On 8 Apr 2013 at 0:13, wrote:
> Hmph! Virus is impossible. All self-respecting Traveller players know that
Not impossible. Just impossible *as described*.
For a contemporary equivalent, *as described* a Virus-equivalent
would be able to infect my system via my email program (which
operates by default in *text* mode, not HTML mode) without my
clicking on any links.
Going from transponders to the rest of the ship is equally bogus
unless insanely stuopid design features are involved (ie there's no
rational reason to allow programming commands to ggo *from* the
transponder to the rest of the ship's systems, and lots of very
*good* reasons to block it)
My "plausible" virus works rather differently.
The "virus" gets sent to the transponder. The Symbelline
circuitry/organism acting in accordance with them *physically* moves
along the wires to other ship systems, grabbing resources for growth
as it does so.
Every time it enocounters circuitry it replicates the functionality
of each part, then as it has completely replicated a unit or
subsystem or whatever, it consumes the original for resources and
starts simplifying the circuit (most designs using ICs have a lot of
unused functionality. That is sections of the chip or logic that
never get used in that circuit).
So it slowly spreads, replacing circuitry with more efficient units
and using the freed resources to expand its own functionality.
If you catch on early enough and can cut the wires it's harder for it
to spread and you may retain control of portions of the ship. Or not.
This gives something whose *effects* are mostly similar to the
published material but doesn't have the stupidity of code that can
transfer over the wrong sort of connections and infect arbitary types
of processor.
It's also scarier because it opens the possibility of soome version
of the virus managing to control humans if it can *physically* get an
infectious "body" into contact with the human (expect lots of dead or
nessily not-dead humans while this sort of virus "learns". Once it
does.... )
--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com
> Hmph! Virus is impossible. All self-respecting Traveller players know that
Not impossible. Just impossible *as described*.
For a contemporary equivalent, *as described* a Virus-equivalent
would be able to infect my system via my email program (which
operates by default in *text* mode, not HTML mode) without my
clicking on any links.
Going from transponders to the rest of the ship is equally bogus
unless insanely stuopid design features are involved (ie there's no
rational reason to allow programming commands to ggo *from* the
transponder to the rest of the ship's systems, and lots of very
*good* reasons to block it)
My "plausible" virus works rather differently.
The "virus" gets sent to the transponder. The Symbelline
circuitry/organism acting in accordance with them *physically* moves
along the wires to other ship systems, grabbing resources for growth
as it does so.
Every time it enocounters circuitry it replicates the functionality
of each part, then as it has completely replicated a unit or
subsystem or whatever, it consumes the original for resources and
starts simplifying the circuit (most designs using ICs have a lot of
unused functionality. That is sections of the chip or logic that
never get used in that circuit).
So it slowly spreads, replacing circuitry with more efficient units
and using the freed resources to expand its own functionality.
If you catch on early enough and can cut the wires it's harder for it
to spread and you may retain control of portions of the ship. Or not.
This gives something whose *effects* are mostly similar to the
published material but doesn't have the stupidity of code that can
transfer over the wrong sort of connections and infect arbitary types
of processor.
It's also scarier because it opens the possibility of soome version
of the virus managing to control humans if it can *physically* get an
infectious "body" into contact with the human (expect lots of dead or
nessily not-dead humans while this sort of virus "learns". Once it
does.... )
--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com