Another great potential thing. Can anyone think of any cons except for the reduced genetic variation it could potentially cause, making the human race vulnerable to diseases?
The cool thing about it is that it uses software only to translate x86-instructions to it's native instructionset. It then stores this translations in a translationcache to avoid retranslating everything over and over. This is the code-morphing you are talking about.
But the translationprocess doesn't simply convert x86 to native instructions. It also optimizes the instructions. This can sometimes reduce de number of instructions by 50%!
As I understand it this means two things:
1) It should be possible for very fast software to use it's native instructionset.
2.) It isn't as easy to addept for other architectures then the x86 as writing a new translationpart into the code-morphing layer, because the whole optimizationroutine has to be rewritten too.
1) Let's not get too carried away here. That's not what I said and I don't think that's what debrain meant. I think the 'Spanish Flu' example wasn't more than an example. Of course nobody would want a terrible disease to happen. One of it's side-effects however might be desirable: evolution. If we can achieve that goal by acceptable means, then we should certainly explore that possibility. I'm not saying that we should use it any time soon or even in the future for that matter, but we might not want to rule out the possibility.
2) But if we had used antibiotics more wisely, we would have had a lot less resistant strains of viruses. We should be carefull not to speed up evolution of viri too much by flooding them with all kinds of antibiotics when it isn't absolutely necessary (I'm thinking of Third World countries here).
3) Hmm, well, guess I shouldn't have used the first thing that came to mind. I stand corrected. Of course we're all running linux. Differences in people can mostly be accounted for by the different configurations and distributions they use. I wonder what modifications Gates made though...
What you're saying here (as I read it) is 2 things:
1. We should also be carefull about the 'genetic' health of the human race as a whole.
2. We should be carefull that viri don't keep on evolving up to a level that we entirely loose control.
Good point there. I guess we should start debugging humans then using genetic engineering. I wonder what the first bugtraq-post would look like...
Saying........????.ida will reveal the directory structure of the human brain. This isn't a big security problem in itself, but could be a serious problem in combination with other vulnerabilities.
The article states that it fits neatly into a groove on the surface of the virus. That sounds to me like the only selection process here is that of the form of this groove. So the only thing that could happen is that viri that have a different kind of groove will survive and that the others will not. Should this happen, I think that they should be able to make another 'plah-CONN-ah-rill' targeting this new string.
I could be entirely wrong however. Does anyone have a more specific knowledge of the subject? Does Dustin Hoffman or any of the other guys from 'Outbreak' read/.?
So let's install an emergency device. If you press a button or punch in the emergencycode, you will be able to speed, but it will be immediately reported and you might be held accountable afterwards, if you can't provide a valid reason.
Slashdot Mirror
Note that you posted tomorrow.
You mean you don't have those yet?
It was on redhat-announce a few minutes ago.
Another great potential thing. Can anyone think of any cons except for the reduced genetic variation it could potentially cause, making the human race vulnerable to diseases?
The cool thing about it is that it uses software only to translate x86-instructions to it's native instructionset. It then stores this translations in a translationcache to avoid retranslating everything over and over. This is the code-morphing you are talking about.
But the translationprocess doesn't simply convert x86 to native instructions. It also optimizes the instructions. This can sometimes reduce de number of instructions by 50%!
As I understand it this means two things:
1) It should be possible for very fast software to use it's native instructionset.
2.) It isn't as easy to addept for other architectures then the x86 as writing a new translationpart into the code-morphing layer, because the whole optimizationroutine has to be rewritten too.
1) Let's not get too carried away here. That's not what I said and I don't think that's what debrain meant. I think the 'Spanish Flu' example wasn't more than an example. Of course nobody would want a terrible disease to happen. One of it's side-effects however might be desirable: evolution. If we can achieve that goal by acceptable means, then we should certainly explore that possibility. I'm not saying that we should use it any time soon or even in the future for that matter, but we might not want to rule out the possibility.
2) But if we had used antibiotics more wisely, we would have had a lot less resistant strains of viruses. We should be carefull not to speed up evolution of viri too much by flooding them with all kinds of antibiotics when it isn't absolutely necessary (I'm thinking of Third World countries here).
3) Hmm, well, guess I shouldn't have used the first thing that came to mind. I stand corrected. Of course we're all running linux. Differences in people can mostly be accounted for by the different configurations and distributions they use. I wonder what modifications Gates made though...
1. We should also be carefull about the 'genetic' health of the human race as a whole.
2. We should be carefull that viri don't keep on evolving up to a level that we entirely loose control.
Good point there. I guess we should start debugging humans then using genetic engineering. I wonder what the first bugtraq-post would look like...
The article states that it fits neatly into a groove on the surface of the virus. That sounds to me like the only selection process here is that of the form of this groove. So the only thing that could happen is that viri that have a different kind of groove will survive and that the others will not. Should this happen, I think that they should be able to make another 'plah-CONN-ah-rill' targeting this new string.
/.?
I could be entirely wrong however. Does anyone have a more specific knowledge of the subject? Does Dustin Hoffman or any of the other guys from 'Outbreak' read
How would you ever know for sure what my answer was?
Not that I'm implying that I'm ruling the universe, but I think I want to go sing to my cat now.
I think I'm right in thinking they asked me questions.
Your personal nanite population is currently occupied fighting the flew, please hold...
So let's install an emergency device. If you press a button or punch in the emergencycode, you will be able to speed, but it will be immediately reported and you might be held accountable afterwards, if you can't provide a valid reason.