Thursday, 27 January 2011
Are my genes revolting?
Recently I have been reading an awful lot of literature on the interesting subject of Genetics. I have read into the wee small hours about the evolution of genes from the murky depths of the primordial soup, to the dizzy heights of the human brain, and yet the amount of information that is still waiting for me to digest it has got my neurons screaming for mercy and fainting under the stress of it all. I can imagine them mopping their brows with a handkerchief and smoking forty a day.
All I really know is that the genes that inhabit my body have worked together over many hundreds of thousands of years to eventually construct this conscious, self aware body. I am their gene machine. Well at the moment anyway. They have had various gene machines in their time and there will be many more after me. I have come to see them as my pets, even though technically I would be theirs. However, it's not very pleasing for me to consider myself as their equivalent of a golden retriever or gerbil.
Anyway, I am digressing. So I will get to the subject.
As I was waiting patiently for my bath to run I thought of my genes and the almost magical things they have done in their time. I stumbled into a thought about illness and the way my genes wage war on the unwanted intruders that I may pick up when I am out and about and I had a thought. I am a smoker as are many people in the world. I habitually light up about twenty cigarettes a day. I am aware that this does my body no good whatsoever. But I do love my poisonous little glowing sticks. My genes don't like this. (I know that they don't have feelings at all but bear with me on this) The genes purpose to my albeit limited knowledge is to live and to live on. That is their program if you like. Their itinerary. As the machine that carries them about, feeds and waters them and protects them from the elements, I am the being that they have built to protect them in order for them to achieve their goals of longevity. By smoking, I am not playing the game correctly. My genes can't be amused. I am making them work harder to keep me healthy, I am filling the beautiful machine they have built with a toxic substance approximately twenty times each day.
So what do they do? Obviously they can't think or feel. Otherwise they would be kicking me from within I presume, if they had legs of course. Effectively they carry on regardless. I may get cancer in the future, I may get heart disease or have stroke as a direct or indirect result of the cigarettes, but my genes? They will do nothing. Even though their itinerary says they should stay alive and reproduce. Or at least they will do nothing to me.
Genes are constantly evolving. That is a given. They keep trying to improve their chances of survival time after time. So to me there must come a time when the genes will realise that some things the machine does cause them the very thing they are trying so desperately to avoid. When this happens will they revolt against it? Will they develop through evolution a strategy for teaching the machine a lesson? Will they make the taste of cigarettes for example repulsive?, or maybe they will make the brain feel pain when a cigarette is smoked?, or make fried food taste like sewage?
The possibilities are endless when you think about it. Genes have succeeded in creating a vast expanse of weird and wonderful adaptations. Look at the Giraffe's neck for example, or the tongue of a frog darting out to catch it's prey. The cunning of a plant that smells like rotting flesh or even more bizarre the lizard who fires it's own blood out of it's eyes to keep predators at bay.
If you look around at these glorious things the thought of revolting genes doesn't sound so ludicrous after all.
All I really know is that the genes that inhabit my body have worked together over many hundreds of thousands of years to eventually construct this conscious, self aware body. I am their gene machine. Well at the moment anyway. They have had various gene machines in their time and there will be many more after me. I have come to see them as my pets, even though technically I would be theirs. However, it's not very pleasing for me to consider myself as their equivalent of a golden retriever or gerbil.
Anyway, I am digressing. So I will get to the subject.
As I was waiting patiently for my bath to run I thought of my genes and the almost magical things they have done in their time. I stumbled into a thought about illness and the way my genes wage war on the unwanted intruders that I may pick up when I am out and about and I had a thought. I am a smoker as are many people in the world. I habitually light up about twenty cigarettes a day. I am aware that this does my body no good whatsoever. But I do love my poisonous little glowing sticks. My genes don't like this. (I know that they don't have feelings at all but bear with me on this) The genes purpose to my albeit limited knowledge is to live and to live on. That is their program if you like. Their itinerary. As the machine that carries them about, feeds and waters them and protects them from the elements, I am the being that they have built to protect them in order for them to achieve their goals of longevity. By smoking, I am not playing the game correctly. My genes can't be amused. I am making them work harder to keep me healthy, I am filling the beautiful machine they have built with a toxic substance approximately twenty times each day.
So what do they do? Obviously they can't think or feel. Otherwise they would be kicking me from within I presume, if they had legs of course. Effectively they carry on regardless. I may get cancer in the future, I may get heart disease or have stroke as a direct or indirect result of the cigarettes, but my genes? They will do nothing. Even though their itinerary says they should stay alive and reproduce. Or at least they will do nothing to me.
Genes are constantly evolving. That is a given. They keep trying to improve their chances of survival time after time. So to me there must come a time when the genes will realise that some things the machine does cause them the very thing they are trying so desperately to avoid. When this happens will they revolt against it? Will they develop through evolution a strategy for teaching the machine a lesson? Will they make the taste of cigarettes for example repulsive?, or maybe they will make the brain feel pain when a cigarette is smoked?, or make fried food taste like sewage?
The possibilities are endless when you think about it. Genes have succeeded in creating a vast expanse of weird and wonderful adaptations. Look at the Giraffe's neck for example, or the tongue of a frog darting out to catch it's prey. The cunning of a plant that smells like rotting flesh or even more bizarre the lizard who fires it's own blood out of it's eyes to keep predators at bay.
If you look around at these glorious things the thought of revolting genes doesn't sound so ludicrous after all.
Thursday, 20 January 2011
Something is getting on my nerves.
There is something getting on my nerves. It has to do with the social networking world. Not particularly Facebook (Although that is the one I use) but all of them have something in common.
This is the status update from the pity party.
You know the one's. You may even be responsible for some off these yourself, although we are all entitled to a lapse of judgement once in a while. These status updates are a far from subtle ploy for attention and I personally find them revolting. I remember when I first started using Facebook and status updates were clever and interesting 80% of the time. It seems to me that people have just stopped trying. Everywhere I look there is someone complaining about their day or their life or other people. Fine. Nobody likes their 9-5 and there are times when other people can be really irritating, but posting it on Facebook? Really?
When I have a hard day and life has kicked me in the teeth which it has a habit of doing once in a while, the last thing I think of is looking for half a pound of cyber pity. I want to look at Facebook and feel cheered by the interesting and funny things people have been doing, I don't want to see a wash of misery. I have my own life for that. I'm sure if you are reading this you either agree, or you don't and you may be thinking "Why is she on Facebook if she doesn't like it?" Well my answer to that is, I still have faith in the people that use status updates for good.
This leads on nicely to the people who use the status to tell the world of a life lesson that they have recently grasped. These are utter bollocks. For example...."I have learnt that I shouldn't care about people that don't care about me." Or "I have realised that life is a gift and I should appreciate it."
Get a grip people! These are obvious! You haven't just discovered the cure for AIDS or been awarded a nobel peace prize! These "lessons" are things that everyone knows already and things that you should have learned years ago! If it has taken you until now to understand that you shouldn't care for arseholes you deserve to be treated like the douchebag you obviously are.
The last thing that makes me roll my eyes, are the vague and nonspecific insults aimed at other people on their friends lists, that are obvious to all and sundry but can't be argued against because of the nonspecific way they are worded. This is cowardly and ridiculous. For God's sake have the bottle to tell someone if they annoy you. If using the lowlife tactics aforementioned is the only way you see fit to have a go at somebody then your mother didn't tell you that if you can't say anything nice shut the hole in your face! Failing that, just delete them!
I think that concludes my ranting for today.
This is the status update from the pity party.
You know the one's. You may even be responsible for some off these yourself, although we are all entitled to a lapse of judgement once in a while. These status updates are a far from subtle ploy for attention and I personally find them revolting. I remember when I first started using Facebook and status updates were clever and interesting 80% of the time. It seems to me that people have just stopped trying. Everywhere I look there is someone complaining about their day or their life or other people. Fine. Nobody likes their 9-5 and there are times when other people can be really irritating, but posting it on Facebook? Really?
When I have a hard day and life has kicked me in the teeth which it has a habit of doing once in a while, the last thing I think of is looking for half a pound of cyber pity. I want to look at Facebook and feel cheered by the interesting and funny things people have been doing, I don't want to see a wash of misery. I have my own life for that. I'm sure if you are reading this you either agree, or you don't and you may be thinking "Why is she on Facebook if she doesn't like it?" Well my answer to that is, I still have faith in the people that use status updates for good.
This leads on nicely to the people who use the status to tell the world of a life lesson that they have recently grasped. These are utter bollocks. For example...."I have learnt that I shouldn't care about people that don't care about me." Or "I have realised that life is a gift and I should appreciate it."
Get a grip people! These are obvious! You haven't just discovered the cure for AIDS or been awarded a nobel peace prize! These "lessons" are things that everyone knows already and things that you should have learned years ago! If it has taken you until now to understand that you shouldn't care for arseholes you deserve to be treated like the douchebag you obviously are.
The last thing that makes me roll my eyes, are the vague and nonspecific insults aimed at other people on their friends lists, that are obvious to all and sundry but can't be argued against because of the nonspecific way they are worded. This is cowardly and ridiculous. For God's sake have the bottle to tell someone if they annoy you. If using the lowlife tactics aforementioned is the only way you see fit to have a go at somebody then your mother didn't tell you that if you can't say anything nice shut the hole in your face! Failing that, just delete them!
I think that concludes my ranting for today.
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