> Epidemics tend to grow slowly at the beginning, then faster, then > slower again. > Do you think OST has a ceiling in this regard? Why?
--- "Pannwitz, Michael M" <[email protected]> escribió: > am curious why you have that question. > Especially under the condition that epidemics have the tendency to > wipe out the infected. Luckily, not so! Some specialists in viri say the most successful viri are those that (that word again) "empower" their "users". Maybe a virus helped transmit some genetic difference (small but important) between apes and humans (just a hipothetical example). There are (at least) three important features: - effect on the user - delay between contagion and effect - new infections from each infected OST has the effects many people in this list know well. The delay ... flu makes people ill immediately, some hepatitis are slower to show up. With slower-to-show infections, one infected person can infect others without "resistance", as it goes on unnoticed. Kind of "pst! heard of the Law of 2 feet? pass it on!". The "new infections from each infected" is an average number: if this number is large, then the epidemic takes a big population quickly. But not all the population: just those who are "ready to be infected". I don't know exactly why I asked whatever I asked. I guess I'm wondering what the "resistence" to "infection" is. Maybe the "epidemic" can only go so far? Or do you think we are all (more or less) "susceptible"? How do people turn from "non susceptible" to "susceptible" (and the other way round)? Sometimes a person needs more than one "exposure" to become "infected". Sometimes one virus "facilitates" the next different one. I don't know if these questions make any sense "here". You see, if OST has these dramatic effects, I would like to guess if it can "scale" (be applicable for a large number of people in the world), how much it scales, and if it doesn't then what. Just wondering, really. :) And I think I know what one kind of reply will be: "the best way to know is to try!" But many here have already tried, that's why I ask. Again, thanks! Lucas ______________________________________________________________________ Correo Yahoo! - 6MB, más protección contra el spam ¡Gratis! http://correo.yahoo.es * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
