The virus, evolution and technology

Colin Austin © 4 August 2020 Creative commons this document may be reproduced but the source should be acknowledged. Information may be used for private use but commercial use requires a license.

We live in difficult times.

We have the virus causing deaths and economic destruction around the world, we are approaching ten billion people on our one and only planet and they need to be fed in a sustainable way without destroying our planet.

We will survive the way humans have always survived – by being smart and applying appropriate technology for the benefit or all humans.

I am a technical innovator. Way back in the seventies I was a pioneer in the computer revolutions with my work using computer simulation to solve engineering problems. I was recognised by the Institute of Engineers as among Australia’s top one hundred innovators.


The company I formed to develop the technology became Australia’s leading exporter of technical software and a multi national company. It taught me the difficulties of getting a new technology accepted and the importance of ensuring the benefits, when the arrive, are shared in an equitable way.

I now work on how to grow food in a sustainable way to enhance our gut biology which is the key to health. I look on the disaster which is the Corona virus and ask myself how could this be?

I have no idea where it came from but I do know that with our current food system we have allowed the virus to breed and multiply. It is a simple process of evolution.


Let me talk about evolution.

Evolution, sex and breeding

There is a wide spread view that evolution is all about survival of the fittest so the big strong beast is the one that survives.

There is a bit of truth in this but not much, evolution is really about the ability to breed.

Killer frogs?

I haven’t seen too many headlines about the army being called in to protect the local community from killer frogs, or pigeons or water hens for that matter. Frogs are just not that ferocious but can they breed?

Thousands of eggs in their spawn just waiting to turn into tadpoles then the next generation of frogs.

Invasion form outer space

Putting on my pretend space suit and imaging I am a creature from outer space investigating the creatures on earth let me tell you about one creature which is particularly good at breeding.

You can find these in the shopping malls which seem to cover this strange planet. Take a seat in one of these malls and observe this creature. Don’t just look at one creature but observe how they relate to each other by looking at their eye movements.

Obsessed by sex

They are just obsessed by sex – from the rich and famous to the very poor. Watch the eye movement of the crowd as an attractive female walks along in a low cut dress. Virtually all the males will take a sneaky perve – and the reverse is true for the females when a male walks by in a T shirt showing of his biceps.

But take a closer look at this weird creature – a bit short in the big teeth and claws departments and so slow, even a mouse runs faster let alone one of those big cats.

So maybe they are like the frogs and have this overwhelming sexual appetite that they have so many kids that some must survive by shear numbers.

No exactly the opposite – unlike the frogs they only have a few kids which are totally useless when first born – in fact they take longer to mature than any other animal. So how on Mars (sorry Earth) do they survive and breed, whatever the key is it certainly works because there are billions of them – just everywhere.

How do they breed and survive

So time for more observations and analysis.

Now sit here in one of those Malls for as long as you like, you will not see a single lion, tiger or any of the ferocious creatures that you may find well away from away from where these weird two legged creature have made their home.

Obviously they have formed groups for self protection and no lion or tiger is going to take on a bunch of these weird creatures armed with shopping trolleys loaded with toilet paper.

Looking after the kids

But just keep on watching and you will see mums pushing their kids around in wheeled vehicles and if the kids are a bit bigger the mums put the kids in reins like we do with our triglotgoons back on Mars.

But when the kids are a bit bigger they let them walk by themselves and the mums will keep a careful eye on them so they don’t wander off. But they haven’t developed the tracking devices we have back on Mars so occasionally you will see a kid that is lost.

I’ve lost my mummy

Now this is where it gets really interesting. Water will start dropping out of the kids eyes and it will make a funny wailing noise which seems to mean I have lost my mummy.

Back on Mars Mum would use our tracking system to locate the kid but these creatures are primitive in phase one of development. But what happens on Earth, is that within a matter of seconds one of the mature creatures, and this is the point a total stranger with no relationship, will pick up the kid give it a cuddle and then set out in search of the lost mum.

They seem to have evolved some form of group caring where they will look after total strangers – really quite weird. But I expect that there is some evolutionary explanation for this.

But there is something which is even weirder.

The viruses

Still wearing my space suit I look at this problem as a Martian might.

It seems that on Earth there are viruses which cause a lot of problems. We used to have viruses on Mars but it just got too cold and they all died out. But it seems on Earth there are thousand of types of viruses which are continuously evolving creating new viruses which can cause a lot of problems for the animals living their.

At this moment there is one particular virus, a recent mutant, which they call Covid 19 which is causing a lot or problems.

This is a classic example of evolution in action.

How did this come about?

Scientist will study this problem of how the virus was able to breed so successfully in our bodies and eventually we will have an in depth understanding. But we are here now with the virus creating disasters across the globe so we need to tackle this epidemic with the tools we have available right now.

At first a couple or so Covid cells get into their system but there are so few that nobody knows they are there. These creatures have a well developed immune system which in most cases just bonks the virus on the head and that is the end of the story. This is totally normal, there are thousand of viruses floating around in the air or on food and typically the first port of call is the guts where the immune system just deals with them on a ‘business as usual’ basis.

But if the immune system does not do its job then this particular virus is very good at breeding so it breeds away inside people so it can send its offspring out when they cough or sneeze so with a bit of luck (for the virus) it can breed away in other creatures.

The aim of the virus is not to kill people, that would be stupid as the whole point is to breed and if your host dies then your nice comfortable breeding ground dies and so does the virus. But sometimes the virus gets it wrong and the creatures become seriously ill and eventually die. Not good for the virus or the creatures.


It seems that the creatures have a good understanding that evolution is all about breeding so they try and prevent breeding by isolating themselves so they cannot catch the virus.

They seem to understand that the best way of fighting the virus is to use their immune system to stop the virus breeding and are trying to develop a vaccines to activate their immune system to kill of the virus and it seems that they are making some progress.

These creatures have the idea that they should try and look after each so are focused on developing solution so no one dies from the virus.

Back on Mars we would have adopted a different strategy – from our understanding of the role of breeding in evolution we would have set about breeding up Martians who are naturally resistant to the virus – but that is not the way these softy Earthlings think.

What is surprising is that they haven’t asked the question ‘why is it that some of the creatures have an immune system which deals with the virus and others don’t?’

That’s a question any self respecting intelligent Martian would ask.

What is even more surprising is that some doctors who have been studying this already know the answer. But no one seems to listen – I told you these creatures are really weird.

The answer is so simple – the creatures who survive have a healthy gut from eating food that feeds the biology in their gut giving a healthy gut biology while people who die have been eating a diet high in sugars so they have poor gut health.

To a Martian the answer is obvious – get the creatures to eat a diet to feed their guts but they don’t seem to think that way.

PBT psycho body transformation

It is just amazing what these creatures have yet to discover. Would you believe they haven’t even thought about PBT psycho body transformation. This enables us really smart Martians to change our bodies at will. We just think about how we would like our bodies to be and they just change. About 20,000 years ago when we first visited Earth we found the native a bit scared of us so we just thought our bodies were transparent and they could not see us.

We have been going backwards and forwards for thousands of years and they haven’t even realised we were here. Pity we missed out on the frequent customer points though.

For better or worse

So why don’t we start a campaign to get people to eat food to feed their gut biology and have a strong immune system? It seems such an obvious thing to do.

For better or worse that is how I have spent the later part of my life, experimenting with ways of growing food which is both sustainable and leads to a healthy gut.

The bulk of our immune system lives in our guts.

It has to, we have been evolving over millions of years eating food which is full of pathogens which would be quite happy to take advantage of this nice warm home full of food for them to breed in.

But our immune system has evolved to protect us from these unwelcome guest and has been highly successful – look how many there are of us.

But particularly in the last fifty years we have ignored the importance of our gut biology which is home to the bulk of our immune system.

Our food is so processed and sterile and lacking the food which feeds our gut biology that we have weakened our immune system.

If we are a smart creature we would change that and eat the food that will give us a strong gut biology and immune system.

But let me clear on what we think we know and what we know for sure – very different things.

What we think we know and what we know for sure

We know for sure that eating a diet which feeds our guts will not stop us getting infected with Covid 19 nor will it cure us if we do get infected.

We know for sure that people eating a healthy diet, one which feeds their gut biology the essential minerals, vitamins and phytonutrients have a far higher chance of surviving if the do become infected.

We think we know that this is because our immune system prevents the virus from breeding inside us and we know for sure that if any species can’t breed it dies out.

It would be wrong to blame our highly concentrated global food industry producing our modern highly processed food as the cause of the virus – that is clearly wrong.

But we do know, for sure, that it has played a part in allowing the virus to breed and spread. Whether this is a minor or major factor we do not know and probably never will – unless we stop eating it and a new pandemic arrives, which may be a bit late.

So what can I do about this?

I believe that being smart and using appropriate technology is the way will survive the challenges our species faces. I am an innovator and believe in technical innovation.

But I am horrified by the way that modern technology is used to make a few people very rich and provide little or no benefit for the bulk of humanity. All people should benefit in an equitable way from new technology.

Maybe it does not matter with silly computer games but food is different, we all need to eat. Some people say that healthy food is a human right, like fresh air and clean water.

I may not go that far but I am sure we will never have a harmonious and peaceful world while many people are sick and dying from poor food while a few people are becoming very rich by controlling the food system.

The technology I have developed is called the Gbiota™ bed and is a way of growing food which will feed our Gut biota. I think I know that this could play an important role in defending us from the Corona virus (or the next virus lying in wait).

I want to ensure that this technology is used for the benefit of all of us humans. It is described in detail on this web site under the creative commons system which means that the information is available free of charge for anyone who wants to use it for their own personal use.

But not everyone has the land and time to grow their own food so we need a commercial system where people can buy Gbiota food but I need to ensure that this technology does not become the tool of the neo-monopoly system which is the norm in our modern system.

So my aim is to help local growers provide Gbiota food to their local community and earn an equitable living doing so.

If you share my views and are willing to help then please contact me at colinaustin@bigpond.com