University entomologist: Game of Thrones is a metaphor for the spread of infectious diseases
I’ve heard pundits call Game of Thrones a metaphor for climate change before, but this is new. According to Cate Hill, a medical entomologist (aka bug scientist) at Purdue University and a huge Game of Thrones fan, the story is a metaphor for the danger posed to humanity by infectious diseases.
The basic thrust of Hill’s argument is that, for hundreds of years of human history, the planet was plagued by…well, plagues, many of them spread by insects. With the advent of pesticides and antibiotics, we’ve had a break for the last 60 or so years. But now, insects and pathogens have had enough time to get used to that stuff, and a new wave of infectious diseases could be on the horizon. “We’ve found all the obvious drugs and pesticides,” Hill said. “Now it’s increasingly difficult to find replacement products. Our toolkit is looking a bit bare.”
‘Game of Thrones’ tells the story of the never-ending struggle of life. Either you win or you die. That’s what happens with infectious diseases.
White Walkers play a prominent role in Hill’s hypothesis.
Our White Walkers are not monsters but mosquitoes, fairly tiny organisms. Their weapons are not swords of ice but viruses and other pathogens. Our ability to defend ourselves against these enemies is weakening, and – in another interesting parallel with “Game of Thrones” – a key portion of the political and economic powerbase is not paying attention to the threat.
Sub out mosquitos and climate change and this is pretty much the Game of Thrones-as-global warming theory. Those White Walkers are a flexible apocalypse metaphor.
And how does one battle White Walkers? Among other things, dragonglass. The trick is finding the real-world equivalent to that stuff. Is it a new round of pesticides and vaccines? Genetically modified mosquitos? Wiping out mosquitos all together? “We need to be continually looking for the next dragon glass. The minute we stop our search or are unsuccessful, it could be the last page of our saga.”
As you can see, Hill has very much committed to this metaphor. She’ll go more in depth at an upcoming conference called Dawn or Doom 2016 (cheery title), happening October 3-4. Her talk: “Infectious Diseases and the Game of Thrones: Can new technologies prevent epidemics of mosquito-borne diseases?”
We’ll see if Hill changes her model at all after Game of Thrones ends. Hopefully, the mosquitos White Walkers don’t kill everyone everywhere.
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