Computer viruses today pose a very real threat. However, it turns out that their origins are actually very non-threatening. Today, we are going to look at some of the first viruses. We will see how they developed from technical writing, to pulp sci-fi, to traveling code.

I talk about The Scarred Man by Gregory Benford in this episode, you can read the full short story here: http://www.gregorybenford.com/extra/the-scarred-man-returns/

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Important dates in this episode:

1949: John Von Neumann Writes 'Theory and Organization of Complex Automata' 1969: 'The Scarred Man' Written by Gregory Benford, Coined Term 'Virus' 1971: Creeper Virus Unleashed