Comment by yieldcrv
3 hours ago
in my futile searches for meaning I’ve wondered whether cancers in humans are a failsafe to something else or preventing something worse
more specifically the lack of more failsafes seen in some other mammals are a reaction to something besides happenstance
Was actually a great article on this last week: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49832938
Cancer is the price we pay for complex multicellular life. It’s not a failsafe, it’s the failure of all failsafes to regulate cellular growth within an organism.
> wondered whether cancers in humans are a failsafe
I don't think so, but in the context of theories that are more-interesting than "stuff just breaks sometimes", I'd like to suggest the atavistic aspect.
Some cancers resemble a return towards unicellularity, as if "newer" multicellular rules have broken down. Not in any remotely-effective "our genes shall survive the dark times as goo" way, though.