[extropy-chat] Warwick: Could future computer viruses infect humans?

[nsjacobus at yahoo.com]

Why not? A virus, whether biological or computer-based, is really just 
a logic machine. Such a virus would be able to cross from a digital 
logic medium to a  biological one. The effects of such a virus would 
differ depending on whether the virus is currently infecting a 
biological-system or a computer, but this is very much like biological 
viruses when they pass across species.


On Nov 15, 2004, at 5:51 PM, Adrian Tymes wrote:

--- nsjacobus at yahoo.com wrote:
> Well, I think the idea is that eventually
> computer/human interfaces
> will consist of some sort of data-port that connects
> directly into the
> human nervous system. If so, then computer viruses
> could indeed have a
> deleterious effect on humans.

Yes, but this is not "computer viruses and biological
viruses becoming one and the same" even if they can
affect the same target.
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Cheers,
Nige

--
  A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, 
butcher a hog, design a building, write a sonnet,  set a bone, comfort 
the dying, take orders, give orders, solve equations, pitch manure, 
program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die 
gallantly.
Specialization is for insects.

  -- Robert Heinlein