Parasite Analogue
It might also be useful to look at computer viruses as parasites. There are many examples in nature of parasites altering their hosts' behaviour in ways that are dangerous to the host but beneficial to the parasite. Toxoplasma gondii, for example, causes foolhardy behaviour in rodents in order to get back to its preferred host, a cat; this can manifest as reckless behaviour in humans. Excerpt from a Wired post:
In a stunning example of population-level evolution, a newly discovered parasite makes its ant hosts turn red and swollen, like berries. Berry-loving birds then eat the ants, and spread the parasite in their droppings..... infected ants not only look appetizing, but become sluggish and hold their abdomens high in the air, making them easy targets for birds that would normally avoid them.
...An earlier post....described a parasite that in sufficient numbers makes fish float close to the surface, similarly turning them into prey for birds who spread the parasites in their poop. These sorts of adaptations really boggle my mind, because evolution is clearly operating at a group rather than individual level: a single parasite has no effect on its host, but put enough in one place and they benefit. Its enough to make you wonder what group-level characteristics are produced by human interaction???.
