The black and white are yin and yang, respectively. Yin represents the feminine, passive force in the universe, yang is the masculine aggressive force. The two constantly change into each other; where one thins to nothing, its opposite begins to appear. They create each other in a constantly changing cycle, which is exactly how things go in reality. This curious spirituality applies equally to the world of computer viruses as it does to ancient Chinese philosophy.
Yes, computer viruses are presently motivated by evil in the designers, but what the viruses generate is anti-virus software . The viruses generate their own cure. The viruses are actually helping to create a computer world which is stronger day on day. Every time a new virus is developed, the defences of computer systems react with more resilient strength. Looked at like this the virus designers are actually doing the rest of us a favour. Their evil, is our strength. Imagine if these people had not explored viruses, what would happen in twenty years time when the whole world is far more controlled by computer systems – what would happen then if a virus very suddenly came on the scene? We would have no defences, and a huge computer world would be wide open for a devastating crash. This is less likely to occur while our systems are constantly being tested by the virus designers. As Lennon explained in Watching the wheels go round - ”there are no problems, only solutions”. This song describes Lennon’s spiritual enlightenment – the realisation that the world is not as we were told at school.
The Daoist view of computer viruses goes further than this. See the T’ai Chi. In the black yin, there is a spot of white yang, in the white yang, there is a spot of yin. This is telling us that there is a degree of the opposite in everything. In good there is some bad, in bad there is some good. So are viruses bad? Imagine a computer virus which automatically detects when a computer has been left switched on, and is not in use. This is clearly a waste of energy, which generates CO2, which leads to global warming. (NB in America, 5% of the energy consumption is by computers which have been left on overnight. It is a very significant and dangerous statistic, which can easily be remedied by the flick of a switch). Now, global warming is a bad thing. If a virus automatically switched off such wasting computers, then the virus would be achieving something good. It need not damage the work held on the computer, the virus can be applied as a pure form of good. In fact, to arrest people who proliferate an energy-saving virus, would be an example of the persecution of good. It would be morally wrong not to create and proliferate such an eco-virus. If the eco-virus was successful, it could be switching off millions of wasting computers, the world over, saving many millions of tonnes of CO2 from power stations, and also saving nuclear waste.
There are many other possibilities for using viruses to the benefit of us all, limited only by
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