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DIGITAL CONTAGIONS, a history. https://lnkd.in/ebfBn_S View in LinkedIn

GROWTH. "Although accurate numbers are difficult to derive, reports over the last few years indicate an approximate yearly doubling in the number of systems infected by computer viruses. Clearly, computer viruses are exhibiting significant growth." https://lnkd.in/eCG7b3z View in LinkedIn

DEAD CODE. "In computer programming, dead code is a section in the source code of a program which is executed but whose result is never used in any other computation. While the result of a dead computation may never be used, it may raise exceptions or affect some global state, thus removal of such code may change the output of the program and introduce unintended bugs." https://lnkd.in/eXb6z-z View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this first of two weekends on worm talk. It is becoming increasingly clear that what we assumed were simple creatures are far from simple. They organize complex societies, develop clever life strategies, mate and have community, based on conversations that we have been deaf to. This is true down to the supposedly simplest of creatures, bacteria and viruses. It is our superior attitude that makes us uncurious. View in LinkedIn

COMPUTER VIRUSES occupy the same type of Grey Zone in programming that biological viruses occupy in biology. Both defy mainstream thinking, and both challenge definitions of life defined by autonomy, reproduction and evolution. And both inform each other considerably in relation to optional its and available strategies. View in LinkedIn

POLYMORPHIC VIRUSES. "Indeed, they typify anagenetic evolutionary change: the sequential transformation within a population or species. Insofar as this is true, it is possible to speak of directional and disruptional selection, speciation, Hardy-Weinberg equivalence, Mendelian genetics, and myriad other evolutionary terms." https://lnkd.in/dGnhiwY View in LinkedIn

EVOLUTIONARY PROCESSES. "To put it bluntly, polymorphic computer viruses evolve. Contrary to various Artificial Life scholars, it is the opinion of this document that polymorphics undergo evolutionary processes once released into cyberspace." https://lnkd.in/dGnhiwY View in LinkedIn

ONE IS ENOUGH. "The last time a piece of mutable self-replicating code got out of control – when the selfish gene chain-reaction took off about 3.5 billion years ago – the harvest was very remarkable indeed” (Dawkins, 1992). https://lnkd.in/dGnhiwY View in LinkedIn

ONE LEVEL CROSSOVER. “Learn how a researcher infected himself with a computer virus. Dr. Mark Gasson, senior research fellow at University of Reading, explaining how he inserted a RFID chip under the skin between his thumb and first finger. After the RFID implant was in place, Dr. Gasson was able to infect it with a virus. And more importantly, infect (replicate the virus) other devices." https://lnkd.in/d2b3iQn View in LinkedIn

TWO LEVEL CROSSOVERS. "But there are more immediate possibilities for computer-biology crossovers. Synthetic biology uses computers to store genetic information, and Apvrille and Lovet explained that hackers could infect these devices or the software used for DNA sequencing, thereby modifying whatever biological product is being synthesized." https://lnkd.in/dmzuNWh View in LinkedIn