S087891@UMRVMA.BITNET (Mike Castle) (08/23/90)
It seems to me that many people are forgetting how biological vaccines
work. Now, it has been sometime since high school biology, but I
*thought* that vaccinations worked in this manner:
A weak strain of a virus or a "cousin" of it (ie, cowpox) is
administered to an individual. That person's body then reacts
by making anti-bodies that "fight" and "kill" the weak strain.
These anti-bodies stay around for quite sometime, which then
help prevent infection of the more potent varities of the virus.
Notice, it NOT the vaccine that protects the body, but the body itself.
The vaccine kind of give the immunity system a "jump start" so that it
can be prepared for certain types of infections, because it "knows" what
to look for.
Computers are like people with AIDS or those borne with no immunity
system: No protection whatsoever. But, we can give computers a type
of protection with certain programs. Innoculations can be thought of
in the manner of a list of known viruses and their identifying pieces
of code and manners of infection (knowing what to look for). Boosters
can be periodical updates of the database of known viruses. But even
this immunity system can't look out for everything.
I don't see much help in the way of having anti-viral viruses as
competition for "nasty" viruses either. I don't know all that much
about viruses (I just read this discussion to try to be an "informed
user"), and I don't see where or why a virus would worry about
competition for infection. I seem to recall hearing/reading about
programs that have had multiple infections. I think that in order for
an anti-viral virus to be busy enough to act as competition for other
viruses, it would also have to be busy enough to compete with the real
programs that we are trying to use. Sorta defeats the purpose,
doesn't it?
I just don't see much use for anti-viral viruses. I'll just try to keep
a write-protect tab on all my floppies, and a winter coat to protect
against the cold.
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* Mike Castle * Life is like a clock: You can work constantly and *
* Nexus * be right all the time, or not work at all and be *
* S087891@UMRVMA * right at least twice a day. *
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