November 9, 2023

"Scientists in Japan have identified a virus that selectively kills males — and it happens to be inheritable, creating generation upon generation of all females."

Don't worry (yet). It's happening at the insect level.

21 comments:

Enigma said...

I said the human variant of genetically selective viruses likely entered the political imagination in 2021. Some people in the Greta Von Blue Octopus crowd really, really, really want to reduce the world's population. COVID + selective deaths = A dream fulfilled.

mezzrow said...

I can be kind of a pest from time to time. Ask my wife.

boatbuilder said...

I don't think the AI jokes about this are going to be as good as the real ones.

Kevin said...

If this only killed females this would drive the news cycle for a week and kick off Congressional hearings.

But men are the disposable sex.

Oso Negro said...

Don't worry (yet). It's happening at the insect level.

Did you experience a frisson when you saw the headline? Goodness. Someone wake up Shouting Thomas.

Joe Bar said...

Hmmmm. Sounds like a reverse Frank Herbert novel.

RideSpaceMountain said...

They're calling it EnKarensia Formosa. Quite virulent. Instead of killing males quietly, it loudly demands to see the males manager. Even when wrong it will nag the drones to death until naught but more EnKarensia infected females are left.

The colony collapses shortly thereafter from depletion of its chardonnay reserves.

Dave Begley said...

Lesbians of the world rejoice!

Dave Begley said...

Insects only. For now!

fleg9bo said...

The teachers unions must be salivating over this.

Howard said...

Oh to be the male selected for immunity.

Ten to One Female to Male post apocalyptic paradise

Howard said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Josephbleau said...

Now all the smart male insects will identify as female. Then of course, they will become immune to the virus.

mikee said...

Howard, likely to be more like the way Don Johnson is treated in that classic, A Boy and His Dog, when he is forced to "donate" sperm for many women, using electrodes. By the way, that movie was set in 2024, so we have that to look forward to next year.

Fred Drinkwater said...

Herbert's "The White Plague", flipped.

David53 said...

I’m not getting the vax.

n.n said...

There was a female-selective choice in China. With social progress, it is now equitable and inclusive of both sexes, and the structurally infertile transgender spectrum.

Dude1394 said...

Yea, just what we need a bunch of "true-believer" scientists concocting viruses that they have no clue what will happen. Sort like the covid thing they created in their lab.

Joe Smith said...

Don't tell Gloria Steinem...

Misinforminimalism said...

Reminds me of The White Plague, Frank Herbert's novel about a (man-made) virus that kills only women, but men are the carriers. Brilliant stuff.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

If killing the males came as a development, what could possibly count as a drawback, for the insects I mean.