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Comment by skellyclock | Hacker News Reader

Cool definition of parasite on the wiki

"The entomologist E. O. Wilson has characterised parasites as "predators that eat prey in units of less than one""

That is what I thought, too, although it is not that simple; for one thing, what you will define as "one unit" also is not that simple.

(I suppose, due to this, "hyperparasite" is even less going to be clearly defined than this.)

Another comment says "parasites that subsist on the food consumed by the host rather than the host itself". That is also seems to be a good point too; how to handle that consideration, too?

If your unit is "Soul", like in the airline or Buddhist industry(0), things might simplify, though it still kills Wilsons intention, for all social predators, including humans, are become parasites..

To your second consideration, some and perhaps all souls practise autophagy (via computation)

(0)"The practice of spreading the whale out among many people is based in the Buddhist principle that it's better to sacrifice a single soul to feed many than to kill many animals to feed one person."

(0)http://www.laobserved.com/biz/2010/03/a_taste_of_whale.php

That doesn't seem to cover parasites that subsist on the food consumed by the host rather than the host itself. Tapeworms for example.

EOW has good writings and that is a creative definition. But "units" may be a stretch. It's not like there's a health bar and enough parasites deplete it. Limited language.

I always thought it meant the predator depends on a specific host for its survival which is also its prey. Else, are humans hyperparasaites because we eat and domesticate other predators?

That's us!

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