Trojan Art

One thing I have loved about my macbook: no worries about malware. However, after three plus years of us, I seem to have a trojan horse in my system. So hile googling about trojans to see what to do, I learned about an interesting type of malware: The person downloads and plays a free space-invaders-like game, but the catch is that for each alien ship killed, one file is deleted on that person's computer. This became really interesting to me when it turned out this was apparently conceived of as art!

Research reveals that the "Trojan" is actually a well-intentioned art project called 'Lose/Lose' designed to raise philosophical questions about the nature of video games and killing. Its creator is believed to be one Zach Gage, who released the program as part of an online art project in September.
By way of exploring what it means to kill in a video-game, Lose/Lose broaches bigger questions. As technology grows, our understanding of it diminishes, yet, at the same time, it becomes increasingly important in our lives," announces Gage, on his website.
The game also clearly states the consequences of playing it, at least as far as English-speaking users are concerned. "Killing in Lose/Lose will likely result in files on your hard drive being deleted," says the opening screen. "You have been warned."

 Fascinating!