Even bacteria are prone to deception. Scientists have discovered that misinformation spreads among all living beings.
Lie can be compared to a virus that infects collective consciousness.
For example, in the case of birds, one individual can cause panic simply by uttering a false message. This leads to the formation of a whole stream of misinformation. Bacteria, in turn, communicate on a chemical level, but they are also not immune to errors.
Researchers from Cornell University found that the chemical process of information transfer can include distortions. This can be called mutation, when part of the signal sent from one cell to another is lost, resulting in a distorted message reaching the recipient. For instance, Salmonella can interfere in "foreign chats" and mislead about the size of its colonies.
Such misinformation processes can also lead to autoimmune diseases, when the immune system starts to perceive its own cells as foreign and destroys them. And there are many such examples.
Mechanisms of "biological fake" formation
Scientists have identified three main mechanisms that contribute to the emergence of misinformation.
The first is the loss of details. When information is transmitted between cells, part of the context may be lost, leading to distorted interpretation.
The second is the alteration of messages. Information passed "from mouth to mouth" can accumulate new details or lose its meaning, similar to the spread of rumors.
The third is the distortion of perception within a group. If individuals rely on each other's actions when receiving a message, one person's error can lead to collective misunderstanding, which becomes entrenched in the group.
However, misinformation also has positive aspects. Evolution has provided organisms with a response to false messages: mammals, for example, have learned to verify information individually and adapt their behavior based on the results. The same is true for guppies.
Thus, scientists concluded that misinformation is an integral part of the biological process, akin to natural selection and mutations, characteristic of all living beings.
