Simile on sense of self, virocell and the COVID19 pandemic

Abstract

The virocell concept of a viral lifecycle maintains that there are two main stages in a virus’s existence. The one is a passive state of a virion, which is not a living entity, and the second one is the virocell. In the state of virocell, a virus infects a host’s cell and hijacks its cellular machinery to achieve its own replication. Depending on the way that a cell reacts to a viral infection, it can have its activities or character as an individual living organism, suppressed completely, to some extent or not at all. In the article, the authors propose that there is analogy between the virocell theory as applied to the SARS-CoV-2 virus lifecycle and the sense of self for humans in the coronavirus pandemic world, and the post-COVID19 space-time. Methodology adopted is a combination of simile of Wittgenstein’s parallel cases, autoethnography, the virocell concept of the SARV-CoV-2 lifecycle and a multi-individual nature of one’s self based on the principles of the assemblage theory. The nature of human existence and the sense of self is defined as a relational notion which is tied to the societal educational standards, phases of developments of a human being and their fluid sense of self. The COVID19 pandemic space-time provides, in fact it demands that humanity undergoes an ongoing education of itself to maintain a productive and resilient movement forward for self and society, as an equivalent of the ribovirocell of a human cell infected with the coronavirus. The notion of speed will have to be unpacked and investigated further, which is done in part in a follow up article and is anchored as the defining characteristics of the post-COVID19 world.