Zombies - for real?

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Bruno

...
Again, there's some speculation (ie guessing) that based on the hypothetical link between Cat Ladies and T. gondii, its strategy in female rats may be to cause maternal attachment to cats. But since there's no evidence yet that Cat Lady Syndrome is actually caused by T. gondii that's really not worth the electrons this is written on.

Still, it's convenient (and funny) for me to blame my total addiction to cats on "having the brain-worms".

I'm one girlfriend away from being the cat man. Doubly weird because I only became a cat person after I developed a strong allergy to dogs. As a child, cats smelled as bad as skunks to me. Now they are a "comforting stink", and dogs smell horrible. Probably just a matter of constant exposure, but food for thought.

[Flyndaran]

Brain surgery is the parasitic wasp that initially stuns a roach, then carefully stabs it in just the right part of its brain to disable its fear and flee response. It them leads the host back to the nest.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Actually it's more complicated than that.

Yes, it is. I meant that statement hyperbolically. The behaivoral changes caused by T. gondi are extreme but are subtle compared to those of O. universalis on its typical host.

If there was a O. universalis like infection in humans we wouldn't be having puzzles about sexual promiscuity, cat ownership, and motorcycle statistics. We would know it based on the devasted cities with hundreds of thousands of corpses all on the same story roofs, facing the same way, with their butts in the air and a giant mushroom growing out of it!

[Flyndaran]

What if part of our present nature is because of a parasite that's yet to be discovered? Nice backdrop to an adventure as your characters test a new antibiotic that kills it off leaving you... different.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

What if part of our present nature is because of a parasite that's yet to be discovered?

Like in Tim Pratt's "On a Blade of Grass". Podcast here (but don't worry, below the "audio file of a person talking" there's the full text of the story too :] ).

[Flyndaran]

Interesting story.
But I don't see dangerous exploration as something the majority of humanity wants... just a very needed few.
But that makes me wonder what innate human characteristics might truly be abnormal as far as survivability is concerned.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Interesting story.
But I don't see dangerous exploration as something the majority of humanity wants... just a very needed few.
But that makes me wonder what innate human characteristics might truly be abnormal as far as survivability is concerned.

Xenophilia (either in the absolute or paraphillic sense) might be a good start.

And on a related topic, I recall reading somewhere that t. gondii is suspected of leading to increased promiscuity in human females and asocial behaviour in human males. Which is at variance with the traditional image of diogenetic cat hoarding (or indeed perhaps hording?) old ladies...