When victims distribute infected programs, diskettes and documents, the viruses extend their range.
They insert themselves into other host entities, thus spreading the infection. These parasitic programs commandeer CPU, memory and disk resources to replicate themselves. Once these infected programs are executed, the computer viruses, like biological viruses, subvert the normal functions of the operating system (OS). Viruses are little programs that copy themselves into "host" programs, into documents or other files from Microsoft Office products, or into special executable "bootstrap" areas of disks. With the help of unethical, immoral, careless, stupid or crazy virus authors, viruses evolve in response to selection pressures, hiding themselves in new niches of the computer universe, or "cyberspace." Virus authors even take ideas from each other's viruses, leading to a form of primitive viral sexuality. Aggressive anti-virus programs (AVPs) contend with viruses in memory and on disk. Some are mutating at a furious rate, spawning offspring in the blink of an eye. This isn't entirely science fiction any more.Ĭomputer organisms are reproducing worldwide. 5 At about the same time, researchers at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) experimented with using "worms" to perform basic maintenance functions on their local area network. John Brunner's classic book Shockwave Rider described a program called a "tapeworm" that could roam the global network, cleaning up information per the sender's programming. 4 It was a common joke among science fiction fans that one day the North American telephone grid would develop consciousness. 3 Others imagined life-forms evolving in computer networks and predators seeking them out and destroying them.
In the early 1970s, author David Gerrold named a program VIRUS and imagined it spreading from computer to computer through phone linkages. Science fiction authors have long written about artificial life forms.
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