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"The primary attraction [of writing sf] is the sheer pleasure of creating something from whole cloth."
- Dan Simmons
 |
| Net Shutdown Worm | ||
| A tapeworm designed to shut down a nationwide network in the event of national emergency. |
In the novel, much use is made of the idea of a computer worm (or tapeworm); Brunner originated the term as well as the idea.
Interestingly, computer tapeworms are not just used for malicious purposes. For example, the government has populated the 'net with a very special tapeworm code developed at a place code-named Electric Skillet.
| This is indeed the father and mother of all tapeworms. It's of a type known as parthenogenetic. If you're acquainted with contemporary data-processing jargon, you'll have noticed how much use it makes of terminology derived from the study of living animals. And with reason. Not for nothing is a tapeworm called a tapeworm. It can be made to breed. Most can only do so if they are fertilized; that's to say, if they're interfered with from outside. For example, the worm that prevents the Fedcomps from monitoring calls to Hearing Aid, and the similar but larger one that was released at Weychopee—Electric Skillet—to shut down the net in the event of enemy occupation: those are designed to lay dormant until tampered with. That's true of all phage-type worms. |
| From The Shockwave Rider,
by John Brunner. Published by Harper and Row in 1975 Additional resources -
|
It's also interesting to note that the earliest use of real-life computer tapeworms was beneficial; it searched a small network looking for computers with idle time.
Read more about John Brunner's computer tapeworm.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Shockwave Rider
More Ideas
and Technology by John Brunner
Tech news articles related to The Shockwave Rider
Tech news articles related to works by John Brunner
Net Shutdown Worm-related
news articles:
- CIA's 'Silent Horizon' Internet War Games
- The Cybersecurity Act of 2009 Could Shut Down Your Internet
- Egypt Drops Dime, Pulls Plug On Internet
- Does China Have An Internet Kill Switch?
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'It may be organic damage. It may be permanent. Time'll tell, and only after you are off Substance D for a long while.'
It's the polite thing to do, and has been the polite thing to do for about four generations.
'Walking awkwardly in the magnetic boots that held him to the black mass of meteoric iron...'
