Interesting. I never even thought of separating those two aspects, it seemed to me like either would follow more or less naturally from the other.

I read a book about evolution and symbiosis a little while ago that had some pretty interesting stuff in it. One big point was that a lot of the relationships that had long been assumed to be Parasitic actually ended up being Mutualistic once someone really looked at them. Most of the time, if something is truly parasitic and just harmful, organisms do manage to get rid of it, and the ones that really stick around tend to offer some benefits to their host. If only by training up their immune system properly.

I really do love these quarterly recap posts of yours. There's always interesting stuff in here.