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Posted by disturbd on May 29, 2007, 3:52 am
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Greetings.
It is true that much of the foundational work in the theoretical field
of computer viruses covered most of the areas of academic interest
pertaining to replicators. However, I think it is something of an
oversimplification to say that therefore the field does not have and
will never have any more academic significance. There are areas (such
as functional equivalence, or machine learning) which pose incredibly
difficult problems and which could be (and, to some extent are)
implemented by virus authors, and which are current areas of academic
research.
I think it is also erroneous to say that practical concerns hold no
interest in the academic world (not that any of the previous posters
were saying this; I merely wish to drive home a point). For example,
current research into wireless sensor networks is based almost
entirely around data collected from real-world applications. The
theoretical limits of ZigBee networks were established when the
standard was first introduced, but it is of great academic interest as
to the best way to deploy such networks and why - not to mention the
vast commercial interest in such solutions.
Further, I think that it is important to see the fact of computer
viruses as separate from the theoretical concept of building a certain
entity from basic building blocks, attuned to some environment, which
can replicate. Computers currently provide the only affordable,
easily understandable development platform for such entities, but it
is not hard to foresee the adoption of tailored viruses into the
biomedical arena in the near future. Current medication-based
treatment has been described as firing a gun into a dark room and
hoping that the bullet hits a rat.
All things considered, I think that viruses and the theory and
practice of their development and deployment will at some stage in the
future be a very hot research topic; but, most likely, not where they
relate to computers. So, yeah, it would probably serve you better to
choose a different topic. But, as for learning the ins and outs of
virus writing as a hobby, I would certainly encourage you. There is
no such thing as evil knowledge or information; while it is true that
the uses to which such knowledge can be put can have a very negative
impact, I think that all knowledge has the potential to have a very
positive impact.
Cheers,
disturbd.
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