The intelligence of humans is often represented as the zenith of evolutionary achievement. With 20,000 genes look at what Homo sapiens have created. We landed on the moon, we fly through the air, our creativity and our proclivities are communicated almost instantly to others across the globe using a digital environment, and on and on. Yet an extremely tiny virus, with 8-9 genes, no brain, and little to indicate it has any cognitive abilities has hijacked our immune systems and pretty well shut the planet down. It has instilled terror into the minds of many and paralyzed normal societal relationships. In a short few months this tiny organism has bested the religious, economic, political, scientific wisdom and architecture upon which the 21st century has been erected. It is only one of the trillions of trillions of viruses inhabiting our ecosystem. One liter of seawater was analysed and discovered to contain 100 billion viruses, and most of them are unknown to science. Other researchers have floated virus traps into the atmosphere and discovered a torrent of viruses moving through the air. Surveying the DNA in our bodies results in an astonishing discovery: most of the DNA in us is not of human origin. Has our hubris come home to roost? Learn some more about how this particular virus has entered our world.
We are not alone, and we never were or will be.