Red Queen

Since I've been sick these last couple days, sitting still in my bed, my mind has been busy at work while my body refuses. Being sick reminded me of a book I read about a year ago, called Red Queen: Evolution in Human Nature. It's about this constant race that humans have with bacteria and viruses. Our immune systems and viruses are constant adapting to do battle. A virus will evolve constantly until it can find a host. That host must adapt and evolve as well if they hope to beat the virus and return to good health. The author uses Lewis Carroll's character, The Red Queen, as a metaphor for this constant struggle. No matter how fast or long the Red Queen runs, she is always in the same place. It's an effective metaphor because the balance between human and microbes is ever-fragile. Each holding the keys to each other's destruction, yet never quite able to finish the job. This stuff is normally fascinating to me, but being sick gives me a chance to witness the exchange first hand.

My immune system is now struggling to defeat whatever internal infection I have. It could be bacteria or a virus. Either way, something is multiplying exponentially inside me. While the microbe multiplies, my immune system is busy not only trying to defeat the invader but also make copies for later. That microbe will never be able to penetrate again, even though it doesn't do much good. At the rate of reproduction, a virus can easily multiply thousands if not millions in a few days. Each of those viruses are different genetically, each hoping to find a host in which to replicate some more. Inside me, a battle is raging. My immune system will probably win out, but whatever I have will live on many generations. In the end, the microbes will win. They lose so many battes, but in the end they will win the war.

Evolution is always fascinating. Knowing that everything is always changing around us is stunning. We are always changing, but never really going anywhere. Our balance is at best tenous, and anything can happen at any time. It adds value to a world than many take for granted. The more I learn about little things like this, the more insignificant I feel. But it's not a bad insignificance. Even the most famous people of our time will be gone in a few hundred years as generations slowly forget. Being insignificant reminds me that everything continues on, whether anyone's here or not.