[Fanghur]

I was watching the movie '28 Days Later' the other day (no pun intended) and I couldn't help but wonder whether anything like the Rage Virus was possible even in theory.

Now please don't think I'm an idiot for even asking this. I am a microbiology student and know full well that the behaviour of the virus in the movie is absolute nonsense; there is no way that any virus could not only enter the cell, but also replicate to such a massive extent as to cause any sort of disease over the course of ~10-20 seconds as portrayed in the film, even the fastest viruses know to man take at least an 20 minutes to replicate in their host. That part is just a bunch of Hollywood BS.

But aside from the Rage Virus's replication time, which as I said above is absolutely ridiculous, is it possible for a virus to cause effects at all similar to the Rage Virus; i.e. uncontrollable rage, violence, constant adrenaline being released and giving the infected enhanced strength, etc? I mean there is obviously the Rabies virus, which can cause increased aggression in animals, but it doesn't completely deprive them of their free will. Is it possible even in principle for a virus to reduce a human being to little more than a mindless killing machine, in any amount of time?

P.S. the virus doesn't have to be natural; it could also be engineered, as in the film.

[Hypercube]

I'm glad to hear that you know how ridiculous the movie's replication time is. lol. It might be possible, although I doubt it would be to the same extent as in the movie. That's most likely just Hollywood. But I could be wrong, since I don't know much about neurology.

[UserX]

Some say thought travels faster than the speed of light. So if our brains can some how process thought waves then it could manifest itself in a virus like way. For instance mob mentality. Look at whats happening in Europe and the middle east. Spontaneous violent mobs arise from people who don't usualy act in such a manner. In this case/theory all it would take is a group of individuals with bad intentions/thoughts to make a a crowd of people react in a similar manner to the hosts. This "mob mentality” has been documented many times. In most cases people who have no intent on causing damage or destruction are pulled into the mob. Recently (the mobs in England) a child was asked why he joined the mob he answered that he didn't know. So there may be an underlying mental effect that we don't understand. It’s a known fact that as we “evolved” we lost some of our basic senses, or at least the ability to use them in a fine capacity like many animals do today. We know that in our bodies our mind causes chemical reaction to stimuli (pheromones, testosterone, etc.) If thoughts travel on waves like other energy does then it not a far stretch to envision these thought pattern waves physically effecting someone else. The study of twins sheds more light on that subject. also see mob mentality.


We are so inhibited by what we are told we cant do that we fail to strive for the impossible.

X

[Ringer]

UserX, on 15 August 2011 - 04:53 PM, said:

Some say thought travels faster than the speed of light. So if our brains can some how process thought waves then it could manifest itself in a virus like way. For instance mob mentality. Look at whats happening in Europe and the middle east. Spontaneous violent mobs arise from people who don't usualy act in such a manner. In this case/theory all it would take is a group of individuals with bad intentions/thoughts to make a a crowd of people react in a similar manner to the hosts. This "mob mentality" has been documented many times. In most cases people who have no intent on causing damage or destruction are pulled into the mob. Recently (the mobs in England) a child was asked why he joined the mob he answered that he didn't know. So there may be an underlying mental effect that we don't understand. It's a known fact that as we "evolved" we lost some of our basic senses, or at least the ability to use them in a fine capacity like many animals do today. We know that in our bodies our mind causes chemical reaction to stimuli (pheromones, testosterone, etc.) If thoughts travel on waves like other energy does then it not a far stretch to envision these thought pattern waves physically effecting someone else. The study of twins sheds more light on that subject. also see mob mentality.


We are so inhibited by what we are told we cant do that we fail to strive for the impossible.

X

Thought doesn't travel faster than light, it's electrical and chemical signals. Neither of these travel faster than light.



To the OP, if there were a virus like this it would be unbelievably difficult for it to maintain the kind of activity forced upon the host. The enhanced metabolism would cause the host to die very quickly. It's possible a virus like that to exist, but it wouldn't be very productive.

[CharonY]

On the other hand, certain parasites are known to affect behavior, such as Leucochloridium paradoxum. Also the common rabies at least affects excitability in humans. Also diseases that may damage nervous tissue can result in aberrant behavior. I would not think that anything like a mindless killing machine is likely, but increased aggression, sure.

[John Cuthber]

I think you will find it's perfectly possible in French.

[Arete]

There's plenty of cool examples of parasites that modify host behaviour to suit the parasite:

certain fungal infections cause ants to climb to the top of a plant an bite down, assisting the spread of the fungus' pores: http://neurophilosop...-by-a-parasite/
Toxoplasma gondii makes mice unafraid of cats, in which it reproduces: http://www.ncbi.nlm....6?dopt=Abstract
rabies makes a host more aggressive, guinea worms create burning pain, which drives hosts to water in which it reproduces, liver flukes in killifish make them less predator weary, nematodes can make grasshoppers jump into water http://www.newscient...death-dive.html, etc.

so the fundamental concept of a parasite modifying host behavior is entirely plausible, though most real world examples are less dramatic than the Hollyowood interpretation.

[UserX]

Ringer, on 15 August 2011 - 05:46 PM, said:

Thought doesn't travel faster than light, it's electrical and chemical signals. Neither of these travel faster than light.



To the OP, if there were a virus like this it would be unbelievably difficult for it to maintain the kind of activity forced upon the host. The enhanced metabolism would cause the host to die very quickly. It's possible a virus like that to exist, but it wouldn't be very productive.

yes ty I know good point but i was actually talking about thought as an energy wave not electrochemical. Its just a concept Im not backing it up and the poster asked for possibilities in principles not stated facts. There are a few articles about this on the net. like information transfer being faster than light and that what thought waves are information transfer. Thank you for your comments

http://www.nature.co....2008.1038.html

X

[Magdalene]

I saw this film also 28 weeks after:) I think that could be the hybrid. Engineering manipulation is very interesting but dangerous too. Long time ago I read a book (about conspiracy theories) that HIV its hybride leukemia limphocytes T virus HTLV (retrovirus) + inflammation brain of sheep, its hard to say its true.

[PhDwannabe]

Quote

i was actually talking about thought as an energy wave not electrochemical

This is insensible.

[brodmannstwentysecond]

CharonY, on 15 August 2011 - 05:55 PM, said:

I would not think that anything like a mindless killing machine is likely, but increased aggression, sure.

I'm curious about the definition of "mindless killing machine" (I haven't seen the film in question), because the aggression of rabid animals is often both mindless and lethal.