How to deal with alien viruses, existential dread and other mysteries of the universe
Facticity and transcendence are two useful terms that have recently entered my life but were first described by the philosopher Jean Paul Sartre in the 1940s. Facticity refers to a set of physical facts about an individual’s identity like age, height, career or weight while transcendence is a much broader term allocated for the potential, beliefs, fears and hopes an individual holds and embodies. The two terms embodying the dichotomies of what is and what could or ought to be. The utility of such terms in our day to day lives in describing and understanding others, in my opinion, is quite high. I bring these terms up here because they offer a very concise yet holistic way to understand and talk about people and their identities. To truly understand someone means to not only know their facticity but also accept what they care about and how they operate in the world to achieve their goals and ambitions. Understanding an individual’s values, self-image and existential identity are thus a route for understanding and engaging with their transcendence and determining their place in your world. The utility of these terms, at least to me, extend far beyond the scope of humans and objects. As with any idea, we can use facticity and transcendence as tools to interrogate the universe itself. In example, when considering aliens from outer space these terms can help in understanding how we describe aliens and what we ignore about them or rather should know about them. Similarly, viruses are also an ongoing facet of our world which can be considered along these two factors. In this piece, I will be using these terms to talk about viruses and aliens while showing how they can be one in the same and what this comparison can tell us about our world. I will also elaborate on these concepts using the dichotomy of is and could be or facticity and transcendence. In other words, I will show that what we don’t typically understand about the facticity or transcendence of viruses and aliens can be linked to expand our understanding of life beyond the stars and in the universe.
Viruses are something that have recently circulated back into the zeitgeist, but they are an ancient entity that has coexisted alongside humans and life in general for billions and billions of years. That is what we assume at least. No government on earth has been able to successfully register all of its viral citizens or even maintain their immigration, marital or birth status records (disappointing I know). The recent discoveries of giant viruses like Pithovirus sibericumave in Siberian permafrost and other parts of the world challenge some of the most common myths about the origins of viruses. Before moving any further, lets elaborate on the major theories regarding the origin of viruses before moving on to what newer findings can mean. Using familiar words, let us attempt to define the facticity of viruses as best we can with current information. There are three eminent theories for the origins of viruses today. The first and currently most valued theory for the origins of viruses is the “Progressive Hypothesis”. Herein, viruses are considered elements of living cells which progressively gained traits that allowed them to leave the organism they originally called home to instead start infecting other cells and allow progressive infection, replication and growth in a parasitic fashion. In this hypothesis, a living cell gave birth to a “non-living” parasitic element which uses other living cells to grow and metabolize. Not unlike how someone on the internet generates a meme which inevitably slips away from its creators’ control, as it infects tens of millions of phone screens across the corners of the internet.
Another popular theory for the origin of viruses is the “Regressive Hypothesis”, which states that viruses at one point were free living organisms like bacteria, fungi or your friends before they got married. Over time however, they lost unnecessary functions and became obligate parasites completely dependent on other organisms and borrowing cellular machinery for themselves. An evolution towards complete dependence and a minimalist approach to life (again, just like your married friend). Lastly, we have the “Virus-First Hypothesis” which labels viruses as a key precursor to all living cells. Viruses were thus the first beings to climb out of the primordial soup of raw proteins, RNA and DNA which birthed all life on this planet. The simple building blocks joining together like Legos over eons to form humans or the humble platypus. This latter theory however is difficult to prove because its hard to justify an egg or parasite coming into existence before a chicken or host, but none the less it aligns with other theories which state that RNA based life was a key precursor to all life on this planet. Coincidently, the current Corona virus plaguing the world is an RNA virus. Could it then possibly be some ancient lifeform or leviathan, awoken from a deep hyperbolic slumber by humans? We may never know. These theories as you may recognize aren’t all facts and are in fact very difficult to prove without extraordinary evidence. However, each theory also only captures a fraction of the transcendent truth of what viruses represent in our world. On the scales of facticity and transcendence, its anyone’s guess where one theory lies compared to the rest.
I mention earlier that the discovery of giant viruses’ kind of dampens some of the facticity of where viruses exactly come from and lets look at why that is exactly. This information also serves as an excellent jumping off point for a little dive into the concept of genetic economy. Giant viruses like Pithovirus sibericumave utilize the cytoplasm of their hosts and are bigger than some bacteria, this means they are unlikely to be former cellular components or to have evolved into such a large size when they are dependent on host infection for their metabolism. That is unless we also postulate that there were giant organisms for these giant viruses to parasitize in the past which conveniently disappeared. Otherwise, the larger size goes against genetic economy which is the innate biological selection for efficiency. In example, viruses can get more done with fewer genes and proteins which means they have very high genetic economy. This economy is thus based on efficiency and the ability to do much much more with little to nothing. Alternatively, a human being needs to mature, go through puberty and have an awkward talk with their parents about the birds and bees to be able to procreate. That is, if, they do not get rejected too much and end up developing intimacy issues. Whereas a virus just needs a (non-consenting) host, a handful of proteins and it is set for “life”. Literally. If anything, the discovery of giant-sized viruses indicates a strong possibility that viruses were a primordial form of life which may have evolved independently of any hosts. A sister branch on the tree of life going back eons. Despite these developments however, it is still difficult to prove how viruses may relate to ancient life because we have no way of going back to the hypothetical primordial soup and tasting its many secret ingredients and complex flavors.
Another type of giant virus is Pandoravirus which has more genes than many other larger and more complex organisms which have actual metabolism and functions outside of a host. Carrying an excess of genes is also a sign of poor genetic economy. Why waste space and precious proteins in replication when you can get by with fewer, more useful genes. As a point of reference, approximately ten percent of human DNA rarely if ever does anything but still gets replicated in every cell of the body during each replication cycle. Another example of our poor genetic economy. This discovery in viruses however, reflects poorly on theories which state that viruses are genetic elements that left existing organisms. Had such viruses been around for centuries, they would have lost most of that genetic baggage over time. Why would a parasitic virus need more genes than its host organism if it left to become a more efficient parasite? What type of evolutionary pressure would cause such trends to appear? Another major issue supplying fuel to these burning questions is that both of the giant viruses I have mentioned by name are DNA viruses. Which means that they can’t be traced back to ancient RNA based life which potentially existed before DNA had yet to present itself onto the worlds stage. Leading to more questions involving chickens and eggs. Truly, the story of viruses is a complex one, with twists and turns that prevent it from being unraveled by scientific hands. That being said, lets proceed now to the transcendent nature of viruses and expand upon what they could mean rather than what they are.
If viruses don’t seem alien enough already let us speculate and delve further to consider the transcendent potential that viruses hold as potential aliens from beyond the stars. For the sake of brevity, lets start at a specific point in our infinite universe. Let’s start this story at one of the 79 moons of Jupiter. A planet serendipitously named after the roman king of the gods. The name of this special moon is Europa, and it is special because it is made almost entirely of ice and water. The essence of life and soup. What’s even more impressive is that its core holds temperatures high enough to turn mundane materials into biomolecules. Heat and water put together are the backbone of any stew, including the primordial variety which was once served here on earth. A recipe which all scientists are eager to find. So what of this distant potential cauldron of life? How does this relate to life on earth? Well, it has long been hypothesized that life on earth began when life from elsewhere impregnated the earth and then differentiated into the other forms of life we see today. This theory is called the “Panspermia Hypothesis”. It suggests that life may have floated in along debris onto virgin planets like earth and fertilized it with life. In this process, creating or utilizing the newly developed atmosphere to evolve life and the planet itself into what we now see around us. Life then, in all its forms and flavors according to this hypothesis came from an alien source. Perhaps the initial source for life was an aforementioned space cauldron orbiting Jupiter, spewing out primal life across our solar system. Life birthed by Jupiter, searching for ripe places to land until it found just as much here on earth. Making us and viruses alike sister branches diverging from a common lifeform.
What do we really know about this primal life then? Interestingly, recent research on the international space station showed that archaea and bacteria like Deinococcus radiodurans could survive in the vacuum of space for up to three years. Withstanding radiation, extreme cold, zero-gravity and a lack of nutrients or even an atmosphere. While that’s not exactly evidence for a hypothesis, it certainly hints at possibilities for primal life traveling through space. In this specific instance, these simple single celled organisms can do much much more than larger organisms like humans can and with a fraction of the biological effort. While we have evolved to need food, shelter, love, attention, student loans and spaceships to colonize space, perhaps other life has evolved simpler solutions. We come back then to genetic economy. Humans are relatively mediocre when it comes to utilizing the maximum potential of our genes. We have thousands of genes and large segments of DNA in each cell which seemingly do nothing while expending precious resources every time we need new cells. What’s worse, some DNA decides to make your life especially harder by debilitating you from the moment you’re conceived either figuratively or literally. Even that DNA adds cost to our precious genetic economy throughout a lifetime. If things weren’t bad enough, viruses routinely hijack our, bacterial and archaeal DNA and live inside it permanently, using hosts as continuous replication and infection machines. Herpes and HIV are prominent examples of this in humans. They join our genome and lay dormant, replicating every time our cells do, using us as they please and making use of our most basic needs as an opportunity to grow via infection. A brilliant strategy for exponential reproduction and growth while offering another potentially easy out to space travel. Aboard an astronaut, or any other unsuspecting conduit. Not a single cent of debt required to secure genetic survival and optimize intergalactic incursion. Were such organisms to be cast out into space and survive on their own or in a host, they would be able to colonize the universe for a fraction of what it would take humans to do the same. Biologically and practically. A truly terrific ability. That is to say, if this isn’t already the case.
When we portray aliens in film, they are almost always superior to us. However, they are also typically presented as a projection of us and embody some aspect of our basic tendencies or physical traits. Aliens, however, have no facticity. I would go as far as to argue that they are pure transcendence. They are everything which we fear, aspire to and can dream of. How then can we elaborate on their facticity? I would say that we simply look at an obvious aspect of earth, viruses or microbes in general. We then connect the dots between the facticity of viruses to the transcendence that is the concept of an alien. Human viruses are a meager subset of all viruses. The majority of viruses are actually dependent on the dominant form of life on this planet. That being, bacteria. We are just an insignificant target for viruses when we consult a bigger picture. Microorganisms make up the dominant portion of our biosphere and yet we have a tendency to anthropomorphize alien life as having green skin or eyes. Egotistically insisting that aliens would need something as trivial as skin in the first place.
Realistically, its very unlikely that aliens are little green humanoids with bug eyes. They are more likely to be like bacteria, archaea and the viruses which parasitize them. We may yet find conclusive proof of this if we only begin to start sampling the supposed lifeless void of space for any tiny little unseen invaders from beyond. I am not one to dampen anyone’s fantasy of meeting superior life, so I insist that we remember that genetic economy is a profound sign of biological evolution and measure of superiority. Cancer, metabolic and genetic disorders and defects mainly arise from having too many vulnerable genes. In this frame of reference viruses, bacteria, fungi and archaea are immune to such things and can be considered as superior in their modes of life. At least in strictly biological terms. Furthermore, learning from these organisms and their adaptations to space can still provide us the unimaginable futuristic technology required to start exploring the stars. Not unlike many of our beloved works of science fiction. These organisms can ultimately be the aliens we have been searching for, just hiding in the last place we can imagine looking.
With revolutionizing space travel and genetic sequencing, we are now approaching answers to some of the greatest questions about our universe. As discussed, if we find evidence of viruses or in fact any microbial life successfully traversing the void of space, we can begin to understand the nature of life in our universe. Any such encounters of the close and microscopic kind will be a gigantic and far-reaching breakthrough for the evolution of life and endeavors to colonize distant planets. Studying such unique cells alone can lead to new technologies and potential breakthroughs relating to cellular metabolism for space travel. Humans may one day be able to survive in the void of space without any ugly jumpsuits that make them look fat if other living cells can do the same. That is the futuristic technology we can uncover if we meet microbial aliens. This is a hypothetical but promising outcome of our renewed interest in space travel and colonization. Not as dramatic as finding a UFO or ancient obelisk full of wonders but equally as profound. What these new paradigms and avenues of research will uncover are mostly speculation as of now, but we must also consider the consequences of potentially introducing microbial life in space if it doesn’t already exist there. Every human mission to space holds the potential to inadvertently be the catalyst for spreading life across the universe. The story then can be very cyclical as it begins and ends with us. Humanity being the gods of these microbial cosmonauts who die on their own home world while their satellites and waste from space go on to create new life and subsequently a version of this article pondering the same subject matter. Another loop in a cycle of life and death, if panspermia is the truth behind life in the universe. To curtail this however, steps are taken today to prevent the latter scenario as much as possible. This would contaminate our own efforts to identify microbes in space as well as alter the nature of any life we come across. Thus, we must seek out the truth while minimizing contamination if we are to succeed in making contact with any potential ancient life. Caution is the key to our quest for facticity as it should be in all endeavors seeking truth.
Coming back to the term’s facticity and transcendence. We can study microorganisms, Europa and space in as much empirical detail as possible. This can offer us all of the facticity in the universe but even with that, we may never completely understand the origins of these organisms, life in general or find the key to unlocking space. To understand the universe, we will always require facticity and transcendence. A set of facts about the universe and how they fit existentially in our world view which is relative and constantly changing. Transcendence in this instance would require something along the lines of acknowledging the potential of each microorganism as being a potentially distant traveler having come to earth at some point in history and making a home for itself. If we were to look at the potential each organism holds and study it with an open mind, we may yet discover more facticity. The power of such a paradigm shift is something profound and pervasive, not just in science. This is the utility offered when looking at the world using the dualistic scales of facticity and transcendence. I would encourage you the reader to look at the people in your life through this lens. To not just focus on the facts that make them who they are but the potential they hold, believe in and wish to reach. That is the key to understanding in my humble opinion. Not just understanding the people in your life but to understanding aliens, viruses and any other subject that you may be interested in.
As a summation and conclusion, let me draw upon the work of another great sociologist and philosopher to exemplify the power of ideas and reinforce the conceptual reality of viruses ruling existence through genetic economy. In his work Simulacra and Simulation (1981), Jean Baudrillard wrote extensively about how symbols, society and media work in tandem to construct an understanding of existence. This work was later adapted into the fantastic Matrix films first released in 1999. In the films, our society is shown to be a simulation created by machines to utilize humans as unwitting batteries powering their reality. Our reality then was something created by our metallic overlords to keep humans docile, distracted and unaware of the cold hard truth. The submission, control and helplessness masked by layers of simulation. Viruses similarly utilize humans like powerhouses to propagate and exist. However, we are blissfully unaware of their intentions, purpose and origins. Until recently they rarely occupy the same symbols, ideas or place in our society as say distractions like work, love, professional sports or natural disasters. We are kept veiled from the truth that we are a meager fraction of the life on this planet much less the universe beyond. A microscope being the only tool able to lift the veil of our simulated reality. Despite these facts, we live in a very boxed in version of reality where careers, love, values and happiness are our major preoccupation when the rest of the life on this planet hasn’t even bothered to evolve more than one type of cell much less contemplate loneliness or existential dread. It may not be coincidence that other forms of life shine brightest when we lose the glamor of our symbolic economies and instead look at genetic economy. It is important then to look at the world in broader terms and with an open mind. We may already be in a simulation of a life, distracted from our biological roles as batteries designed by superior microbial forms of life, pulling the strings of our existence from within, without and even from across the stars.
I hope this piece inspires you my reader to reach out to more people, learn their truths as they are and what they aspire to be. I hope it helps you look beyond your own facticity which may seem important but is only a fraction of who you are and can be. Often, we lose track of our place in this universe so having a compass of ideas is one way to navigate the reality we come across everyday. It is my hope to have offered you some directions in science, research and understanding. Lastly, I would like to thank the great viral overlords hiding beyond the macroscopic veil for letting me live and write this in their honor before returning to my own simulation of life as should we all.
