Editing 2299: Coronavirus Genome 2

This comic is another comic in a [[:Category:COVID-19|series of comics]] related to the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}.

It is also a direct continuation of the previous comic, [[2298: Coronavirus Genome]], making this a [[:Category:Coronavirus Genome|new series]].

[[Megan]] sent her copy of the coronavirus genome to [[Cueball]], who then proceeded to share it with his friends on social media. In effect, he is spreading the virus over the Internet, though not in a form that can actually make people sick with COVID-19 (which may seem obvious, but then some people [https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2020/04/09/5g-networks-and-covid-19-coronavirus-here-are-the-latest-conspiracy-theories/ believe 5G causes coronavirus].)  If his post catches on and is widely shared, it might be described as "going viral". (This "virtually" spreading the {{w|COVID-19|coronavirus}}, would be a prank).

Additionally, while exchanging research data generally is as good an idea as using readymade tools for science, publishing the genome of a dangerous virus actually might cause the virus to spread further: There are specialized manufacturers that can mail you arbitrary DNA snippets if you send them their sequence as an ASCII file. That actually can work in the other direction, too: Some of the machines used by such firms in order to save space stored a base pair in 4 bits of memory and could (using a buffer overrun) be convinced to actually try to execute instead of manufacturing the DNA code.

In continuation of the previous strip, Cueball appears to be fascinated by the fact that the entire genome of this very consequential virus can be fully detailed in a text file, using only 30,000 characters. He realizes that he can't fit this much information in a single tweet (Twitter has a 280 character limit), but is able to fit the entire genome in a Facebook post (Facebook allows [https://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-increases-status-update-character-limit-to-63206/ up to 63,206 characters in a post]).

This strip draws humor from the contrast between the costly physical precautions that are being taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus between people and the blitheness with which Cueball attempts to share (the genome of) the coronavirus electronically.  Cueball's response (that it's okay, because he sanitized his phone before posting) could be taken as a sarcastic rebuttal, given that Megan sent the genome to him without knowing why he wanted it, or a commentary on the useless or counterproductive behaviors of clueless people (e.g. people who wear gloves before touching potentially-contaminated surfaces, but then scratch their noses while still wearing the possibly-contaminated gloves).  It could also be a reference to the ''{{w|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy}}'' series, in which humanity is revealed to possibly be the descendants of the "useless" occupants of the planet Golgafrincham, including telephone sanitizers; unfortunately, after sending their useless members to the planet later called Earth, the remaining Golgafrinchans were subsequently wiped out by a plague caught from an unsanitized telephone. This may also be a reference to the concept of digital data sanitization (the screening of user inputs to prevent exploitation of security flaws) as in [[327: Exploits of a Mom]].

The title text deals with the almost inevitable outcome of the resulting message being 'liked' by some other party. In this case Megan, although she just told Cueball it was weird that he shared it. This may be a commentary on the common reflex to "like" your friend's posts, even if you think they're strange. Alternately, the "like" button on Facebook was historically the only way to signal a reaction to a post (other than actually commenting).  When someone posted about a bad event, such as an injustice, a tragedy, or a difficult personal event, people might "like" the post to indicate their support of the person posting it, but it could read as having positive feelings toward the incident itself.  (Facebook has since added multiple reaction buttons to express such emotions as surprise, sadness or anger). In this case, Megan "like"ing the coronavirus genome could be taken to mean that she likes the virus itself, which would be quite odd. {{citation needed}}

::GAAAGGTAAGATGGAGAGGCCTTGTC<span style="background-color:pink">CCTGGTTCAACGAGAA</span>

::<font color="red">-29,602</font> <font color="skyblue">(+)</font> <span style="background-color:skyblue; color:white">Tweet</span>

:Megan: Unsettling that your first instinct is "share it online."