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Thread: PC Virus, is it a living thing?

  1. #31
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    What about this?

    What kind of virus would effect the "biological computer"?
    Would both effect it, just the computer version, just the bio version, or neither?

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  2. #32
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    Cut the power from the pc and it doesn t live anymore.
    The Power is Electricity. Electricty to the computer is the energy source. And like quoted, when you cut off that energy source, it dies. Cut off an animals enery source, it starts to die. Eive it back, I will come back to life...
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  3. #33
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    Interestingly though, you feed a person a large sum of electricity, and they die...

    It's an interesting thought...
    Using the comparison of energy (electric) to that energy for an animal (food, water)
    Kinda like taking the sun away from a flower, it dies without it, like a pc virus needs electricity to continue working....

  4. #34
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    actually, all living things carry live electrical current. the beating of the human heart is controlled by the generation of repeated electrical signals in two specialized regions of the heart called the sionatrial node and the atrial ventricular node. my point is, you cut off our electricity, we die too.

    computer virii do resemble biological virii only in the aspect that it infects and mutates its host to some degree. are computer virii alive though? of course not. not even close. are computers alive? once again, of course not. perhaps some day, machines will be able to have a type of consciousness, making it artificial intelligence, but that is still far from being trully alive. it is just giving a non-living machine the ability to process information and quantum calculations similar to a living thing. the similarities are there. sometimes so close it becomes dificult to tell the difference between living and not. the line between becomes blurred. but this is our own fault. the machines and computers we create are basically crude models of ourselves. science has actually learned about ourselves in many ways from the machines we have created. by examining our technology, we are examing the by-products of humanity and learning from it.
    perhaps some day in a galaxy far far away, it will be the other way around.

  5. #35
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    before you say that computers are not alive, look at my post 4 up and check the link....

    there are living computers, just not something like AI, but living tissues!

  6. #36
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    yes but that is a biological computer made of organic neurons. we are talking about pc's and virii here. even still, that is talking living matter and making it function like a machine, not talking a machine and function as a human being. once again, alike, but very different. hmm, maybe this is getting out my league. perhaps it is i that is obsolete.

  7. #37
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    hmm....that viruses are just chemical processes has been stated and mostly held up..but so are we if you think about it. The only thing that differentiates between us and the virus is our level of complexity, many orders of magnitude above that of the virus.

    Now let's compare some living things versus some non-living things:
    LIVING: animals can self propel themselves, plants can react to the movements of the sun, turning their leaves to catch the most light
    NONLIVING: a rock can't even twitch
    LIVING: animals and plants have the capacity to reproduce
    NONLIVING: hangers can't reproduce (despite how it might seem otherwise )
    LIVING: animals and plants evolve
    NONLIVING: sand can't reproduce, therefore it can't evolve
    LIVING: animals and plants use the environment to their advantage
    NONLIVING: mountains are the environment
    and on and on....

    what about a virus?
    a virus can cause other things to move it
    a virus uses organisms to reproduce itself
    a virus can change as it moves from organism to organism through transcription/reading errors
    a virus uses it's environment to reproduce itself

    ..or a computer?
    a computer attached to the proper equipment can propel itself
    a computer attached to the proper equipment can reproduce it self
    a computer can't really evolve
    a computer can't (at the moment) use the environment to it's advantage

    ...or perhaps programs? (such a computer virus..)
    a program can move itself through the internet and/or sections of the computer/HDD
    a program can make more copies of itself
    a program can change its copies
    a program can use its environment to benefit itself

    So the lines become blurry as you look at these examples. Perhaps life depends on complexity?bacteria aren't very complex... or does it require cells? do you have to think to be alive? worms don't... do you have to be able to reproduce? viruses can... do you have to be able to change? programs can... do you have to be able to change and use your environment? programs can...

    I think the matter of what is life will take a long time to define, though I'd love to see what all of you come up with.
    Preliminary operational tests were inconclusive (the dang thing blew up)

    \"Ask not what the kernel can do for you, ask what you can do for the kernel!\"

  8. #38
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    There is only one thing (that I can think of at the moment) that contrast Living (animals and plants) and non-living (computer virii etc..) organisms. Animals can physically move without the help of another orgamism. However, Virii only move with the help of the heads of the Hard Drive. and like Kezil said, the computer, virus, and programs all require something else to move it. This could classify all of these as NON-LIVING organisms.

    For those of you who say:
    "Hey guitarboy what about plants? they don't physically move!" Well yes and no. Plants do move. Only in that they grow without the help of another organism. Their roots dig deeper into the ground and therefore move. And yes, there is an tree in africa that does actually walk. Very slowly, about an inch a year I think.
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  9. #39
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    but when it comes to programs, the computers and networks could be their "world" just as Earth is ours, and the heads in the HDDs could be considered the muscles of the programs (although abstractedly) or the medium of their environment, needed for their movement like fish need water to move anywhere (discounting flopping around in the boat). Also, the comparisons were also meant to show that while what we normally put into the living and nonliving have definitive differences that exist in almost all examples, but when it comes to computers, programs, and virii, the differences begin to blur.

    NOTE: I am not going to officially take sides in this issue in order to ensure that both sides see the other's arguments and issues clearly, if I can. Also, I will be giving examples of contrasts to a person's argument every now and then, if I can. And no, I'm not trying to be controlling, act/think myself superior, or that I know everything. For me, I believe it will be more interesting this way.
    Preliminary operational tests were inconclusive (the dang thing blew up)

    \"Ask not what the kernel can do for you, ask what you can do for the kernel!\"

  10. #40
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    Guitarboy, you say that we can move ourselves with the need of another organism, what about handicapped people or commotose people?

    What about young toddlers who have yet to learn how?

    Could a computer be but a stupid toddler taking many more years to learn how?

    I like how Kezil put it all together, how a pc virii does qualify when looked in certain light

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