Month: September 2022

GREY ZONE. "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." This discussion is as philosophical as the same question about biological viruses. There is no testable hypothesis, just disputed definitions." https://lnkd.in/eCG7b3z View in LinkedIn

VIRAL MUTATIONS. "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

FEIGNED EVOLUTION. "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

VARIANT PROGENY. "Interestingly, there is also one case where two different strains of a Macintosh virus are known to interact to form infections unlike the “parents,” although these interactions usually produce “sterile” offspring that are unable to reproduce further. This likewise does not appear to be evolution as we know it." https://lnkd.in/eCG7b3z View in LinkedIn

ACTIVE REPLICANTS. "Viruses certainly do exhibit a form of growth, in the sense that there are more of them in a given environment over time. Some transient viruses will infect every file on a system after only a few activations. The spread of viruses through commercial software and public bulletin boards is another indication of their wide-spread replication." https://lnkd.in/eCG7b3z View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE. We are far from cracking the language of birds, dolphins, whales and monkeys, despite their overt vocalizations. It turns out that we know more about ant, bacterial and worm communication than all those other big creatures put together. It is inherently true that any creature with a complex society must have an associated language. It turns out, surprising to some, that worm-speak has both syntax and modular structure. View in LinkedIn

POISONED BUT NOT UNDERSTOOD. Despite the fact that nematodes (a type of worm) are immensely prevalent, and gather in large communities to mate and feed, barely a single publication can be found on how they communicate with one another. We barely give them credit for their complex societies. More is known about how to poison them that about their ecology. https://lnkd.in/efXjHUb View in LinkedIn

DARWIN KNEW. Worms have been mapped, counted, weighed, divided into species. We have ground them up to measure their chemistry, poisoned them in the soil to count their numbers, measured their impact on soil turnover, but really, we know next to nothing about this plentiful creature, let alone how to speak worm. But early indications show that they are far more complex than anyone ever thought, except Darwin (in his 1881 book, The formation of Vegetable Mould by the Action of Worms). https://lnkd.in/exyGWjD View in LinkedIn

PREVAILING DOGMA. “There is no evidence for human-like language syntax in any nonhuman species.” (Chomsky) https://lnkd.in/eHTtV3v View in LinkedIn

MISSING THE BOAT. “Animal communication systems have thus far failed to demonstrate anything remotely like our systems of phonology, semantics, and syntax, and the capacity to process even artificially created stimuli is highly limited, often requiring Herculean training efforts.” https://lnkd.in/e576Q3T View in LinkedIn