Manifold Analyses on the E-Concepts of Cyberspace and Virus as Metaphors
Assist. univ. drd. Anca Irinel TELEOACĂ
Universitatea “Dunarea de Jos”, Galaţi
1. Introduction
Linguists and researchers of varied domains (language philosophers and
psycho/sociolinguists) closely linked to the main objectives of Linguistics have also centered their
focus on the language of computer users who share a vast repository of information within another
kind of environment, possibly less intimidating than the real world, the virtual setting.
This paper is a two-part investigation of a linguistic phenomenon at the interface between
users and computer systems, namely the non-physical terrain created by them, with the aim of
showing some specific metaphorical instances that users (un)consciously encounter within the
frames of the computer world.
The approach on metaphor and the concept of cyberspace is a modern one since the world of
computers is continuously taken new shapes and contents. Moreover, myths and metaphors seem to
intermingle in a virtual environment purposefully designed for users’ understanding.
The second part of the paper is based on analyzing the concept of virus in relation to
metaphor because computer virus as a metaphor generates other action metaphors, like: infect,
detect, sterialize, etc., proving to be an umbrella metaphor that could organize an entire electronic
system of coherent meanings.
Final Remarks will put an illusionary end to the paper since the complex lexical phenomena
of the computer language is perpetually changing and taking new facets.
2. Metaphor and the Concept of Cyberspace
In order to comprehend any new technology, people regularly describe it in terms already
familiar to them. This happens when scientists try to explain what Internet is and bring into focus
the relation of similarity with an electronic space controlled by humans; hence, the cyberspace
metaphor. Cyberspace is located somewhere behind a computer screen and presents the world
simulation of beyond the screen; a necessary condition for a user to find himself in the cyberspace
is a phone line connection. When you want to get out and return to your real space the only thing
you have to do is to hang up when finished.
The cyberspace metaphor can have a manifold analysis:
Firstly, according to Richards’ theories on meaning, we can use the terms vehicle1 and tenor2 in
order to better understand the metaphoricity of space implied in the word cyberspace. The term
cyberspace3, or the vehicle, is a combination of the morphemes: “cyber4” – that grows to be a
computer-related marker assuming the meaning of ‘that which belongs to the digital world’ – and
space which covers the meaning of physical territory, and connotes several aspects, like:
1
The Philosophy of Rhetoric, Oxford University Press, 1964.
Idem., ibid.
3
It was coined in the early 1980s by science fiction writer William Gibson in his trilogy of novels about futuristic
computer users who are able to leave their bodies and ride through cyberspace; it represents Gibson’s vision of a
global computer network, linking all people, machines and sources of information in the world, and through which one
could move or ‘navigate’ as through a virtual space.(Susan Herring, Computer-Mediated Communication. Linguistic,
Social Cross-Cultural Perspectives. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, 1996, p.161)
4
It comes from the Greek “kybern” which means to steer.(Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the
English Language, ibid., p.359)
2
- first, a space has a virtually infinite extension, including so many things that they can never be
grasped all at once; a good example is the already existing collections of electronic data on the
Internet, meaning that cyberspace deals mostly with speed, access and manipulation of information;
- second, space connotes the idea of movement, of being able to go to a variety of places.
The idea of movement without limitations is conveyed by the web interface indication to go to a
site or to follow a URL5 link.
[Go To ...]
Figure 1
Metaphor verbs like navigate, tour, visit, surf, return, are examples of metaphors where nonphysical processes are compared to physical, spatial ones. They are, in fact used to either download
or display web pages the user is interested in. But, as I stated before, such interface verb metaphors
are especially created - by their designers - to facilitate the user’s understanding of the new
technology.
- and third, a space has some kind of geometry, implying concepts such as distance, direction
and dimension.
Nowadays, the combining form, cyber, has got a new connotation, as of being virtual; it
connotes both the idea of navigation through a space of electronic data, and of control which is
achieved by manipulating those data.
The exploration on cyberspace does not find its end here, it is further scrutinized, this time
included in the last group of Lakoffian conceptual metaphors, the structural metaphors.
3. Lakoffian Metaphors and Cyberspace
The second analysis on cyberspace as metaphor leads us to the idea that it could, as well, be a
conceptual blend because the metaphor blends features of computers with those of linguistic space
to produce a new conceptual entity: CYBERSPACE IS LANGUAGE. This type of metaphor belongs
to the third group of expressions described by Lakoff and Johnson, consisting of metaphors based
on the projection of a determinate, well-structured experiential area into an indefinite, unstructured
notional domain.
The reference to cybernetics6 is also important in the following respect: it defines itself as a
science of information and communication, therefore, cyberspace may be defined as the joint
network of all existing communication channels and information connecting people and machines.
The tenor, or the underlying situation referred to in the metaphor, is the strange but real
connection between an electric network of telephones and computers. The geometry of space can be
found in the network of links, nodes, paths and references characterizing a hypertext, i.e., a
collection of interlinked data, which is, by all means, a radically new information technology. Any
phenomenon which takes place is a result of electronic transformations of linguistic events.
Cyberspace is language because it is written by it and navigable by it. The navigation tools are
nothing else but pieces of software, i.e., programming language, which creates information that can
be shared, transmitted, interpreted by a large number of computers.
Therefore, having got thus far by explaining the full meaning of the term cyberspace, the
following semantic markers are added [+virtual], [+human-controlled] and [+language-based].
Language itself is dynamic and it is continuously changed inside the electronic space. The language
in the cyberspace absorbs neologisms – moreover, digital communities can develop dialects and
local slang - and finds ways among several protocols and interfaces which build cyberspace. There
is a mutual relationship between language and cyberspace – Web browsers and interfaces are
language-based -, in which one influences and modifies the other and vice versa, in an ongoing
stream of information.
5
short for Resourse Locator, the global address of documents and other resources on the World Wide Web. (Phillip
Margolis, Computer & Internet Dictionary Random House, 1999, p. 582.
6
The term was coined by Norbert Weiner, a mathematician at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1943.
(Flavell, Linda and Roger, The Chronology of Words and Phrases, Kyle Cathie Limited, 1999, p. 303).
Thirdly, cyberspace can also be considered an oxymetaphor7, in the sense that, although
cyberspace points to spatial aspects, as users can have long conversations in a chatroom, or send
messages from their inboxes, one of its main functions is to limit distances as possible as it could
be, and change all concept of distance, spacing and separation into an instant present. Unlike real
space, exploring cyberspace does not require any physical movement other than pressing keys on a
keyboard or moving a mouse on a pad. This may lead us to another structural conceptual metaphor
TIME IS SPACE.
To conclude, “this figuration of Internet as a kind of cyber-territory works to undermine the
symbolic distance between the metaphoric and the real. It abandons the real for the hyperreal by
presenting an increasingly real simulation of a comprehensive and comprehendible world”. 8 For
example, there are programs that are designated to create a special feeling when playing in
cyberspace, and I mean here software games that produce physical sensations like ones in physical
reality in some ways. And this happens because of a visual, auditory, and even tactile feedback that
makes cyberspace like real world.
4. Cyberspace and Myths
Another aspect of the cyberspace concept to be highlighting next is its synonymic relation to
the word net whose metaphorical extensions are different from the ones of cyberspace in a Web
context. Therefore, I shall analyze the net metaphor as related to another kind of systematic
correlations within our experience, a new perspective that brings humanity closer to holiness. To do
so, I will be interested in showing the remote meanings of the word net, starting from the Gospels,
in which <<nets symbolize divine instrumentality>> moving to gather up mankind and bringing
<<the just into the kingdom of Heaven>>.9 In oriental folklore, the deities make use of holy nets to
catch them in their meshes, and in Christian religion, there is a story about two brothers who were
called - by God - to be Fishermen’s Souls.
In our technological society, the appearance of the Internet 10 is considered a very important
event in our lives, having a great impact on human experience, as well as the religious cults have
had on humankind along the history. Nowadays, the Net (used as the short form of the Internet11)
has become an important symbol of the globalization concept - , since it connects millions of
computers and users altogether. It belongs to a divine origin, like everything else, because it fulfills
everyone’s wishes, like traveling anywhere with no need of money or real transportation, or reading
anything from the web pages especially designed to this purpose, or communicating to whomever
by sending messages or even using your own voice, and so forth. This is the positive aspect of the
Net. However, there is the reversed coin, in the sense that, you might feel trapped into a network of
good and bad wills. We seem to get addicted to it, and, consequently, not being able to survive if
this, one day, might suddenly vanish. This would mean that it is impossible to escape from this
universe and from the laws which govern them. In a similar way we are bounded to live on the
Earth and its surrounding universe dreaming of better places, like living in Heaven. People often
think and dream of their Gods. In Persian tradition, for instance, the net takes another facet, the
opposite, this time, of the former analyzed above. It is not the divine tool but one made of humans
in order to capture God12, or to put it in your own way, a spiritual entity.
Let us take now synthesize the whole human experience of getting entrapped, spiritually or not,
which can be metaphorically conceptualized as: NET IS AN ENTITY.
It is an oxymoron used as a metaphor; for example, McLuhan’s “global village” is an oxymetaphor, in the sense that a
village is a very small and intimate community, whereas any global institution is inevitably quite large and impersonal.
(Herring Susan, ibid., p.35).
8
Jean Baudrillard, The Ecstasy of Communication. New York, Semiotext(e), 1988.
9
Jean Chevallier and Alain Gheerbrant, A Dictionary of Symbols, BLACKWELL Reference, USA, 1994, p. 698.
10
obs.: The Internet has more than 100 million user worldwide, and that number is growing rapidly. More 100 countries
are linked into exchanges of data, news and opinions. (Philip E Margolis, ibid., p.283).
11
As anyone already knows, it is a clipped word, meaning: International Network.
12
Cf. Jean Chevallier and Alain Gheerbrant, op. cit., p. 699.
7
Going on with the divine origin of the Internet, I shall embark upon a step by step exploration of
the Apple13 metaphor in the Net. In doing this, I shall start by saying that I have often found myself
asking about the similarities between the ordinary apple-tree and computers. From the start, I must
say that going deeper into the meaning analysis of apple, we cannot think of anything else but of the
prototypical fruit which is The Apple, that fruit known by humankind as the fruit of immortality,
of discord and <<of the image of the richness, sweetness and savour of the Word of God>>. 14
During the mankind’s history, it has been employed symbolically in several senses, which,
apparently distinct, are in fact interrelated.
Firstly, it is known as a key to both knowledge, as Adam and Eve found themselves naked in
Heaven after having a bite, and to life and immortality (never attained). On the other hand, the
Apple Computer15 was meant to open a new path to knowledge, that is, to bring to computer users
the most sophisticated technologies and innovations, like graphical user interface16, built-in
networking, or plug-and-play expansion17, and many others. Biting the forbidden fruit, the
prototypical humans, Adam and Eve, have acquired the spiritual power of knowing and
understanding their surroundings.
Secondly, it is a key to freedom because ‘eating the apple’ meant abuse of the intellect to gain
knowledge of evil, abuse of the senses to lust after evil, and abuse of freedom to commit evil. In this
sense, to give only an example, the computer war games provide a hundred percent of liberty for
each player to destroy his virtual enemy, which, more or less, represents the knowledge of doing
evil and the ability to carry out the most secret passions hidden in our souls.
The rounded shape of the apple comes to reinforce the man’s lust after evil symbolizing the
Earth-bound passions and their fulfillment. In this sense, Divine prohibition was meant to warn
humanity against being mastered by those passions, which would show the way to a materialistic
way of life, as contrasting with the spiritualized existence, which is the path of progressive
development. The Apple is, therefore, the symbol of that knowledge of being placed under the
commitment of making a choice between the Earth-bound passions and that of spirituality18. On the
other hand, taken positively both metaphors, the net and the apple metaphors, into our
consideration, we may say that by inventing the cyberspace – by eating from the fruit of knowledge
- like God created the Universe in seven days, the man wanted to surpass himself to reach a superior
level of existence. Thus, he has become the ‘Supreme Designer’ of his own world governed by rules
and laws of his own Judgment.
5. ‘Pandora’s Box’ in Cyberspace
In order to proceed to the analysis of the computer virus19 metaphor as a master metaphor of
other types of sub-metaphorical words, I would like to make some references on two terms that are
important parts of our study.
Despite of the fact that both computers and humans share the same semantic features as being
(+animate, + having intelligence, +vulnerable), they are also distinctive according to the following
semantic features that are central keys in our analysis:
 In point of their existence:
Humans
Computers
13
It represents a symbol of the city of New York, also known as The Big Apple.
Idem, ibid., p. 35.
15
A personal computer company founded by Steven Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976. (Philip E. Margolis, Dicţionar
P.C., NEMIRA, Bucureşti,1997, p. 17.)
16
First introduced in 1983. Many components of the Macintosh GUI have become de facto standards and can be found
in other operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows. (Computer &Internet Dictionary, idem., Random House
Webster, 3rd Edition, 1999, p. 23).
17
In 1985. It refers to the ability of a computer system to configure expansion boards and other devices automatically.
(idem., ibid., p.434.).
18
Cf. Jean Chevallier and Alain Gheerbrant, ibid., pp. 36-37.
19
A software program that attaches itself to other programs.
14
[+living]
[-living]
 In point of their origin:
Humans
Computers
[God’s creation]
[man-made]
The last distinctive features share the same experiential basis, in the sense that, both designers
of humans and computers wanted to reach perfection, but something happens in the process, and
consequently, flaws have appeared in conception. In God’s creation, there was the Apple, in man’s
creation, the Virus. Their interlink leads to a new world, the one of Apple Computers which is
meant to open a new path into the most sophisticated technologies and innovations within the 20th
century because, as I stated above, the Apple metaphor is a key to both knowledge and freedom of
choice to do good or evil. Consequently, my approach will take into consideration the negative
connotations of the prototypical fruit as it is related to the virus metaphor. As for instance, once
humans have gained the knowledge of evil, they transpose their actions not only into the real life
but also into the one made by them, into their own creations. On the other hand, the abuse of
freedom to commit evil is transferred into the world of computers by the creation of the computer
viruses.
The concept behind the first malicious computer programs was described years ago in the
Computer Recreations column of Scientific American. In the case of the computer intruder of
November 1988, there was a choice of two main vehicles: the worm20 or the virus.
As Richards puts it, each metaphor results from the interaction between two parts: its
vehicle, which is the word selected, and its tenor, the underlying situation. A powerful metaphor
identifies two separate domains in such a way that we become able to investigate one domain by
tracing the implications of the other domain. To exemplify, the word virus21 has moved from the
biology field into the world of Information System: a virus becomes naturally part of the system
from which it has been generated. Consequently, if the worm was chosen as the vehicle, how this
would shed light on the tenor or the underlying situation? The worm metaphor would become
obscure because of the connotations implied: worms appear at night after a rainy day, they are good
for fishing and they are to be observed on putrefying organic materials. On the other part, the virus
metaphor is still at work because with the virus as vehicle, many aspects of the tenor were revealed
using related terms.
The metaphor of the computer virus22 was adopted because of the similarity in form,
function and consequence with biological viruses that attack the human system.
First of all, they are external entities to the systems (human or computer) they are going to
infect and cannot survive independently; each virus has its own characteristic features or own set of
symptoms. Consequently, to be easily recognized and fought, the viruses are given names.
In point of their purpose, they need a host to infect. The host can be regarded from another
semantic perspective than [-/+living], in the sense that, human cells and the computer software may
be viewed as the informational structure of both systems, since virus attacks the nucleus of a living
cell and replaces the existing DNA code with its own. We say the same about the computer
systems, that is, the computer virus makes copies of itself by using all available memory and
20
The spread of the clogging behaviour made engineers think that the intruder was, in fact, a worm, a selfcontained program designed to invade and disable computers. In computer terminology, the rogue program
that invaded ARPANET was a worm. (Susan Herring, ibid.)
21
The word comes from the Latin virus, referring to poison and other noxious things.
22
On November 4, 1988, computers around the ARPANET(the direct ancestor of the Internet) began acting
strangely. They were fed up with extraneous data, became sluggish and finally clogged completely. The odd
behaviour spread in a matter of hours, to about 6,ooo computers across the country and overseas. The
system, it appeared, had been attacked by an unknown intruder. The engineers responsible for ARPANET
security thought, at first, the intruder was a virus. (Herring Susan, op. cit., p.179)
bringing the system to a halt.23 Computer viruses can insert themselves in another program, taking
control over it or adversely affecting the function of the program. In its biological meaning the
activity of a virus is closely connected with the functioning of a body cell. Thus, computer viruses
are similar to their biological viruses: a half-way point between life and non-life. They have the
minimum requirements of all known living creatures: like their biological counterparts, computer
viruses can spread rapidly and self-replicate systematically; they have enough intelligence to
recognize their environment as friendly or hostile, and to take corresponding actions. They also try
to be like the living viruses in the way they must adapt through mutation to the development of
resistance within a system: the designer of a computer virus must upgrade his creation in order to
overcome its resistance (antiviral programs) or to take advantage of the weakness or loophole found
within the system. Computer viruses also act like biologics in the way they can be set off: they can
be virulent from the outset of the infection or they can be activated by a specific event (logic
bomb)24. But computer viruses can also be triggered at a specific time (time bomb).
On the other hand, in point of their consequences, the presence of a virus is either evident, as
for instance, it can provoke serious damage and disfunctions of the system, or, most viruses act
inoffensively towards a host-system until their specific conditions met; and when this happens, all
they are doing is to slightly drain the resources of the computer they have invaded (the boot
segment, the operating system, one or more of the application programs) until they are diagnosed
by computer analysts.
Computer viruses can be understood by people by using some of the medical terminology,
which points to some of the verb metaphors in computer terminology generated by their master
metaphor.
Verb
metaphor
contract
Verb
metaphor
spread
Master
metaphor
virus
Verb
metaphor
repair
Verb
metaphor
infect
Figure 2
The computer industry25 has expanded the metaphor to include now terms like, inoculation,
infection/disinfection, quarantine and sanitation. If your system gets infected by a computer virus
you can quarantine it until you can call someone experienced in viral cleanup who can detect its
presence onto your system and disinfect it by inoculating an anti-virus (program). Computer viruses
are similar to human viruses in the way they can be contracted, as in the table below:
23
Phillip E. Margolis, Computer $ Internet Technology Dictionary, Third Edition, Random House, 2000, p. 597.
Logic bombs are usually spread by disgruntled employees. They see this as a way to right wrongs done to them by the
company.
25
News stories explained that about 6,ooo computers were infected as the virus proved to be virulent and highly
contagious. NASA isolated its computers from the infected network and quarantined them. Attempts were made to
sterialize the network and programmers struggled to develop a vaccine, and to inoculate against new attacks. (Phillip E.
Margolis, ibid.)
24
POSSIBLE CONTAMINATION OF BOTH TYPES OF HUMAN AND COMPUTER VIRUSES
Human Viruses can be spread through:
respiratory passages
direct contact
biting insects
Computer Viruses are spread via:
contaminated disks
downloaded software
Email; Internet
Consequently, a viral infection has more than three core components:
 a trojan component: An infected program does something unwanted in certain
circumstances;
 a dormancy component: The viral infection may conceal itself indefinitely. Trojans, too,
may use dormancy to conceal their presence, but with a virus dormancy (or, equivalently,
unnoticed Trojan damage) is essential for the effectiveness of their third component:
 an infective component: infected programs infect further programs, which then behave in a
similar way;
 a survival component; crucial to the long-term practical success of a virus is that it can infect
in some sense faster than it can be eliminated.
On the other hand, the choice of giving names to virus is metaphorical because their names
are borrowed from different domains, for instance games, to be transferred to the computer
environment. A virus like Ping-Pong26 causes a ping-pong effect on the screen; it makes characters
to move along the screen and reflects from other characters and borders of the screen. A
Backdoor.Netbus, is a hidden remote administration utility, a kind of thief acting backdoors, and
steals files or, even worse, damages installed software. Another virus, Form27, as its names implies,
processes a dummy cycle while pressing on the keys. Christmas Tree28 outputs an image of the
Christmas Tree and then sends copies of itself to all the network users whose addresses are in the
corresponding system files NAMES and NETLOG.
To conclude, the virus metaphor has several advantages:
 it relieves the client from the feeling of responsibility for such kind of dysfunctions,
attributing them to external forces (viruses);
 it encourages the user-client to cooperate and undertake actions and seek for some help
from a professional;
 it gives the feeling of controlling the change (recovery from illness) as the description
following the virus characteristics;
 it may also give, depending on the ‘pathological picture’, the possible time perspective of
the treatment.
6. Final Remarks
The research carried out to this point is still far from providing a thorough investigation on
the link between metaphors and the Computer Science. Still it represents an adventure only on a
part of the matrix of our computer-based world and may lead to several conclusions:
26
www.virus.com
Obs.: This is a very dangerous virus. It hits boot-sector of floppy disks during an access to them and Boot-sector of
the hard disk on a reboot from an infected floppy disk. It acts only on the 16th of every month, containing the text: The
FORM-Virus sends greetings to everyone who's reading this text.
28
Obs.: From the 24th to the 31st of December it displays a Christmas tree. In December of 1987, there was the first
total epidemics of the network due to this virus; it paralyzed the entire network, which was over-flooded with copies of
it.
27
First, interface metaphors are employed by program designers in order to make the system
easier to learn and use. In doing this, the efficiency of the system is taken for granted by its users,
and both the designers and the respective program consumers’ feelings are UP.
With regard to the theoretical analysis submitted above it becomes evident that the use of
metaphors in relation to an e-language needs further research to detect other culture-dependent
metaphors, like the conceptualization of the web as a sea adventure or a shopping dilemma, or like
the Internet as a huge information highway, etc. This leads us to the second conclusion that
metaphors can provide action, entertainment, by appealing to our common knowledge of the world.
Thirdly, the source metaphors emphasize aspects of the target metaphor while
downplaying other important aspects. As for instance, when using the metaphor CYBERSPACE IS
JOURNEY, some aspects of the cyberspace are highlighted ( e.g. tour, visit, etc), while other
aspects are hidden, as for instance, when ‘cybering’ users do not go anywhere, moreover, they sit
and press keys to reach (enter) the destination they feel like exploring. Furthermore, if navigators
of the virtual environment were disembodied and fragmented subjects who existed as mere
collections of aliases and agents, what can be then the use of metaphor within the cyberspace? What
is then the use of so many openings, entries, exits and returns to the initial point, like home?
Last but not least, metaphors are connotative carriers since they work by transferring a
system of associated meanings from the metaphor source to the metaphor target. In the conceptual
metaphor – CYBERSPACE IS LANGUAGE -, we transfer our common knowledge of language and
its communicative purpose to the domain of cyberspace. The result is that we think of computers as
being informative and instructive.
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