Brain invaders: breeding ideological parasites

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

Parasitism is extremely common. Parasites are found among most groups of animal species and account for about 40%. Separate groups of parasites originate from various free-living ancestors and arose independently of each other, in different periods of organic evolution.

Parasites survive at the expense of another organism - usually by feeding on it. But this is not always the case. The most sophisticated members of the group often force their owners to commit acts that are not typical for them - for example, suicide.

Cordyceps mushroom one-sided (Ophiocordyceps unilateralis) is a type of fungi that parasitize carpenter ants. The spores of this parasitic fungus enter the ant's body and grow inside its body. An infected ant turns into a lonely wanderer in search of the ideal place to live for its owner - a place with optimal humidity and temperature. When it is found, the ant climbs as high as possible and attaches itself to the central vein of the leaf. There, a mushroom sprouts from the insect's head, spreading spores downwind.

The lanceolate fluke or Lancet fluke (Dicrocoelium dendriticum) is a tiny brainworm, a parasite that needs to enter the stomach of a sheep or cow in order to continue its life cycle. Fluke captures the brain of an ant passing by and forces it - in the truest sense of the word - to commit suicide. During the day, an infected ant behaves normally, but at night, instead of returning to the anthill, it climbs high on the stalks of grasses and grabs them with its jaws. Sheep and other ungulates eat the infected ants along with the grass, becoming the final hosts of the parasite.

The nematode worms (Myrmeconema neotropicum) parasitize the tree ants of the species Cephalotes atratus - these ants feed on pollen, as well as bird feces, which they collect from the leaves of trees. This is how insidious parasites enter the body of an ant, after which they lay eggs in the abdomen of insects. The belly of an infected ant becomes berry-like, and berries are known to attract birds - the ultimate goal of nematodes. On top of that, the infected ants lift their abdomen and become slower.

The hair worms or zombie parasites Spinochordodes tellinii infect grasshoppers and crickets. Spinochordodes tellinii are worms that live and reproduce in water. Grasshoppers and crickets ingest microscopic larvae when drinking contaminated water. Once inside the host organism, the larvae begin to develop. When they grow up, they inject chemicals into the insect's body that sabotage the grasshopper's central nervous system. Under their influence, the insect jumps into the nearest reservoir, where it subsequently drowns. In the water, the parasites leave the deceased host and the cycle begins again.

The parasitic protozoan Toxoplasma gondii has become widely known. Its life cycle passes through two hosts: an intermediate (any warm-blooded vertebrate, such as a mouse or a human) and a final (any representative of the feline family, such as a domestic cat). Rodents infected with Toxoplasma cease to be afraid of the cat smell and begin to strive for its source, becoming easy prey.

Does something like this happen to people?

To answer this question, it is enough to recall the science fiction novel by Robert Heinlein "The Puppeteers". It tells about the quiet invasion of the Earth by parasites from Titan, who live on the back of people and completely subjugate their will.

But the parasite does not need to have a physical shell. There are many ideas in the world for which people are ready to lay down their lives: truth, justice, freedom, communism, Christianity, Islam. Remember how many carriers of these ideas sacrificed themselves, thereby ensuring their survival and dissemination.

American cognitive philosopher Daniel Dennett, in a lecture on dangerous memes for Ted Talks, compared such ideas to parasites. In his opinion, the brains of most people living on the planet are captured by parasitic ideas.

Memes

In 1976, the book "The Selfish Gene" by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins was published. In it, the scientist suggested that culture develops according to the laws of genetics, and Darwinism went beyond biology. Having substantiated the gene-centric view of evolution, Dawkins introduced the term "meme" into the lexicon.

A meme is a unit of information that is significant for culture. A meme is any idea, symbol, manner or mode of action that is consciously or unconsciously transmitted from person to person through speech, writing, video, rituals, gestures, etc

In other words, every time you are touched by photographs of cats, paint eggs for Easter and shake hands with friends, you become a witness of the struggle for survival, waged by ideas, or memes.

Dawkins calls living organisms "gene survival machines." From the point of view of biology, we are all instruments in the struggle of selfish genes against each other. Four billion years ago, a DNA molecule floating in a primordial soup learned to make copies of itself. Today it also adjusts to its environment by continuing to replicate itself.

Memes are analogs of genes in the world of information. They mutate, reproduce, compete with each other, and compete for their place in the sun among hosts. The meme with the most copies wins. In order for an idea to become a meme, it must contain something that will allow its carriers to reproduce it without problems. For example, eternal images - Hamlet, Prometheus, Don Juan, or wandering plots - stories about a beauty and a monster, wandering from one culture to another.

Evolution acts blindly, without outside guidance, although the results of natural selection create the illusion of intelligent behavior of genes. In Dawkins' theory, memes also understand the laws of human nature. We may feel that they deliberately exploit a wide variety of topics - from danger to group identity. This is why it is so easy to fall prey to dangerous memes. Everything seems natural and … reasonable. Especially if the idea is supported by the majority.

How ideas are spread

Ideas or "brain parasites" adapt and multiply in a way similar to viral epidemics. A team of scientists from the University of Colorado at Boulder (USA) used an epidemiological model to track how scientific ideas travel from one institution to another. The model showed that ideas originating in prestigious institutions cause larger “epidemics” than equally good ideas from less well-known places.

Another study, published in the American Psychological Association's journal Psychological Science in 2013, identified for the first time an area of the brain associated with the successful spread of ideas. According to the author of the study, Matthew Lieberman, people have adapted to look at things from the point of view of benefits not only for themselves, but also for those around them. “We are programmed to share information with other people. I think this is a profound statement about the social nature of our consciousness,”says Lieberman.

In the first part of the study, 19 students had MRI scans after watching 24 video ideas for future television programs. In the course of the study, students were asked to imagine themselves as trainees in television studios, who would recommend the show to “producers,” giving ratings for each video they watched.

Another group of 79 undergraduates was asked to act as "producers". These students watched the trainee-rated videos and then posted their own ratings for the show.

The researchers found that "trainees" who were particularly good at persuading "producers" had significant activation in an area of the brain known as the temporo-parietal junction, or temporo-parietal junction, while they were first exposed to experimental ideas that later recommended. These students showed increased brain activity in the temporo-parietal ganglion region than their less convincing colleagues in the experiment, and moreover, the activity increased when they were introduced to ideas that the subjects did not like.

By studying neural activity in these areas of the brain, the authors of the study believe, it is possible to predict which types of advertising will be most effective or infectious.

Needless to say, what a fertile ground for the dissemination of a wide variety of ideas is the Internet, in particular, social networks. And if scientific ideas traveling from one university to another cannot be called dangerous, then hundreds of articles, videos and comments on the Internet are infected with far from harmless ideas - from the benefits of homeopathy and the reality of magic to religious fundamentalism.

Dangerous ideas

Bearers of ideas try to spread them among others. Thus, on the face of a deep biological effect - the subordination of genetic interests to other interests. No other species does anything like this.

Each of us is responsible not only for the dissemination of certain ideas, but also for the possible abuse of them. There are plenty of ideas that have become sources of evil. This is because it is very easy to turn a seemingly harmless idea into a destructive one, by perverting its essence. This is why ideas are dangerous.

One of the reasons why we are influenced by parasitic ideas is closely related to the mechanism of human thinking - we make systematic errors, the main source of which lies in the principles of the functioning of cognition. For example, we often build erroneous causal relationships, trying to find a connection even where there is none. Here is what biologist Alexander Panchin writes about this in his book Defense Against the Dark Arts:

• Idea Epidemic (Scientific American 320, 2, 14 (February 2019))
• Alexander Panchin "Protection from the Dark Arts" (Chapter 10 - Death Eaters - Servants of Evil)
• How and where ideas spread
• Dan Dennett - Lecture on Dangerous Memes for Ted Talks
• Richard Dawkins "The Selfish Gene" (Chapter 11 - Memes - New Replicators)