Category: Uncategorized

ARTIFICIAL LIFE. "Only recently have some scientists begun to ask if computer viruses are not a form of artificial life — a self-replicating organism. Simply because computer viruses do not exist as organic molecules may not be sufficient reason to dismiss the classification of this form of “vandalware” as a form of life." https://lnkd.in/eCG7b3z View in LinkedIn

"MOBILE CODE is the ability to move executable code across the network, to the place where it is needed, and then execute that code securely and reliably." https://lnkd.in/dqK2a6W View in LinkedIn

RADICAL. “I think computer viruses should count as life.” (Stephen Hawking) https://lnkd.in/db_T3sX View in LinkedIn

COMPUTER VIRUSES. "Like DNA molecules, it's code is a template that is used by the virus to replicate itself. There also seems to be a kind of metabolism that converts matter and energy." https://lnkd.in/dz3C6n5 View in LinkedIn

INFORMATION. "A computer virus has information storage of a self-representation." https://lnkd.in/dz3C6n5 View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE continues from last weekend and concludes on the theme of biological simplicity, how it arose, and its relationship to the abundant biological complexity that we see everywhere. View in LinkedIn

HUMAN HAND. "Polymorphic viruses alter their copies to avoid detection, but the pattern of alteration is ultimately a human product. These changes do not constitute evolution, however." https://lnkd.in/eCG7b3z View in LinkedIn

"VIRAL EVOLUTION. Higher-level mutations of viruses do exist, however. There are variants of many known viruses, with over a dozen known for some IBM PC viruses. The variations involved can be very small, on the order of two or three instructions difference, to major changes involving differences in messages, activation, and replication." https://lnkd.in/eCG7b3z View in LinkedIn

REASSEMBLY. "It is interesting to note that the virus can be reassembled later and regain its functional status." https://lnkd.in/eCG7b3z View in LinkedIn

INDIVISIBILITY. "Interdependence of virus parts. Living organisms cannot be arbitrarily divided without destroying them. The same is true of computer viruses. Should a computer virus have a portion of its “anatomy” excised, the virus would probably cease to function normally, if at all. Few viruses are written with superfluous code, and even so, the working code cannot be divided without disabling the virus." https://lnkd.in/eCG7b3z View in LinkedIn