Unintended Consequences, Convergent Evolution And Stranger Things

The term “unintended consequences” defines outcomes that aren’t visible, or predictable at the moment of an action. They are grouped into three main types:

• unexpected benefit — like a touch of luck, or serendipity
• unexpected drawback — when the benefit is tainted by some inconvenient inherent to the solution
• perverse result — when the result is massively invalidating the benefits of the initial action

What this has to do with this article?

Well, as you probably have noticed, for the last year the planet have been turned upside down in an effort to battle a pandemic. A virus infection that affects the entire population, to various degrees. The first response, social distancing, has been maintained in an overwhelming majority of countries, until vaccines came out. But, as vaccines are starting to roll out, a recent development puts this entire last year in a new perspective.

And this development can be summarized in three words: the virus mutates.

As any living being, the virus can adjust and evolve. We usually see evolution as a very time consuming process, stretching over geological epochs. Humans, for instance, have evolved from their closest relatives about 100,000 years ago. But…