News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on What's a virus, anyway? The bare-bones basics. Parent comment

Re:What's a virus, anyway? The bare-bones basics by __blockcipher__ on Friday April 03, 2020 @02:08AM (#22766682)
The big component missing in the analogy is gene expression. That’s what makes DNA behave differently from simple instruction mappings.

I guess we could visualize it as a series of drains, where the size of the hole can be modulated. Since gene expression can decrease or increase the rate at which DNA is transcribed

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:What's a virus, anyway? The bare-bones basics by Retric on Friday April 03, 2020 @08:52AM (#22768676)
I have been using this for a while. What would you suggest instead of:

> The workers, raw materials, and signals to turn sections on or off are separate.

People are used to the idea of thermostats using on/off to maintain temperature which is not a terrible association. As you say gene expression is different, but I can’t find a better analogy.

[ Parent | on HN ]