"We first took our image and put it into code. A technical code developed by the information theorists. This code was written at the molecular level to save space, when it was found that the image material was not dead matter, but exhibited the same life cycle as the virus....To this end we invented variety in many forms, variety that is of information content in a molecule, which, enfin, is always [a permutation of the existing material]. " Burroughs, Nova Express, p. 49