EvolveSpamToBeUseful

ThoughtStorms Wiki

Context: OnSpam

Good discussion on evolutionary principles at work in email-viruses : http://blogs.apress.com/archives/000041.html via JoelSpolsky : http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2004/04/16.html

Of course, the really funny thing would be if these viruses, as they try to mimic real, useful emails, actually discovered the survival strategy of doing real, useful, work. For example, including valuable information (perhaps blagged from online news-feeds), to disguise themselves as digests; or mining address-books to make introductions SocialSoftware-style. Maybe they could even evolve to replace the dumb users who allow them to spread :-)