From pycyn@aol.com Sun Feb 27 01:59:17 2000 X-Digest-Num: 376 Message-ID: <44114.376.2086.959273826@eGroups.com> Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2000 04:59:17 EST From: pycyn@aol.com Subject: Re: Digest Number 374 <> Talk about your metaphors! I suppose it would be hard to argue that computer viruses are not literally software, but it is surely the case that viruses are not exactly hardware (nor, for that matter, is any part of a living system) nor software neither. So, viruses are hardware in the sense that they are material objects, spatially locatable, and so on. But they are software in the sense of being introduced into a piece of "hardware" to get it to perform a certain function; they are basically code (as noted) with some carrier facility -- a plug-in at best, as hardware; even the carrier facility is largely a code for cracking a variety of security systems. On the whole, I think the software analogy (which could be extended for quite a while, while the hardware one is about run out) is a fruitful one, in the way the hardware one is not. Of course, as a metaphor, it is also ultimately false. But the revelation may have doen its work before that little problem arises (wish the same could be said for the metaphors about, say, God). pc