(Mis)sensible information.

The social media giants have come under scrutiny for the way their platforms have been used to distribute political misinformation. Bad ideas and behaviors arise on these platforms in part because these systems rely largely on positive selection. This means content can be readily “shared” or “liked” with very little negative selection (i.e., weeding out) of bad stuff. Now let’s put this in the context of cancer genomic evolution. Our germlines are largely kept lean and pristine by a system of negative selection that weeds out the vast majority (>90%) of germline mutations. Our somatic cells, on the other hand, thrive in a more evolutionary environment where there is a great deal of positive selection of mutations over time. Mostly our somatic cells end up with the equivalent of cat video mutations. But, over time, positive selection uncovers more sinister mutations which can lead to huge, huuuuge outcomes. In other words, cancer evolution is almost exclusively driven by an insidious positive selection that eventually produces more and more oncogenic mutations. And what was once all fun and games with fainting goats eventually becomes Stuxnet.