Computer genetic diversity

We are worm rassling here. I had 70+ messages in my box today, both apparently generated by the sobig worm and rejections of mail supposedly from me, but also from the sobig worm.

The problem is not that Windows is defective, but that it is a genetically impoverished monoculture. Many crop plants and animals are vulnerable to epidemic diseases for this same reason. American apple trees, for example, all descend from 1 or 2 trees, and thus there is very little genetic diversity. A pest which can infect one tree can probably infect them all, and the pest spreads like wildfire. Contributing to this problem is the practice of growing crops in large uniform tracts without other ecosystem elements. In natural ecosystems, at least there are non-host organisms which interact with or at least impede the progress of a pathogen.

The solution as regards crops is to find remaining individuals from the wild populations (eg apple trees in Kazakhstan) which have resistance to these pathogens. The Apple computers scattered here and there in networks may function the same way - they often can resist computer diseases in ways Windows cannot, and may serve to slow propagation.

Perhaps the solution as regards computers is to introduce semirandom variety in Windows operating systems. I propose that the Windows development arm of Microsoft be split into 10 autonomous units (still under Microsoft - the feds couldn't make them do a real Baby Bell type split) each of which works on their own breed of Windows. One way to introduce this variety would be to incorporate components of other operating systems. The resulting genetic variety would slow propagation of viruses and worms.