Disease resistance is one of the most powerful forms of biological advantage imaginable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But “resistant to disease” is not a single trait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Humans encounter pathogens with enormously different mechanisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The immune system must identify threats while avoiding excessive attacks against the body’s own tissues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A hypothetical super-immune human would need extraordinary discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Too weak, and infections succeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Too aggressive, and the immune response itself can cause damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ideal immune system would rapidly recognize dangerous organisms while minimizing unnecessary inflammation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It would remember previous threats effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It would adapt quickly to unfamiliar pathogens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It would repair damage efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pathogens evolve too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A resistant human population creates selective pressure on infectious organisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New variants that overcome the resistance may gain an advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This creates an evolutionary arms race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no permanent biological victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most plausible fictional version is therefore not an individual immune to every disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is someone with an unusually robust and adaptable immune system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They might recover quickly from many infections and tolerate biological threats better than average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But even the extraordinary immune system would remain part of an evolving ecosystem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ARTICLE 39 \u2014 THE HYPOTHETICAL DISEASE-RESISTANT HUMAN Disease resistance is one of the most powerful forms of biological advantage imaginable. But “resistant to disease” is not a single trait. Humans encounter pathogens with enormously different mechanisms. The Immune System The immune system must identify threats while avoiding excessive attacks against the body’s own tissues. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutantgenius.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutantgenius.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutantgenius.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutantgenius.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutantgenius.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mutantgenius.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380,"href":"https:\/\/mutantgenius.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions\/380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutantgenius.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutantgenius.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutantgenius.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}