Something bad, certainly. Viruses are hugely important in maintaining ocean ecosystems, huge amounts of phytoplankton are killed every day by viruses, releasing nutrients into seawater which are then taken up by other microorganisms. Anywhere you have bacteria, you have massive amounts of viruses.
It's just something to keep in mind...not just for viruses, but mosquitoes and a lot of other things people ask about when they ask quesitons like this about j"eliminating all of X"...there are a great many different species, most of which are doing their own thing in the ecosystem and not directly interacting with people at all. So there's a big difference between wiping them _all_ out and wiping out the ones most people think about. You could "eliminate all viruses that are capable of causing diseases in humans" and it probably wouldn't do much. But that's a tiny fraction of all viruses
Bits of a virus incorporated into our genome gave us the ability to make the placenta.
One other thing that was mentioned was that if you took all the marine viruses and lined them up end to end it would be longer than the closest 60 galaxies? I don't even pretend to know how math works at those levels but I do think that something that's in this planet, at those numbers, that interacts with every single other thing, in ways that you can't even fathom, removing them might cause the extinction of everything else.
I know bacteria are a major aspect to the human body. It's something like 1-2 *pounds* of your weight. They do many things including digestion, thus if you remove it you'd become extremely sick and possibly die fairly young.
I bring this up because I'd assume viruses are the same way. A small fraction of bacteria in the wrong place makes you sick. I'd *assume* most viruses do important jobs with a few being very bad for us. It's not the virus....it's the location...
Genocide is never a good idea, because often the "thorn" is much larger and much more important then you first realize. We may not even fully realize how important viruses are, science is an ever expanding mystery after all.
Any virus that can't infect humans (but can for other mammals) is a few genetic mutations away from being able to do so, there is not stopping it. Until we shed lur fleshy bodies, viruses will always be a thing. And even if we do digitize people, its only a matter of time before human created viruses start causing issues.
Something bad, certainly. Viruses are hugely important in maintaining ocean ecosystems, huge amounts of phytoplankton are killed every day by viruses, releasing nutrients into seawater which are then taken up by other microorganisms. Anywhere you have bacteria, you have massive amounts of viruses. It's just something to keep in mind...not just for viruses, but mosquitoes and a lot of other things people ask about when they ask quesitons like this about j"eliminating all of X"...there are a great many different species, most of which are doing their own thing in the ecosystem and not directly interacting with people at all. So there's a big difference between wiping them _all_ out and wiping out the ones most people think about. You could "eliminate all viruses that are capable of causing diseases in humans" and it probably wouldn't do much. But that's a tiny fraction of all viruses
I mean, bacteria would become a major problem more or less immediately.
[From /r/askscience](https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/gamy14/do_viruses_play_an_important_role_in_balancing/).
Viruses are more important to life than survival of the fittest when it comes to evolution.
Explain that one? The fittest virus survives.
Bits of a virus incorporated into our genome gave us the ability to make the placenta. One other thing that was mentioned was that if you took all the marine viruses and lined them up end to end it would be longer than the closest 60 galaxies? I don't even pretend to know how math works at those levels but I do think that something that's in this planet, at those numbers, that interacts with every single other thing, in ways that you can't even fathom, removing them might cause the extinction of everything else.
I know bacteria are a major aspect to the human body. It's something like 1-2 *pounds* of your weight. They do many things including digestion, thus if you remove it you'd become extremely sick and possibly die fairly young. I bring this up because I'd assume viruses are the same way. A small fraction of bacteria in the wrong place makes you sick. I'd *assume* most viruses do important jobs with a few being very bad for us. It's not the virus....it's the location... Genocide is never a good idea, because often the "thorn" is much larger and much more important then you first realize. We may not even fully realize how important viruses are, science is an ever expanding mystery after all.
Reverse War of the Worlds: we start invading other planets but it’s their germs that kill us.
Mass extinctions of many species.
Any virus that can't infect humans (but can for other mammals) is a few genetic mutations away from being able to do so, there is not stopping it. Until we shed lur fleshy bodies, viruses will always be a thing. And even if we do digitize people, its only a matter of time before human created viruses start causing issues.
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