IP: Another view from Josh Lederberg on First Cells, Then Species, Now the Web

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

[ Josh is a Nobel Laureate djf]

>To: Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
>From: Joshua Lederberg <jsl@jl10.rockefeller.edu>
>
>
> >Dave,
>
>
>Conversely:
>
>
><<<<
>Microbiology=s World Wide Web
>by Joshua Lederberg
>   (excerpt from a column syndicated abroad)
>
>.fi
>All the fashionable talk about computer "viruses" is supposed to explain what
>these culprits do by analogy to their biological namesakes. But it may be
>equally enlightening to think of the biosphere of the real, living microbes
>as a world wide web of informational exchange.  Indeed, the two have much in
>common, for living microbes exchange information with each other and their
>environment, with DNA serving as the packets of data going every which way.
>What is different in the world of microbes is that they, unlike computer
>viruses, can evolve, and do so at a faster pace than their hosts.  Microbes
>are in fact well designed to exploit this difference to their advantage in
>the war that occasionally erupts between them and other species.
> >>>>
>
>God help us, someday the computer viruses may also be designed to "evolve".
>Or, unlikely, by happenstance.
>
>     Joshua



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