in their head for which an ordinary person simply needs a powerful computer.

Some blind people have learned to use echolocation, like bats or dolphins. So, the American Ben Underwood went blind at the age of only three years, but nature did not leave him to his fate and endowed him with exceptional hearing. He literally hears space and can move absolutely independently, even without seeing anything with his eyes.

Daniel Smith is a "rubber" man who has been confirming his record for the Guinness Book of Records as the most flexible person in the world for many years. In fact, he is not the first and not the last person with such abilities - there are other "gutta-percha" people, they are able to bend their body as they please, without the slightest harm to health.

Blessing or curse?

There are those who do not feel pain at all. It would seem a great gift, but pain is the body's signaling system, and a person who does not feel pain may simply bleed out without even noticing it. Ashlyn Blocker's parents, girls with an innate resistance to pain, are forced to hire people who follow her everywhere and make sure that no bad happens.

Although nature has repeatedly surprised people with such "charms". For example, the hormones endorphins are released in huge quantities when a person is injured and no one is around. Thus, a person can hold out without losing consciousness from pain until help arrives in time.

How do you explain magic?

"Where do such talents come from?" - you ask. Scientists answer - it's all about the human genome. The genome is the totality of human genetic information, the totality of absolutely all genes. An interesting fact is that absolutely all cells of the body have all the genetic material, but they use only certain genes that are needed specifically in this cell. The rest of the genes are "put to sleep" by special proteins - sirtuins.

Everything is logical and practical, if not for one trifle - the human body uses a negligible number of genes - less than 10% of their total number. Including two, perhaps, the most interesting genes: temporary and modifier gene.

The first of them is responsible for awakening "dormant" genes, it determines the time and place of their activation. Unfortunately, scientists are not yet clear on how this gene works. Some DNA elements one day simply "awaken" under its influence, and begin their work … Who knows how many more properties and possibilities are hidden in the nucleus of a human cell? And what forces are dormant in a person?..

The modifier gene, in turn, affects all other carriers of heredity. He is able to increase the strength of the manifestation of their properties hundreds of times. For example: in a family where parents have slightly curly hair, a super-curly child may be born, and the modifier gene will be to blame.

Thanks to these two genes, most of the superpowers are explained: one gives new abilities, the second enhances existing ones. This can happen with absolutely any property of any gene!

So what will happen to people if the dormant genes start waking up? Will we become immortal and powerful?