Index

CONTENTS

    Acknowledgments   viii
    Preface   ix
    Sean Cubitt

Introduction: The General Accident of Digital Culture   xiii
    Disease and Technology   xiii
    Media Theory Meets Computer Technology: 
    Definitions, Concepts and Sources   xxiv
    Eventulization   xxix

Section I: I Fear and Security: From Bugs to Worms   1
    Prologue: Foldings of Order and Cleanliness   2
    Security in the Mainframe Era: from Creepers to 
    Core Wars   8
    The shift in Safety: 1980?s   21
    Fred Cohen and the Computer Virus Risk   33 
    The Morris Worm: A Media Virus   45
    Viral Capitalism and the Security Services   65

Section II: Body: Biopolitics of Digital Systems   91
    Prologue: How Are Bodies Formed?   91
    Diagrams of Contagion   98
    The Order-Word of AIDS   108
    Excursus: Faciality   114
    Digital Immunology   117
    The Care of the Self: Responsible Computing   129
    The Psyche of the Virus Writer: Irresponsible Vandalism?   140
Intermezzo: Viral Philosophy   165
Section III Life: Viral Ecologies   173
Prologue: The Life of Information  173
The Benevolent Viral Machine   181
Cellular Automata and Simulated Ecologies   189
Organisms of Distributed Networks   202
Ecologies of Complexity and Networking   217
Coupling and Media Ecology   229

Afterword: An Accident Hard, Soft, Institutionalized   247
Appendix: A Timeline of Computer Viruses and The
Viral Assemblage   257
Bibliography   265
Index   289