RE: Re: starship-design: The Way ahead & Bugs

["L. Parker" <lparker@cacaphony.net>]

> It's clearly in the virus' worst interests to kill it's host off, which is
> why most deadly virii or bateria are mutations of "nuisance" diseases,
> which rarely killed, merely incapacitate/annoy.

This statement only applies in the context of the environment that includes
the virus and its "host". It does not apply when an alien host that did not
evolve in that environment is introduced. The example of the American
Indians has already been introduced byt someone else, but I would like to
point out that it was only a trivial example of what is possible. The
pathogens that decimated the American Indians at least shared _some_
evolutionary background. A pathogen capable of infecting a human that shared
none of our evolutionary background might not even be recognized as
dangerous by our immune system, it might even think our immune system was
the tastiest part! Sorry, but with alien microbes, ALL bet are off. We just
don't know what may be possible, and the possibilities are just too
frightening to contemplate.

Lee