The following are my crazy theories about cancer. These are not based in fact. These are the result of an overactive imagination.
What if the body is a learning algorithm? Think about the principles of machine learning. We train a machine with data, teach it to differentiate between two different kinds of things (binary classification). The machine only knows the data and the training. It chooses A or B depending on what its training says. Similarly, what if our body or its genome is still learning. Think about it. Evolutionary biology says that the genotype mutates and what we observe is the phenotype. Every human is a data point. Humans don’t eat raw meat. The appendix is deemed a vestigial organ. Soon we have more and more humans born without appendices. Now consider this. Humans live longer now, they take medicine and get surgery to extend their lifespan. What if the body has detected our fight to survive? What if cancer cells have mutations that allow them to survive because we trained our body to do so? Cancer cells function like embryonic cells. What if the body recognizes that we wish to reverse aging and it keeps producing stem cells that allow us to do so?
Humans are Earth’s tumors. We clog up the circulation. We consume energy, leaving little for the rest. We fight to survive even though it might be better for the Earth without humans. If all the organisms are cells, then don’t humans resemble cancerous cells? We even reproduce at unsustainable rates.
What if cancers are just alien viruses who want to learn how to produce humans from scratch? They get into our bodies and copy the required information, and replicate just like a fetus in the womb would. What if they are failing only because humans lack the energy to produce another human in the absence of certain organs and hormones? The male body is incapable of supporting a human life inside them. Female bodies need certain hormones and the one sperm. What if tumors removed from humans were reattached to an energy source? Would it grow?
What if the mitochondrial DNA is evolving differently than nuclear DNA? Pollution, smoking, ultraviolet rays and greenhouse gases can all be stress signals to human cells. The mitochondria is capable of switching from aerobic to anaerobic respiration when there is a lack of energy. This is why muscles cramp. Due to a lack of oxygen to the muscle cells, cells switch to anaerobic respiration and produce lactic acid. The accumulation of the acid leads to cramps. What if the lack of oxygen rich air to our lungs has made certain cells switch to anaerobic respiration? What if mitochondrial DNA has evolved to survive in a low oxygen environment and switches to anaerobic respiration? It wouldn’t happen to everyone or every cell. But just a few that were starved of oxygen long enough to switch to anaerobic respiration permanently? And they reproduce and grow and survive much like bacteria would. Certain unicellular organisms can metabolize glucose and once glucose is exhausted switch to a different metabolism in the absence of air. What if the mitochondrion is so starved that it’s fighting for its survival?
What if the body is a learning algorithm? Think about the principles of machine learning. We train a machine with data, teach it to differentiate between two different kinds of things (binary classification). The machine only knows the data and the training. It chooses A or B depending on what its training says. Similarly, what if our body or its genome is still learning. Think about it. Evolutionary biology says that the genotype mutates and what we observe is the phenotype. Every human is a data point. Humans don’t eat raw meat. The appendix is deemed a vestigial organ. Soon we have more and more humans born without appendices. Now consider this. Humans live longer now, they take medicine and get surgery to extend their lifespan. What if the body has detected our fight to survive? What if cancer cells have mutations that allow them to survive because we trained our body to do so? Cancer cells function like embryonic cells. What if the body recognizes that we wish to reverse aging and it keeps producing stem cells that allow us to do so?
Humans are Earth’s tumors. We clog up the circulation. We consume energy, leaving little for the rest. We fight to survive even though it might be better for the Earth without humans. If all the organisms are cells, then don’t humans resemble cancerous cells? We even reproduce at unsustainable rates.
What if cancers are just alien viruses who want to learn how to produce humans from scratch? They get into our bodies and copy the required information, and replicate just like a fetus in the womb would. What if they are failing only because humans lack the energy to produce another human in the absence of certain organs and hormones? The male body is incapable of supporting a human life inside them. Female bodies need certain hormones and the one sperm. What if tumors removed from humans were reattached to an energy source? Would it grow?
What if the mitochondrial DNA is evolving differently than nuclear DNA? Pollution, smoking, ultraviolet rays and greenhouse gases can all be stress signals to human cells. The mitochondria is capable of switching from aerobic to anaerobic respiration when there is a lack of energy. This is why muscles cramp. Due to a lack of oxygen to the muscle cells, cells switch to anaerobic respiration and produce lactic acid. The accumulation of the acid leads to cramps. What if the lack of oxygen rich air to our lungs has made certain cells switch to anaerobic respiration? What if mitochondrial DNA has evolved to survive in a low oxygen environment and switches to anaerobic respiration? It wouldn’t happen to everyone or every cell. But just a few that were starved of oxygen long enough to switch to anaerobic respiration permanently? And they reproduce and grow and survive much like bacteria would. Certain unicellular organisms can metabolize glucose and once glucose is exhausted switch to a different metabolism in the absence of air. What if the mitochondrion is so starved that it’s fighting for its survival?