They sell the fact that you’re susceptible to technical animism. - Daniel Suarez

Perfect replication is the enemy of any robust system... Lacking a central nervous system — much less a brain — the parasite is a simple system designed to compromise a very specific target host. The more uniform the host, the more effective the infestation.

They had already worked together closely in the War on Terror and the War on Drugs, and they stood ready to combat any other noun that caused trouble.

Sexual reproduction exists solely as a means to defeat parasites. By mixing male and female genes, sex produces offspring not exactly like either the male or female—making each generation different from the last, and presenting a moving target to intruders intent on compromising this system. … Even with this variation, parasites continue to pose a threat... and parasitism evolves and moves through any system—not just living things. The less variation there is in a system, the more readily parasites will evolve to infest it...