[FRIAM] the end of the pandemic

[Steven A Smith]

Glen -


> Aha! Excellent point! That viruses are parasites might be a critical issue, though. What do viruses really do for us? It's less a matter of whether they feel pain and more about parasitism. I hesitate to google "ethics of parasitism".

.. and now we tangent to mutualistic, commensal, and parasitic
symbiosis.  Viruses may or may not be strictly parasitic (if such an
absolute is even possible)...  it doesn't seem to be a far stretch to
suggest that humans have adapted to hosting viruses in many ways, some
as beneficial as compensatory.   Following the other lines of thought
here, it has been said that "pneumonia is the old man's friend" (not a
virus, but the same role).  Is not herd-culling of value to a species?  

I nominally borrow my ethics in this context from Albert Schweitzer's
"Reverence for Life" and his oft-quoted (by me mostly) line:

    /The most immediate fact of man’s consciousness is the assertion "I
    am life that wills to live in the midst of life that wills to live"/

    /— /Albert Schweitzer

This question took me nicely back to the Alife II conference in SFe in
1990 when these kinds of questions were still fairly fresh and young.  
I found a great "trip report" by another one of the attendee which
preserved a number of great anecdotes from some of the familiar names. 

http://shinyverse.org/larryy/ALife2.html

I think the most interesting to me (in that moment?) was a panel on the
Ontology of ALife...  probably good preparation for FriAM discussions...

    *Ontology of Artificial Life Panel with Peter Cariani, Steen
    Rasmussen, Norm Packard, Tom Toffoli, Robert Rosen and Elliot Sober*

The trip-report didn't trigger my memories beyond remembering that the
panel was a lot more lively and interesting than it's title would suggest.

Symbiotically yours,

 - Steve

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