Claus D. Volko on Symbiont Conversion Theory: Reprogramming Bacteria and Tumors to Counter Antimicrobial Resistance

Claus D. Volko, M.D. (born 1983) is an Austrian software engineer and medical scientist in Vienna. He holds degrees in medicine (M.D.), medical informatics (B.Sc.) and computational intelligence (M.Sc.). In the demoscene he is known as “Adok” and served as main editor of the electronic magazine Hugi. Volko formulated Symbiont Conversion Theory in 2018. He founded and leads the Prudentia High IQ Society, and joined Mensa in 2002. In 2018 he published “Volko Personality Patterns,” a Jungian-inspired extension of MBTI typology. In 2025 he posted “Reprogramming Bacteria for Symbiont Conversion: A Review” on Prudentia’s blog, and maintains Prudentia’s journal and blog.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen interviews Claus D. Volko, M.D., an Austrian medical scientist and software engineer, on his Symbiont Conversion Theory, published in Biomed Sci Clin Res in 2025. Volko describes minimum viable experiments involving bacterial gene propagation and bacteriophages as decisive tests for implementation. He frames “conversion” as biological reprogramming rather than eradication, deliberately perturbing evolutionary trajectories to confront antimicrobial resistance, citing tuberculosis as a plausible target. Extending the framework to oncology, Volko defines a tumor symbiont as a reprogrammed, functional cell. Ethical implications are explicit: microbes should not be killed. He dismisses placebo relevance, critiques medicine’s conservatism relative to engineering.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Symbiont Conversion Theory was ultimately published in Biomed Sci Clin Res in March, 2025. What would you consider the minimum viable experimental result to justify the foundational scientific theory more?

Claus Volko: I proposed two experiments in the paper Reprogramming Bacteria for Symbiont Conversion – A Review. One is about the spreading of genetic modifications in a bacterial population, the other about bacteriophages. If both experiments prove successful, I think there will be no obstacles to implementing symbiont conversion.

Jacobsen: In Reprogramming Bacteria for Symbiont Conversion – A Review, you broaden symbiont conversion to reprogramming. Can you elaborate, please?

Volko: Reprogramming is just another term for reeducating. I used both terms interchangeably in the original publication.

Jacobsen: Your theory is partly motivated by the failure modes of destroy and kill. How do you think about evolutionary stability?

Volko: Stability is not intended, as I am trying to perturbate the evolution.

Jacobsen: Antimicrobial resistance is a key motivating problem. If you had to pick one infectious disease target where conversion is strategically sane, which is it?

Volko: For example tuberculosis. But there are many examples.

Jacobsen: Tumors are ecosystems. What is a good operational definition of a tumor cell becoming a symbiont?

Volko: If a tumor is reprogrammed back to a normal, functional cell, then it has become a symbiont.

Jacobsen: Symbiont Conversion Theory has an ethical dimension, i.e., microbes may have moral status. What is the practical implication of this?

Volko: Simply that you do not kill them.

Jacobsen: What modern clinical trial design would you accept as a clean test that separates placebo from real effects?

Volko: I do not think that symbiont conversion has a placebo effect.

Jacobsen: Why is medicine less tolerant culturally than engineering?

Volko: Because it attracts more conservative people.

Jacobsen: You take an interest in the community of the Mega Foundation and Mr. Christopher Michael Langan’s CTMU. Does any of your work metaphysically/theologically align, as such?

Volko: As far as I know, symbiont conversion is not related to the CTMU.

Jacobsen: Thank you very much for the opportunity and your time, Claus.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen is a blogger on Vocal with over 100 posts on the platform. He is the publisher of In-Sight Publishing (ISBN: 978–1–0692343) and the Editor-in-Chief of In-Sight: Interviews (ISSN: 2369–6885). He writes for The Good Men Project, International Policy Digest (ISSN: 2332–9416), The Humanist (Print: ISSN 0018–7399; Online: ISSN 2163–3576), Basic Income Earth Network (UK Registered Charity 1177066), A Further Inquiry, The Washington Outsider, The Rabble, and The Washington Outsider, and other media. He is a member in good standing of numerous media associations/organizations.