June 1st, 2004
Have you noticed how ... organic the experience of owning and using a computer on the Internet has become? Viruses and predators lurk everywhere, and it is no different than Real Life. In fact, in a cosmic balancing-book way, it makes perfect sense. In fact, it is real life.
If I were to wander out into the great unknowns--let's say somewhere in the BC Interior--with no protection: no clothing, no tools, no food, etc. I would be in a tough spot, vulnerable to being eaten by bears and cougars, susceptible to a wide range of infections, and in danger of dying from the elements. Don't cry for me, though; it's organic, man.
Well, expose your computer to the Internet without a firewall, without adequate software to remove the viruses you will inevitably get, and without software updates (an adaptation to one's environment) and you will soon be the proud owner of a zombie, a stoned computer, or perhaps a pile of crippled component crap. Your computer may be made of metal, plastic and silicon, but the experience when interacting with other computers is more alive than inanimate.
I don't mean to go on about this transient dynamic life thing like a broken record, but remember how I defined life?
"Life is a dynamic and temporary reprieve from total entropy."
Well, this is just as true for computers, it seems. Viruses, spyware, adware, trojans, worms ... having one's computer turned into a zombie, a CPU-intensive advertising pop-up server with you as the audience, a pile of slag crippled by so much software detritus that you cannot perform a single task effectively on it any more ... that is death or something like it.
And the ever-adapting operating system (keeping up with the viruses), the firewalls, the immune system of anti-virus programs ... these are all technology imitating life.
I'm not kidding: It's organic, man.