u/L-Broshark-L

So according to the wiki expies were made using human, fox, rat, and some kind of avian dna. I want to focus particularly on the avian dna for this.

Throughout history most of the great plagues were caused by a disease from an animal jumping to humans.

-Ebola: apes to humans
-HIV: apes to humans
-the bubonic plague: rats to humans
-COVID-19: bats to humans
-rabies: mammals to humans
-mad cow disease: cattle to humans

Now something you may notice is that there is one thing they all share in common…they had a zoonotic shift along class lines (mammalia).

What does this have to do with our experiment friends? Well given their modifications and shared characteristics with other animals, (even ones from an entirely different class) this could make them act as a sort of bridge species for pathogens to jump to humans.

Look at it like this…a disease that’s evolved to infect birds is adapted to the biological systems and environment of that class. If the pathogen were to get into a human it would be like trying to fit a key for your house to an entirely different building. They’re not able to reproduce efficiently and get mopped up by the immune system quite quickly.

However, make something that is only partially human, but also shares some of the environment of the original species opens a whole Pandora’s box of possibilities. 99.9% of the pathogens will still not be able to reproduce effectively in the host, but that .1% might be able to establish a foothold and given millions of cycles of reproduction could begin to adapt to the proteins and environment of other neighboring cells even if they originated from another class.

To summarize: if we created something like the experiments we would run the risk of pathogens from something like birds to being able to use them as a bridge species to then further jump to humans. Diseases humanity likely would be woefully unprepared for. (Insert Plague Blossom from Plauge inc here)

Thanks for listening to my Ted talk. I’d like to note I am studying biology but am nowhere near the point of actually becoming a doctor yet so I might have some misinterpretations of infectious diseases this is just coming from what my current understanding is.

I don’t know why, but with the whole bioengineered people being used on exoplanets for a corporation while also having their natural life expectancy reduced to keep them from overpowering humanity. makes me see heavy bladerunner vibes.

I had never even heard of this game until it released on steam and I saw some YouTubers playing it. I saw that it was “the greatest survival gave you’ve never played” and it was free so I gave it a shot and oh my god am I having a blast! There’s just something so great about how unforgiving it is mixed with the grim atmosphere. I just can’t help but feel bad for the expies every time I play. Finally managed to get to layer 2 after four hours of playing, and it feels so great going through and learning the mechanics in a sort of trial and error. I know I’ve been gushing over this game right now, but it honestly might be the most fun I had in a survival game since I first played don’t starve together or project zomboid.

Anyway just wanted to share my thoughts nobody asked for.