My question could be naive, but I was not able to find an answer. I have read at several places that viruses tend to evolve to less dangerous forms (HIV for example), se they do not run out of hosts, and eventually disappear. Natural selection, that I understand. What I do not understand, how does a virus 'know' when to start mutation to a less dangerous form?
It's not they are connected, and tell each other, slow down, we are running out of hosts, let's do something about it.
Is this process the answer?
