Alicorn comments on Open Thread, September, 2010-- part 2 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: NancyLebovitz 17 September 2010 01:44AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (858)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Alicorn 21 September 2010 01:57:56AM *  8 points [-]

Although that population would necessarily first acquire every other STD known to man, more or less.

...a massive baby epidemic...

Many non-AIDS STIs, and pregnancy, are curable.

Comment author: jacob_cannell 21 September 2010 02:01:17AM 1 point [-]

Funny to think of pregnancy as curable, but yes of course that's true. However, it doesn't really change the numbers much.

Also, from what I have read about the early 80's bathouse scene, it is possible that many of those guys did acquire every STD known to man, so at least in that case the sexual transmission route could work even with such terribly low efficiency.

Regardless, it seems strange to label it as a STD from an evolutionary perspective, it doesn't fit that profile, and it seems incredibly unlikely it could have evolved as such.

Comment author: Alicorn 21 September 2010 02:24:52AM 6 points [-]

Funny to think of pregnancy as curable

It's also funny to call babies an epidemic.

Comment author: MartinB 21 September 2010 02:34:45AM 2 points [-]

Life is a disease. It is transmitted by sex and ends deadly always.

Comment author: jacob_cannell 21 September 2010 02:35:49AM 0 points [-]

touche!