Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Hyperparasites, illustrated by gambling

Consider a gamble house. The ones running the gamble house are parasites upon the gamble addicts.

The moderate gamblers, those who gamble for a little fun, arguably derive more pleasure from the gambling experience than pain of losing money, so the gambling house and the moderate gamblers are mutualistic.

The professional gamblers, the card counters, those who can earn money from the gamble house, are the hyperparasites on the gambling house.

Then there are those hired by the gambling house to catch the card counters. Those are the hyperhyperparasites.

Thus we obtain an ecosystem with:

  • Gamble addicts: the hosts.
  • Gamble houses: the parasites
  • Moderate gamblers: creatures that are mutualistic with the parasites.
  • Professional gamblers: the hyperparasites.
  • People hired to catch the professional gamblers: the hyperhyperparasites.

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