There’s no direct evidence that animals other than that one rat was influenced by the virus and considerable evidence against the idea (animals released from zoos do their own thing and that pet goat seems to hold an individual affection for that teen girl). If the virus could affect rats (and other animals) in general, the infection stage of the plague would have been very different.
The rat was just acting like any rat who had been cooped up and then turned upside down and poked in the chest.
Or any person, for that matter.
I think maybe the rat had a seizure reaction or otherwise negative reaction to the virus to create the situation where the lab tech revived it, but no, they’re definitely not part of the hive mind. It’s pretty clear that animals are on their own.
Don’t forget about the dog who stayed with his owner.
I think it’s less direct than an instinct to communicate the message outward to other planets. If that was their ultimate goal, they wouldn’t waste effort on being nice to Carol and the rest of the unaffected - just kill them and get back to building a radio telescope. Seems like the virus gives a general command to “be nice” (or something like that). The nicest possible thing is to pass on the wonderful virus information, but they do other nice things too (like caring for the unaffected), even though that’s not directly related to reproduction of the virus. The dysentery-causing bacteria and amoeba don’t directly make their host contaminate water supplies - they just cause dysentery and let nature take its course.
It sorta is, they are just as focused on spreading the virus to the immune as they are to send the signal to space.
True - the general urge to spread just can’t distinguish between a useless spread to Carol and a producive one to some extraterrestrial world
I have said this a couple of times in the thread. The message is the life form. I agree with others that the be all end all is that they send that message. Everything else is a means to that end. Nothing else in the end really matters.
I think that’s right, and while it’s possible that our heroes will figure out a way to fix everyone and reverse everything, I think that’s unlikely (for story reasons) and it will be more interesting if they figure out a way to change and/or work with the Plurbs to overcome their own biological programming.
It may be possible with the special tone to peel people off and isolate them as well as shield Carol. Someone who used to be part of the collective might know what it takes to defeat them or at least stop the new antenna from taking over another world. There are so many ways to go with this concept