Viruses, Violence and Virulence

In Viruses Are Good for You, Dibell makes a very convincing argument for the creation of viruses as a creation of life.

Discussing Hellraiser’s graffiti-definition of the virus, at one point Dibell makes a comparison between the writing of the virus and the spraying (though more artistically than a dog might) of one’s identity on the “cold urban landscape.”

Considering the convincing argument Dibell makes that viruses take their creators’ message “I’m Alive” global, [we] were reminded of the “cold urban landscape” of the modern age, when technological leaps ahead caused a mass movement of primitivism, as desire to get back to “humanity,” “community,” “life,” and “nature.”

This purely human instinct to make his presence known on a vast and endless scale surely mimics this primitivism. But the more interesting aspect of the primitive/modernism vs. Virus/graffiti comparison is its desire to subvert norms of behavior and––dare [we] say––protocol.

And primitivism, by definition, is a destructive force. Or rather, one could argue that breaking the protocol is necessarily a destructive act. Mr. Bungle, that nefarious multi-minded character, did not understand the protocol of the LambdaMOO society, and his breaking of it was certainly destructive and violent. (And honestly how much more primitive do you get than the boys floor of an NYU dorm?)

Only in the digital age, there are digital forms of the same (namely, computer viruses) human intention. They are intended to subvert and even overturn the protocol of both the computer programs they infect themselves, and also the social protocol of personal property. Virus makers use the digital medium (programming) to subvert the digital media’s control-via-protocol that it holds on the rest of us, and on our “personal shit.”

Just as on MySpace and LambdaMOO, viruses are performing identities. Only viruses are on the fringes. But the instinct is universal and basely human (or primitive, if you will). And similar to MySpace and LambdaMOO, the virus-writers create an online community.

There is a new space (cyberspace) and as mankind, it is in our nature to spray all over it. And by co-opting the digital medium, as virus writers do, it is that much more successful––as W. mentioned in lecture, “the unique characteristics of new media are programmability and ubiquity.”



Love,
Gem and Maud