Thomas suggests that one motivation for the rise of virus production is the desire of virus writers to make PC users aware of their dependence on technology: "viruses force the end user to become aware (or, at least, more aware) of his or her blind reliance or dependence on technology. In doing so, the threat of viral infection forces him or her to take note of technology itself. The threat of viral infection forces the end user to understand how his or her computer -works, to take precautions, to be aware of how viruses spread and to protect oneself" (p. 267-8). Allow me to speak for the ignorant masses of PC users. Hey, virus writers, we are all already painfully aware of how dependent we are on our computers. We don't need goddamn viruses to make us more aware of technology. And these goddamn viruses don't force us to understand how our computers work; they force us to buy products like Norton Antivirus and McAfee--only furthering our reliance on technologies which we don't fully understand. And, by the way, we don't give a shit how our computers work; we only care THAT they work. It is not always important to understand every microfunction of a machine; it's enough to know how to make a machine useful for you in a given context. Sorry that PCs became easy to use and made your special hacker langauge passe. Sorry that you see the average PC user as an unsuspecting fool. I hope you'll forgive me for seeing the average virus writer as a selfish asshole.
Best regards,
Ignorant PC user
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3 comments:
I am interested if there is a group of people that are trying to create viruses for macs. I don't understand why macs don't get them, is it a programming issue? Or, is it an issue of who has them? (as is not many people own macs as compared to pcs)
(I had to edit my previous comment, sorry.)
I agree with you, John, in that virus-writers shouldn't pass around nefarious virri to destroy the hardrives of the ignorant masses. I also think would-be arsonists should not burn my house down. There shouldn't be a punishment for a lack of knowledge.
I do think that as users of technologies as complex as computers, it might be to our benefit to understand some things about the inner-workings of our machines. I don't know how my toaster works, but if it breaks, I can buy another for less than $20. If my computer has problems, I would like to be able to take care of it if I have the ability and knowledge to do so, because it doesn't cost less than $20...so you see, understanding (or trying to) my computer and various software, for me, has a financial benefit. My computer is an investment, and thus I should try to take care of it. Also, I am interested in learning more about how my computer and software works so that I might be able to do something academic or creative or whatever with that knowledge.
Whether I want to gain a certain amount of knowledge about my computer is a personal choice based on various factors related to my technological use. There's nothing wrong about not caring about how a person's computer works; it's not a crime against humanity. It is wrong to punish a so-called "ignorant" user with a debilitating virus.
My point being: There will always be computer virii, and thus we should at least try to maintain some kind of protection against damage to our technologies; how we want to go about that is a personal choice (from using McAfee or firewalls or complex coding). There's also no harm in choosing to learn more about various computer technologies, and thus expanding on one's knowledge.
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