The highest tropical environment they are known to exist in is around 70 degrees and that’s in a tropical environment (90-110+) so we would need to see the entire world hit new high temps like 20-30*F +
In the real world, a cordyceps that infects humans probably wouldn’t progress into aggressive zombies. It would more so be something like a dormant fungus, which does something similar to an ant, causing the human to move to a crowded area, bite down/stay still, die, and release a bunch of spores. It wouldn’t make humans attack each other, but would instead turn each human into a fungal landmine.
So basically the games version of the zombies minus the biting, but you could argue that since human architecture isn’t like that of the ant kingdom (there’s no leaves for us to clamp onto) the fungus may try to innovate with some other form of infection ie making humans bite each other, and then succumbing the the infection and spreading it through airborne spores at a later stage in infection. As seen in the games.
I read once that cordyceps doesn't infect the brain, and the infected insects retain normal brain activity, suggesting that they remain conscious while unable to control their actions. I like to imagine that in the game, all the humans are still intelligent and completely aware of what they've become, makes it 10x spookier.
IIRC, that's actually what happens. Though it might be downplayed, but I do remember once or twice sneaking and actually hearing the "zombies" speaking like one who was munching on a dead friend and crying "please don't make me do this". Spooky stuff, makes TLOU such a good horror game.
In the last of us video game, the first stage of infected are aware of being zombies but can’t able to control themselves. Such as you in one scene, you can see and hear them from the distance crying and throwing up the meats from a human corpses they’re consuming. Once they’re in 2nd stage, they will be dead and allow the cordyceps to take fully control.
Another factor is that insects have very simple brains, where a single chemical signal might be all they need to seek out water, or a high place, etc. Human brains are monstrously complex and poking it is more likely to just turn you into a vegetable rather than bite people.
I remember reading about this fungus when I was a child and it both fascinated and horrified me because it basically was making dead ants walk and the imagery of mushrooms growing out of an ant was so strange to me.
It's worse than that From what I heard the ant is still alive it's brain still functioning but it has no control of it's body as the fungus controls it's muscles it can do nothing but think and watch
I don’t think the ants are dead until it releases it spores, but then it’s no longer walking. The ant just get’s it’s nervous system hijacked, and brain flooded with chemicals. Not dead yet though.
I've seen people in the comments say that it could "mutate" but even if it could survive inside the human body, taking control of our ridiculously complex brain system would require millions of years and even then it wouldn't turn us into crazy monsters that bite other people lol
The kind of mutations that the fungus has are randomly produced but beneficial chemical triggers that influence the Ants biochemistry. It doesn't "control" anything with purpose and the ants dependence on chemical signalling made it possible that random mutations eventually produced a fungus which trips an ants behavior in a particular way.
Because thanks to OPs monotone he softballed just how much more complex and powerful a human immune system is compared to a bugs. We have _the most_ complex immune system of any species alive or dead.
Crazy thing about cordyceps is there is no mind control involved. The fungus releases chemicals that control the movements of the muscles in the ants. The ants are usually completely aware of their own surroundings. They are basically imprisoned in their own bodies until the cordyceps executes them.
Slight tangent but this falls perfectly into a category (for me at least) where there is a disconnect between understanding macro vs micro/molecular biology. Like I completely understand the concept of the cordyceps controlling the ants muscle movements instead of hijacking their brain. Then I also get the mechanism of action to make a muscle contract. The disconnect is in the middle where you aren’t in a still snapshot of time. At that point I have no idea how tf these chemicals can be secreted in real time to move the exact muscles necessary to get where it’s going.
@@jacobbillups4715 that's how it works.specific patterns of behavior allow species to propagate. The movement of the ants is more random than directed in each step but ultimately to humid areas. It's natural selection for the fungi. Like rabies. Rabies is transmitted through the saliva. And being infected with rabies triggers aggressive behavior making you most likely to attack and bite. Rabies also causes fear of water and intense salivation and contraction of the pharynx, which just so happens to increase saliva from the mouth for transmission.
Yall should know that cordyceps and similar fungi have existed as we know it since at least the Jurassic, if not much earlier. And not once do we have evidence of them going to a host outside of arthropods. They are very specialized for their current hosts and have no means, nor reason to jump hosts to mammals, or any other vertebrate for that matter. Our size, immune systems, anatomy, microbiomes, and metabolism are all wildly different from that of arthropods. The closest we have, and likely we're ever going to get, to cordyceps fungi is parasitic fungi like athlete's foot, ringworm, and parasitic yeasts. These parasites are doing just fine, and have no evolutionary reasoning to take over your body and kill you. Remember, evolution is about "survival of the good enough". If an organism can survive and doesn't need a ton of unnecessary and out of the way adaptations to do something, its gonna just keep doing what its doing.
Cordyceps is actually pretty good for the body, and it's used for traditional chinese medicine, which is very surprising Also cordyceps is insanely expensive
@@namenotfound614 cyclosporine for the Immune System, the thing that makes Ellie Immune, keep an eye on OP, they might be the key to saving the world in a couple’o years.
of course people with compromised immune system are susceptible to all kinds of infections including fungi and bacteria. A lot of covid survivors were infected by black fungus.
This is the detail that the show skimmed over. Pathologic fungi can grow systemically. It's only when you are immune compromised do they typically take hold.
Not only that, but for the 400 species of Cordyceps fungi, all of them are HIGHLY specialised to a specific species. For example Ophiocordyceps sinensis only infects the caterpillar larvae of Ghost Moths, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis are specialised to Formicine ants, Cordyceps Ignota infect Tarantulas, and Some even go after other species of fungus instead of insects
The biggest thing about this is that insects dont have an adaptive immune system, the fungus doesnt need to try any harder to infect its orey thus the chance of mutating is low, even then it would probably just go to different insects
“Fungi will adapt to warmer climates by developing greater heat tolerance,” said Casadevall, who is a microbiologist specializing in fungal diseases at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Some will then be able to grow at human temperatures and cause new fungal diseases that we have not seen before.” -WP
@@ruberxwibebadhi because Cordyceps' prey rn are insects. Insects' immune systems compared to an average human immune system is like trying to compare 1 layer of thin cloth's protection to steel armor. Or perhaps the comparison of a simple "If-Then" command to a program running other programs at the same time is a better comparison. Simply put, Cordyceps haven't mutated and evolved enough to get on our level. It'll take it an insanely long time before it gets to the same level as the Ants situation and by that time, we'd probably already have been prepared for it because it's just gonna take that long.
@@FascinatedByFungi ah yes who you are referencing was talking about a change in temperature that they can adapt to of about 0.4 degrees Celsius over a LONG period of time
If it worked similarly to the Ant variant we'd have humans climbing buildings and infecting a massive amount of people. That's some junji ito level shit right there.
evolution only favors positive or neutral factors. there are wayyyyyy too many factors that have to line up in just two or three generations of fungi to make it possible for it to become a human mind controller.
Cordyceps are actually an amazing supplement and give you God like cardio. There was a chinese olympic swim team that blew everyone out of the water one year and they credited it to cordys.
The problem would be controlling it once it’s unleashed. A virus you develop a vaccine for, bacteria a medicine, fungi however are extremely difficult to kill as soon as it’s in the human body due to the nature of it’s cell structure. It’s a eukaryotic cell, so the medication needed to attack the fungus would more than likely attack human cells as well. It wouldn’t make a good weapon, because you can’t control who can and who can’t get infected
I wonder if our affinity towards growing them and eating them might change that. Hell, we’re growing them and making more already, maybe they already have us in their grips!!
It’s actually doing some effort to be plausible. I love that now there is a tv series and more ppl get to appreciate this amazing universe. I wish horizon got a tv series adaption as well. Also a a beautiful ai apocalypse story
No it can’t, fungi takes like years to evolve and even if we had cordyceps inside, it’s not gonna make you a full blown zombie, it’s a reason why last of us sci fi
Well it would take hundreds of thousands more likely even millions of years plus the perfect environment for cordyceps to to evolve to infect mammals or vertebrates ingeneral. However, the moment cordyceps start infecting mammals especially chimps we should start panicking immediately.
@@tharakanewan3544 like 28 days later. Not zombies but rabies maddened crazy’s. That can transfer with spit, scratch, blood, bite. They’d starve and die after a few weeks or dehydration with millions dead and effected. 100% see that more plausible
Bro the fungus aint a viable way to make a biological weapon, u got viruses and bacteria, way better options to kill a human, fungus are weak asf, even feaver can kill em
@@anon4854 Agreed. Just because a certain aggressive, parasitic mold species can suddenly tolerate higher temps doesn't mean it can beat an immune system. And then, once it does, be able to control a brain and nervous system far more complex than an ant's. It's an interesting concept, different from how most zombie stories go. But that doesn't mean we should actually be concerned.
@@DAK4Blizzard Yeah the temp argument is extremely weak. I think people dont really understand just how big a leap it is from being able to survive at a certain temperature to overcoming a highly complex immune system let alone manipulating biological and neurological structures infinitely more complex than an insects.
still i wounder if perposly pushed,could it breach that barrior between insect and human? i think i heard that some can infect mice and rats but i dont remember if it was true or not
Compromised immune system have medicine where they can get the immunity they need. They take these medications all the time to accommodate their bodies lack of immunity.
I think in that case, the forbidden shrooms will have to take a number behind Covid, the common cold, chicken pox, the flu, black mold, a random bacteria that was on the wall, and the hundred million other things that have already evolved to infect humans.
@@joeysmith7296 Those are all viruses with airborne transmission. over within a week unless and only if the patient has underlying conditions. Fungal infections work very differently.
@@firstletterofthealphabet7308 HIV is spread through blood and can last a lifetime Couldnt our immune system fight off the fungus with the help of anti fungal medication?
It may not be realistic,sure but the sheer thought alone that it could happen in a universe similar to the show and the games is still kinda terrifying AF
These fungi have been around for millions of years, still they infect nothing more than small insects. The amount of mutation needed to infect humans is insurmountable and not viable for species survival
Doesn’t work like that, the chance of that ever happening is zero because no amount of genetic modification is going to make the cordyceps that infects an ant turn into a full blown zombie
@@MrJoelMiller when you realize that people can cross mushroom breeds 🍄 together… if you have a psychedelic mushroom mixed with one of these? I think it’s more possible than you think. I wouldn’t definitively say “not possible” to anyone evil enough to try.
As a Biology major I had cousins asking me this very question back when the games were a thing. I made sure to say yes and gave examples. Naturally I said nothing of how replacing a spinal cord by a mushroom isn't exactly going go work. Much less the behavioral aspect of animating a body rather than using it for a nutrient rich source to grow.
But also the human body is terrible at fighting off funguses and parasites. So really its not as impossible of scenario as it seems. More after some billion dollar government research Im sure.
I never thought I would hear the last of us being given the title of a sci-fi zombie fantasy. But then again given what sci-fi literally means, you're technically correct. It's just weird to think about cuz people usually think of advanced technology and space shit when it comes to sci-fi. So for that reason my brain finds it a bit odd, but technically correct.
@@UnblockMind Again, based on WHAT EXACTLY? wElL yoU nEvEr KnoW" bro I can literally say that about anything that is 0 proof. I can tell you as a major in biomedical research we are so far off from a fungal zombie infection it would literally take millions of years and that is assuming the fungus has a reason to evolve, which it doesn't.these fungi have been around for millions of years and still only infect small insects. Evolution only happens because of necessity.
The thing is our bodies would simply collapse under the damage long before images such as in that game are archieved. While spreading, the fungus would deal much more damage to our insides before even becoming visible on the outside, meaning we would still look like regular humans.
The reason there is potential scariness, for humans is because the process these things are taking is very similar to every other major disease that is spread to humans in history, like the black plague started out as a virus that moved to insect than the small animals and on up. The fungi in question has already been seen to move from insects to small lizards.
This wouldn't just happen, it would have to evolve over millions of years. Not only does the fungis need to evolve to handle the heat of our bodies, it also needs to know what to do to our bodies, which is a game of random chance mutations until something works that results in a better liklihood of spreading its genes. Basically, we'd notice real quick at the very first step if we were finding cordyceps colonies at autopsy
Not to mention how specialised they are, it’s basically 1 species of insect for each fungus. Even if infection was somehow possible, being that specific means it wouldn’t cross the species barrier without somehow completely overhauling it’s genome in one go
Not to mention how extremely unlikely it is that the fungus will suddenly leap from ants to humans. We are not ants, we are a million times more complex. It would require a million years of evolution where the fungus evolved to infect more and more complex things, and I think in that time we'd notice the trend
A fungus which evolved to control insects brains, attempting to control a human brain would be a lot like trying to hack a quantum super computer using a comador 64
Even if it did infect humans it wouldn’t be like the game or show, the infected humans would just climb to really high place and lay down and die. The real enemy wouldn’t be the “zombies” but the spores that burst from their head
It definitely wouldn't be so fast. In the show Joel says the world went from normal to zombie apocalypse in a weekend, but I ld imagine it would take much longer for a single spore to grow large enough to hijack your brain, which would probably give your brain enough time to self destruct via fever.
You are appealing to reality. In the game and show it takes 2 days for a person to turn. But it's fiction so what you said is right but the game and show is what it is.
It IS more feasible than we used to think though tbf, it’s never gonna happen BUT. We’ve recently found out the ophiocordyceps both links with the nervous system of ants AND influences the release of mood and behaviour changing hormones in their brains. So between directly using the nervous system to control our muscles, and affecting our thoughts, decision making processes and emotions there is a “pathway” to understanding how this COULD happen. But obviously you have to ignore that we’re way too warm for them to live in us and also way too complex for them to be able to influence us in any kind of beneficial way just by species jumping to deal with the high temperature for this to be in any way realistic. It’s kinda like saying a crow could build a swing set because they can count to 6, have some problem solving skills, long term memory and can bend wires or twigs to hook food out of narrow holes and drop pebbles in water bottles to raise the level enough to drink from hahaha. “Well if they evolved to want a swing and then evolved to work together in a group then got MUCH better at tool use, bla bla bla a million things then yes they’d build a whole play set easily!” It is interesting though
thank god! this premise has always bothered me a bit considering after the last of us came out more media was talking about cordyceps like it was a new thing
![F.HERO Ft. JSPKK x ลำไย ไหทองคำ x M-PEE - ไม่สนิทบิดหมด (Thai Riders Anthem) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kPJZ0UihBfk/mqdefault.jpg)
"Say the temperature rises and now there's a need to adapt"
That intro to the show was amazing
"We lose"
The highest tropical environment they are known to exist in is around 70 degrees and that’s in a tropical environment (90-110+) so we would need to see the entire world hit new high temps like 20-30*F +
The one thing the doctor missed out on is that humans also adapt to the temperatures & environment.
@@FatTh0r we are getting there but we'd have more than this to deal with at that time.
The chance of humanity destroying itself far exceeds any other scenario.
That’s what I think as well. Humanity *will* end, and it _will_ happen due to human actions.
@@firstletterofthealphabet7308 yeah no
Meteor is more likely.
@@yesyouareright9800 no, how?
This is the most comforting response to a potential zombie apocalypse scenario that I've ever read. Thank you.
In the real world, a cordyceps that infects humans probably wouldn’t progress into aggressive zombies. It would more so be something like a dormant fungus, which does something similar to an ant, causing the human to move to a crowded area, bite down/stay still, die, and release a bunch of spores. It wouldn’t make humans attack each other, but would instead turn each human into a fungal landmine.
I think thats scarier
So basically the games version of the zombies minus the biting, but you could argue that since human architecture isn’t like that of the ant kingdom (there’s no leaves for us to clamp onto) the fungus may try to innovate with some other form of infection ie making humans bite each other, and then succumbing the the infection and spreading it through airborne spores at a later stage in infection. As seen in the games.
@@themiddleproject2032 Buildings.
@@doomdude69 nah imagine getting a flu, and you sneezing to spread the virus. The same scenario.
True but cmon for the game what a cool idea
I read once that cordyceps doesn't infect the brain, and the infected insects retain normal brain activity, suggesting that they remain conscious while unable to control their actions. I like to imagine that in the game, all the humans are still intelligent and completely aware of what they've become, makes it 10x spookier.
IIRC, that's actually what happens. Though it might be downplayed, but I do remember once or twice sneaking and actually hearing the "zombies" speaking like one who was munching on a dead friend and crying "please don't make me do this". Spooky stuff, makes TLOU such a good horror game.
In the first game, if you listen to them, some are crying out for help
In the last of us video game, the first stage of infected are aware of being zombies but can’t able to control themselves. Such as you in one scene, you can see and hear them from the distance crying and throwing up the meats from a human corpses they’re consuming. Once they’re in 2nd stage, they will be dead and allow the cordyceps to take fully control.
Wow this is new take for me really cool (but sad) to imagine the like this way
Broo i just saw a youtube video where an infect woman is crying & while eating you can hear her say "I dont want to" it made it more disturbing
Another factor is that insects have very simple brains, where a single chemical signal might be all they need to seek out water, or a high place, etc. Human brains are monstrously complex and poking it is more likely to just turn you into a vegetable rather than bite people.
I remember reading about this fungus when I was a child and it both fascinated and horrified me because it basically was making dead ants walk and the imagery of mushrooms growing out of an ant was so strange to me.
same!!! i would think about cutting off the fungi growing out of them 😭 like would it just fall off
It's worse than that
From what I heard the ant is still alive it's brain still functioning but it has no control of it's body as the fungus controls it's muscles it can do nothing but think and watch
Would Anti fungal things work?
It turns the ants into fun guis!
I don’t think the ants are dead until it releases it spores, but then it’s no longer walking. The ant just get’s it’s nervous system hijacked, and brain flooded with chemicals. Not dead yet though.
But what if it mutates?
They can mutate to fight our immune system ....right?
It might eat our bodies or eat other people
We won't be movie zombies.
We will just be alive and a host for cordyceps for it to find a spot to spread.
@@Kinkoms these aren’t zombies
@@Bwolf1 if cordyceps mutates like any fungus then I got yables
The cordyceps attacks only little insects because they are small and simple. There should be no way for it to mutate this hard.
I've seen people in the comments say that it could "mutate" but even if it could survive inside the human body, taking control of our ridiculously complex brain system would require millions of years and even then it wouldn't turn us into crazy monsters that bite other people lol
Last of us cordyceps fans when people tell them that "adapting" to a new host will take millions of years.
The kind of mutations that the fungus has are randomly produced but beneficial chemical triggers that influence the Ants biochemistry.
It doesn't "control" anything with purpose and the ants dependence on chemical signalling made it possible that random mutations eventually produced a fungus which trips an ants behavior in a particular way.
Even rabies can't make a human bite, and that shit has had PLENTY of time to adapt to human brains.
Rabies tho.
Because thanks to OPs monotone he softballed just how much more complex and powerful a human immune system is compared to a bugs. We have _the most_ complex immune system of any species alive or dead.
Crazy thing about cordyceps is there is no mind control involved. The fungus releases chemicals that control the movements of the muscles in the ants. The ants are usually completely aware of their own surroundings. They are basically imprisoned in their own bodies until the cordyceps executes them.
Slight tangent but this falls perfectly into a category (for me at least) where there is a disconnect between understanding macro vs micro/molecular biology. Like I completely understand the concept of the cordyceps controlling the ants muscle movements instead of hijacking their brain. Then I also get the mechanism of action to make a muscle contract. The disconnect is in the middle where you aren’t in a still snapshot of time. At that point I have no idea how tf these chemicals can be secreted in real time to move the exact muscles necessary to get where it’s going.
@@jacobbillups4715 that's how it works.specific patterns of behavior allow species to propagate. The movement of the ants is more random than directed in each step but ultimately to humid areas. It's natural selection for the fungi.
Like rabies. Rabies is transmitted through the saliva. And being infected with rabies triggers aggressive behavior making you most likely to attack and bite. Rabies also causes fear of water and intense salivation and contraction of the pharynx, which just so happens to increase saliva from the mouth for transmission.
Yall should know that cordyceps and similar fungi have existed as we know it since at least the Jurassic, if not much earlier. And not once do we have evidence of them going to a host outside of arthropods. They are very specialized for their current hosts and have no means, nor reason to jump hosts to mammals, or any other vertebrate for that matter. Our size, immune systems, anatomy, microbiomes, and metabolism are all wildly different from that of arthropods. The closest we have, and likely we're ever going to get, to cordyceps fungi is parasitic fungi like athlete's foot, ringworm, and parasitic yeasts. These parasites are doing just fine, and have no evolutionary reasoning to take over your body and kill you. Remember, evolution is about "survival of the good enough". If an organism can survive and doesn't need a ton of unnecessary and out of the way adaptations to do something, its gonna just keep doing what its doing.
Combine that with the fact that ants are basicly everywhere there is no reason for the fungus to adapt
And even if the temperature were to rise (like a lot), it might not even evolve. The fungi could just die off.
i take cordyceps as a Supplement.....i am mildly freaked out that its the same Fungus
What do you take it for?
The cordyceps makes him take it.
Some fungis are even worse than the cordyceps
Cordyceps is actually pretty good for the body, and it's used for traditional chinese medicine, which is very surprising
Also cordyceps is insanely expensive
@@namenotfound614 cyclosporine for the Immune System, the thing that makes Ellie Immune, keep an eye on OP, they might be the key to saving the world in a couple’o years.
People forget that we are master survivors naturally and have immense Sci tech , even if it evolves we evolve too
Faith in humanity, I love it
People forget that there's more evil out there than we know...we are at the mercy of men such as these....
I won't be surprised if it's us humans who take the world to shit
@@farisa1116 i can’t see a future for us where we weren’t the ones that turned the planet to shit. lol
Someone with a genuine faith in humanity? You must be protected
"Hopefully the humans inmune system is much stronger than the bugs."
The guy with AIDS: Ellie, stay away from those
AHAHAHAHA
I am the 69th like
god
of course people with compromised immune system are susceptible to all kinds of infections including fungi and bacteria. A lot of covid survivors were infected by black fungus.
This is the detail that the show skimmed over. Pathologic fungi can grow systemically. It's only when you are immune compromised do they typically take hold.
@@chriswhite3692 So the cure would be to strengthen the immune system? In the last of us
Not only that, but for the 400 species of Cordyceps fungi, all of them are HIGHLY specialised to a specific species. For example Ophiocordyceps sinensis only infects the caterpillar larvae of Ghost Moths, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis are specialised to Formicine ants, Cordyceps Ignota infect Tarantulas, and Some even go after other species of fungus instead of insects
The biggest thing about this is that insects dont have an adaptive immune system, the fungus doesnt need to try any harder to infect its orey thus the chance of mutating is low, even then it would probably just go to different insects
“Fungi will adapt to warmer climates by developing greater heat tolerance,” said Casadevall, who is a microbiologist specializing in fungal diseases at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Some will then be able to grow at human temperatures and cause new fungal diseases that we have not seen before.” -WP
Yup, that is true, but Cordyceps still aren’t going to turn humans into zombies.
@@FascinatedByFungi can you go into details in a video/post why would our immune system be able to defend against cordyceps in this scenario?
@@ruberxwibebadhi because Cordyceps' prey rn are insects. Insects' immune systems compared to an average human immune system is like trying to compare 1 layer of thin cloth's protection to steel armor. Or perhaps the comparison of a simple "If-Then" command to a program running other programs at the same time is a better comparison.
Simply put, Cordyceps haven't mutated and evolved enough to get on our level. It'll take it an insanely long time before it gets to the same level as the Ants situation and by that time, we'd probably already have been prepared for it because it's just gonna take that long.
@@Corvaric we don't know if the virus was mutated or engineered though.
@@FascinatedByFungi ah yes who you are referencing was talking about a change in temperature that they can adapt to of about 0.4 degrees Celsius over a LONG period of time
It could happen, but I really doubt we'd be running around biting people. It would probably just kill us 😅 slowly and miserably
It’ll make you sick, but not turn you into a zombie
thats still scary
Anti fungal and
Immune System
Could help make humans not as susceptible to the "fungus"
If it worked similarly to the Ant variant we'd have humans climbing buildings and infecting a massive amount of people. That's some junji ito level shit right there.
evolution only favors positive or neutral factors. there are wayyyyyy too many factors that have to line up in just two or three generations of fungi to make it possible for it to become a human mind controller.
Cordyceps are actually an amazing supplement and give you God like cardio. There was a chinese olympic swim team that blew everyone out of the water one year and they credited it to cordys.
On behalf of people with anxiety that like dark tv shows Thank you for making this video
Man I feel you I feel the same way
Yeah
I love your voice & the way you explained that 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
What if it's a bio-engineered weapon?
@The Zealous Chief thank you chief
Are you *trying* to give me nightmares??
(ᗒᗣᗕ)՞
Umbrella wants to know you location
@@nicolasnareshkumar 19 stands for 2019 lol
The problem would be controlling it once it’s unleashed. A virus you develop a vaccine for, bacteria a medicine, fungi however are extremely difficult to kill as soon as it’s in the human body due to the nature of it’s cell structure. It’s a eukaryotic cell, so the medication needed to attack the fungus would more than likely attack human cells as well. It wouldn’t make a good weapon, because you can’t control who can and who can’t get infected
I wonder if our affinity towards growing them and eating them might change that. Hell, we’re growing them and making more already, maybe they already have us in their grips!!
I like it
@@DaShcati
Taste quite bland
@@fajaradi1223 no I like the idea that mushrooms have already taken over our brains, the taste of mushrooms is kinda woody and earthy bro
@@fajaradi1223 They taste good.
Chinese have been eating them for a long time
Who just watched the last of us premiere and came here lol
Me
How
I love the idea of sci-fi not having to be fancy hi-tech future settings with space and lasers, but a slightly altered modern setting
Him: it's an incredible work of fiction.
Gain of function researchers: hold my beer.
It’s actually doing some effort to be plausible. I love that now there is a tv series and more ppl get to appreciate this amazing universe. I wish horizon got a tv series adaption as well. Also a a beautiful ai apocalypse story
This only answers the question "Can it happen right now?"
Exactly this guy was dropped hard as fuck on his head as a kid
@@rebs4jezusdamn relax my guy
No it can’t, fungi takes like years to evolve and even if we had cordyceps inside, it’s not gonna make you a full blown zombie, it’s a reason why last of us sci fi
Well it would take hundreds of thousands more likely even millions of years plus the perfect environment for cordyceps to to evolve to infect mammals or vertebrates ingeneral. However, the moment cordyceps start infecting mammals especially chimps we should start panicking immediately.
@@rebs4jezusyou were dropped hard if you think fungi taking over humans is possible. inbred.
What if the fungi entered a human with no immunity system? Would they die?
Well .... Yes
If a human didn’t have an immune system, other diseases would kill them before cordiceps could
@@prestigev6131 Excluding that, of course
I you were born with no immune system, Cordyceps would be the least of your problems
@@ExtremeAcer Cordyceps infection speedrun
That photo of a dead cordyceps fly is so cool, I've never seen a fly without eyes
Roanoke gaming went into this topic and how our immune system fights fungi and how it could override it. Neat video which id 100% recommend.
I read about real scientists say it’s not likely but it’s possible
We all know some where, someone is making/working on a version of this to weaponize. Imagine what they could do if they released that upon us
Rabies would be a much better option. It has most of the features (behavior wise) depicted in sci-fi literature.
@@tharakanewan3544 like 28 days later. Not zombies but rabies maddened crazy’s. That can transfer with spit, scratch, blood, bite. They’d starve and die after a few weeks or dehydration with millions dead and effected. 100% see that more plausible
No because governments already have far more scarier and deadlier biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons, like VX nerve gas, anthrax, so on.
Bro the fungus aint a viable way to make a biological weapon, u got viruses and bacteria, way better options to kill a human, fungus are weak asf, even feaver can kill em
@@osvaldoromeros.7115 rabies too
Never underestimate nature
😂
True, but not in the way you're probably thinking. Few consider all the other animals it could infect before infecting humans.
Dont overestimate it either. The human immune system is the most complex immune system of any species living or dead.
@@anon4854 Agreed. Just because a certain aggressive, parasitic mold species can suddenly tolerate higher temps doesn't mean it can beat an immune system. And then, once it does, be able to control a brain and nervous system far more complex than an ant's. It's an interesting concept, different from how most zombie stories go. But that doesn't mean we should actually be concerned.
@@DAK4Blizzard Yeah the temp argument is extremely weak. I think people dont really understand just how big a leap it is from being able to survive at a certain temperature to overcoming a highly complex immune system let alone manipulating biological and neurological structures infinitely more complex than an insects.
It really disturbs me when people are kind of disappointed about this? LIKE THANK GOD?!
Subscribed!
And typically speaking, it can’t get into our nervous system, because it’s connected to several different organs
Oh Mister "Studied Biology" suddenly knows so much about biology?
Me through the entire video : Holy shat please don't say yes...
still i wounder if perposly pushed,could it breach that barrior between insect and human? i think i heard that some can infect mice and rats but i dont remember if it was true or not
Funny you say that because one of the first few pictures is actually the fungi growing out of a birds skull
@@DaShcati it is a flies exoskeleton
This is the video I needed after binging it yesterday, safe
with all honesty i felt relieved hearing this...
Straight 📠! Thank you for all you do. I’m always looking out for your videos on tiktok 😁
Some mad scientist in a lab somewhere: NEVER TELL ME THE ODDS
I am genuinely freaked out by this fungi
What if the person has a Compromised Immune system??
If their immune system was that compromised, more common bacteria and viruses would’ve killed them long before they encountered a cordyceps spore
Compromised immune system have medicine where they can get the immunity they need. They take these medications all the time to accommodate their bodies lack of immunity.
I think in that case, the forbidden shrooms will have to take a number behind Covid, the common cold, chicken pox, the flu, black mold, a random bacteria that was on the wall, and the hundred million other things that have already evolved to infect humans.
In other words, don't worry, there are plenty of things out there that will try to kill us before the evil shrooms can get at our brains. :)
The fungus still wouldn’t zombify you. Worst case scenario, the fungus makes you really sick, and you have to get intravenous antifungals.
Thank you for the an explanation, it make me feel safe.. 😂😂😂😂
Yeah I don’t even know why some people are jumping the gun on how cordyceps can happen 😑
if it does, the infection would be over in days and humanity lived on like it never happened.
HIV
SARS
Covid-19 (maybe)
The Common Cold
The Flu
@@joeysmith7296 Those are all viruses with airborne transmission. over within a week unless and only if the patient has underlying conditions. Fungal infections work very differently.
@@firstletterofthealphabet7308 HIV is spread through blood and can last a lifetime
Couldnt our immune system fight off the fungus with the help of anti fungal medication?
@@joeysmith7296we are talking about a fungus dude.
@@imag-nonespaghet9337 you want some meth (not a setup)
It may not be realistic,sure but the sheer thought alone that it could happen in a universe similar to the show and the games is still kinda terrifying AF
In the current form we are safe. But mutations over time can change that. Plus with certain pressures, jumping species isn’t impossible.
Yes but ot would take on less complex lifeforms first or more likely
These fungi have been around for millions of years, still they infect nothing more than small insects. The amount of mutation needed to infect humans is insurmountable and not viable for species survival
What if it’s the ppl that don’t take mushrooms get infected? *takes cordyceps and lions mane
But it’s not a realistic scenario..
Bill gates enters chat.
Bro the average city in Texas could take out a whole zombie apocalypse in 3 months
lmao 💀
My brother, me and my friends have 24 guns combined, it would not take texas 3 months. It would take 1 month at the most
@@joeysmith7296 probably
May not be realistic but still scary as hell to run into one of these
"evolve or die"
There is a great creepypasta about this kind of thing. Too bad that I forgot what it is called.
Never mind. Here it is: th-cam.com/video/AvBvyqwYY7w/w-d-xo.html
Up
The smile tapes...
This guy: “This can’t happen to humans.”
Wuhan Scientists: “Is that a challenge?!”
Definitely a "Y'all hold my beer and watch this shit!" moment.....
Doesn’t work like that, the chance of that ever happening is zero because no amount of genetic modification is going to make the cordyceps that infects an ant turn into a full blown zombie
@@MrJoelMiller when you realize that people can cross mushroom breeds 🍄 together… if you have a psychedelic mushroom mixed with one of these? I think it’s more possible than you think. I wouldn’t definitively say “not possible” to anyone evil enough to try.
Sure mr human not cordycepts man
As what the doctor have said in the 1st episode. "What if they were to evolve?".
As a Biology major I had cousins asking me this very question back when the games were a thing. I made sure to say yes and gave examples.
Naturally I said nothing of how replacing a spinal cord by a mushroom isn't exactly going go work. Much less the behavioral aspect of animating a body rather than using it for a nutrient rich source to grow.
For people worrying Cordyceps are actually GOOD for humans, and will not turn us into zombies.
How come? I'm not hating I just want to understand this better.
@@imag-nonespaghet9337 Cordyceps can be used in alot of medicines, and dishes, its perfectly safe to consume,
@@emmetentertainment2863 oh neat.
But also the human body is terrible at fighting off funguses and parasites. So really its not as impossible of scenario as it seems. More after some billion dollar government research Im sure.
"So if that happens"
"We loose"
Not YET. the human body is only a few degrees above tolerance
You're the first who explained it right!!!
It's not "cordyceps-like fungi" it's literally the cordyceps fungi
Your hoodie is so dope
His voice is so relaxing
I never thought I would hear the last of us being given the title of a sci-fi zombie fantasy. But then again given what sci-fi literally means, you're technically correct. It's just weird to think about cuz people usually think of advanced technology and space shit when it comes to sci-fi. So for that reason my brain finds it a bit odd, but technically correct.
He might eat his words.
Based on what?😂
@@tomashorst9544you never know lol these scientists sure know how to change the narrative when it comes down to it.
@@UnblockMind Again, based on WHAT EXACTLY? wElL yoU nEvEr KnoW" bro I can literally say that about anything that is 0 proof.
I can tell you as a major in biomedical research we are so far off from a fungal zombie infection it would literally take millions of years and that is assuming the fungus has a reason to evolve, which it doesn't.these fungi have been around for millions of years and still only infect small insects. Evolution only happens because of necessity.
I eat cordyceps for breakfast.
The thing is our bodies would simply collapse under the damage long before images such as in that game are archieved. While spreading, the fungus would deal much more damage to our insides before even becoming visible on the outside, meaning we would still look like regular humans.
I feel really bad for the bugs that get infected with these fungi, must be a horrific way to die.
The real misconception is that there is no treatment… its got DNA, RNA it can be treated…
short answer: No cuz, we got stronger immune systems than insects
that one photo be looking like "PREPARE THYSELF"
thank you, you don’t understand how happy i am to hear this 😂
The reason there is potential scariness, for humans is because the process these things are taking is very similar to every other major disease that is spread to humans in history, like the black plague started out as a virus that moved to insect than the small animals and on up. The fungi in question has already been seen to move from insects to small lizards.
This wouldn't just happen, it would have to evolve over millions of years. Not only does the fungis need to evolve to handle the heat of our bodies, it also needs to know what to do to our bodies, which is a game of random chance mutations until something works that results in a better liklihood of spreading its genes. Basically, we'd notice real quick at the very first step if we were finding cordyceps colonies at autopsy
Human Immune System : Nuh Uh
Cordyceps Fungi : copy that.
" I’m gonna watch one last short before bed " the short
I'll invent it just to spite you
If the fungus can mutate to fight our immune system like COVID-19. It will be night mare
Not to mention how specialised they are, it’s basically 1 species of insect for each fungus. Even if infection was somehow possible, being that specific means it wouldn’t cross the species barrier without somehow completely overhauling it’s genome in one go
We have macrophages. That's what saves us.
What about neutrophils? They want in on the fun 😢
"cordyceps-like fungi"
So... Cordyceps, then
The last of us fans when they see a mushroom in the fridge: 😱😱😱😱
This perfectly sums up the entire comment section
Not to mention how extremely unlikely it is that the fungus will suddenly leap from ants to humans. We are not ants, we are a million times more complex. It would require a million years of evolution where the fungus evolved to infect more and more complex things, and I think in that time we'd notice the trend
A fungus which evolved to control insects brains, attempting to control a human brain would be a lot like trying to hack a quantum super computer using a comador 64
You need to make a full 20 minute video on this topic
I was just thinking I should do a special podcast episode on Cordyceps and “Last Of Us”
@@FascinatedByFungi hell yeah!!! 😊🤙
Clicker: "I'm the mushroom man I'm the fungi fellow"
Whats even more crazy is it has extremely powerful health affects for humans. I suggest everyone should look into it
That's why there's a big push on eating bugs.
Bros eye contact is crazy
👁️🍄👁️
Thank god
Even if it did infect humans it wouldn’t be like the game or show, the infected humans would just climb to really high place and lay down and die. The real enemy wouldn’t be the “zombies” but the spores that burst from their head
Yep, and that’s what people don’t realize
It definitely wouldn't be so fast. In the show Joel says the world went from normal to zombie apocalypse in a weekend, but I ld imagine it would take much longer for a single spore to grow large enough to hijack your brain, which would probably give your brain enough time to self destruct via fever.
You are appealing to reality. In the game and show it takes 2 days for a person to turn. But it's fiction so what you said is right but the game and show is what it is.
It IS more feasible than we used to think though tbf, it’s never gonna happen BUT. We’ve recently found out the ophiocordyceps both links with the nervous system of ants AND influences the release of mood and behaviour changing hormones in their brains. So between directly using the nervous system to control our muscles, and affecting our thoughts, decision making processes and emotions there is a “pathway” to understanding how this COULD happen. But obviously you have to ignore that we’re way too warm for them to live in us and also way too complex for them to be able to influence us in any kind of beneficial way just by species jumping to deal with the high temperature for this to be in any way realistic. It’s kinda like saying a crow could build a swing set because they can count to 6, have some problem solving skills, long term memory and can bend wires or twigs to hook food out of narrow holes and drop pebbles in water bottles to raise the level enough to drink from hahaha. “Well if they evolved to want a swing and then evolved to work together in a group then got MUCH better at tool use, bla bla bla a million things then yes they’d build a whole play set easily!”
It is interesting though
thank god! this premise has always bothered me a bit considering after the last of us came out more media was talking about cordyceps like it was a new thing
Something mildly terrifying
Those mushrooms don’t control the ants through messing with their brain; they move the legs directly
“We won’t be hijacked the same way”
Ok, but now that begs the question: in what way can we be hijacked?
I know what I have to do now. Thank you for the information.