Two months ago I spilled water directly into my laptop. Looked dead. I let it dry for a while and the screen came back, with static fuzz that faded into clarity after a week. Problem was, I lost the best feature of a PowerBook, the ability to close it to go to sleep and open it to have it immeadiately on. Worse, I couldn't project. About the worst features to loose for someone as pompus as me -- who needs to blog when the moment strikes and project my ego upon occassion.
This week something wonderful happened. It all came back to life.
This healing was almost organic. I wish all bugs and faults were like this, gradually coming back to life on their own. With the option of taking it in for a more immeadiate and perhaps costly fix. I'm not ashamed that I didn't figure out the exact underlying cause of the malfunction and left much to ignorant metaphysical wonder. The machine was still the simplest thing that could possibly work and had better things to do.
Viruses are almost the opposite of this pattern. You hear warning its floating around, perhaps you patch in time, you contract, wait for fix in some cases and then there is a sudden cure. But this still differs from a bug that gives you sudden death, its more complex, feels different. I keep talking about how computers make you feel because it matters as much as what they for you and what you do with it.
I imagine one day all bug repair will feel like this. Organic, as autonomic agents work their way towards resolution.
