I think I've stumbled across a notion of the Virus that actually
WORKS for me, and doesn't seem like excuse-making for a plot device.
Two of the big problems a lot of us have had with the Virus are:
1) It's ability to "cut new circuts" and
2) the complete and absolute ineffectiveness of Imperial computer
defenses.
How about if the Virus is psionic? Not the broad-band variety
of psionics that humans have (though that could certainly be
a plot point for some exotic strains), but a limited, highly
specialized ability akin to Zhodani "flicking".
It uses this to physically alter the hardware it is inhabiting
to create defenses against the usual viral countermeasures.
Even at tech 15-16, with self-reconfiguring organic computers or
what have you, computer virii boil down to being either hardware
critters (in which case they can't transfer to other machines)
or software critters (in which case they can, ultimately, be
DELETE-ed). Standard computer defenses revolved around isolating
the nature of a virus (lower case), cornering it, and eliminating
it.
Enter the Virus (upper case), an electronic life form that through
its psionic abilities can break the hardware-software barrier, and
can convert from one to another almost at will. Imperial scientists
never gave much thought to psionic electronics, except for some
Ancients scholars, and it was a matter of debate among even them.
And besides, that was the ANCIENTS, not US.
What you wind up with is the Virus acting pretty much as GDW
describes it. The Virus is so effective precisely because it
ovecomes a barrier that was considered so fundamentally absolute
that its breaching was never taken into account, kind of like the
way the real world doesn't take Traveller-style psionics into
account-- they simply don't exist until someone (or thing) shows
up to prove otherwise.
At any rate, this gives me a rational handle on the Virus, rather
than leaving me hemming-and-hawing about its super-duper
effectiveness and circut-cutting. Your milage may vary.
John H Bogan
[email removed]
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In Chicago, a man stops his car at a red light.
AT THE VERY SAME INSTANT, EIGHT THOUSAND MILES AWAY,
In Hong Kong, a woman drops a bowling ball on her foot!
Coincidence, or PSYCHIC PHENOMENA!?!?
_YOU_ DECIDE!
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