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Scientist Infects Self With Computer Virus
superapecommando writes "A British scientist claims to have become the first human to be infected by a computer virus, in an experiment he says has important implications for the future of implantable technology. Dr Mark Gasson from the University of Reading infected a computer chip with the virus, then implanted it in his hand and transmitted the virus to a PC to prove that malware can move between human and computer."
just plain stupid
this sounds like that cyborg man retard from a few years ago.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
OK that's pretty stupid.
All he showed was that a computer virus can be transmitted from an implanted computer to an external computer. The scientist did not infect himself with a computer virus, he infected a chip that he had implanted in himself. If it is news to you that a computer chip implanted in a person can be infected with a computer virus, then this is the wrong board for you.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
If we're looking for firsts....
I once had a cold and sneezed on my keyboard.
Does that make me the first human to infect a computer???
Or was the good doctor merely going after being 'first' at something?
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We're still far off from GITS's brain hacking. His biological functions remain entirely unaffected, as he is merely carrying the infected chip with him. Effectively, he might as well just be keeping a passcard with an infected smartchip in his wallet, the result would be the same.
Lets just hope Michael Bay doesn't read this story.
"Scientist" is retard. Loosing his funding would be the best thing that could happen to him.
One would think if his funding were loosed, he'd be quite happy.
I will now be the first human being to have Linux installed ...
*puts Linux ISO on USB flash drive and drops his pants*
My work here is dung.
I agree with everyone that this demonstration was stupid... But the bigger question here deserves to be discussed - implanted devices CAN be infected with viruses, and we have to be careful about that... Implanted devices are becoming more and more common - it's not just pacemakers anymore. There was an article in Wired recently about the drive to create a "smart" insulin pump, one that would sense your blood sugar level and then adjust insulin delivery accordingly. This will become more and more common as we apply technology to "curing" disease... Keeping that technology virus free should be a high priority, especially as this technology gets integrated in more complex ways.
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And for his next trick, Dr Mark Gasson will insert an Atari 2600 controller into his anus, and proceed to control a Windows PC's mouse cursor with it. This is the first time a human has ever taken over control of a computer with the twitching of their rectal wall, and demonstrates the need for anal computer security.
All hail scientific achievement.
"Scientist" is retard. Loosing his funding would be the best thing that could happen to him.
One would think if his funding were loosed, he'd be quite happy.
"Dear Research Councils, I am very happy to be acquainted with you, and as a humble scientist, wish to loose my funding to the cash sum of 7 HUNDRED THOUSAND dollars..." Sorry, not sure where I'm going with this.
Tie it to a paper plane?
Are you mad?
That would mean the virus is airborne!
and then i proved Man can core dump.
Idiot.
Well, no, this fails to be even Uri Geller kind of BS. Uri Geller was a fraud, but he knew how to put on a good show and sell an illusion that was actually quite appealing. In fact, a notion that many people wanted desperately to believe in.
And even if you didn't believe in magic, it was at least very interesting as in trying to figure out "where's the trick"? Before Randi went and showed how it's done, it wasn't obvious at all to us non-trained in the conjuror arts. It was a good trick.
But this guy and Captain Cyborg... words fail me. Really.
I'm a SF fan. I like the idea of cyborgs and all. I like the idea of transferring information directly from a machine to a human and viceversa, though I must qualify it there: to a human brain. I'm even willing to entertain the notion of human consciousness transferred to a machine -- though not to the extent of being a techno-rapture cultist or anything. Etc.
I should be exactly the market target for this kind of stuff. Except not _this_ kind of retarded stuff.
Someone thinking that implanting an RFID chip under the skin makes him Captain Cyborg, or this guy thinking that storing a computer virus on a chip under his skin makes him "infected"... isn't even funny. It's ridiculous, stupid, and just a complete non-sequitur for the actual topic of cyborgs. A guy with a pacemaker or hearing aid is actually more of a "cyborg" because those actually interface with the living tissue and perform a function. A chip that's under the skin but not actually connected to anything biological just is not it.
It doesn't even leave you thinking "what is the trick" or "good trick", because there is no trick. It's just a bad case of equivocation. It's transfer from PC to human only by virtue of the vagueness of the phrase, rather than any useful sense or interesting sense.
If we're to talk Uri Geller comparison, guys like these are more like the equivalent of some guy claiming he's the first guy to eat with his arse. So he shoves a spoon's handle up his arse, takes it out, and then eats something with that spoon.
It's freaking sad, that's what it is.
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