“For all of the money invested in massive computers, I cannot recall any discovery or breakthrough that followed.” — the Mosaic web browser, the best thing ever developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
I am not sure how to read your comment but I choose to take as supporting my point of view that building enormous computers that are tremendously expensive to operate does not have a great track record regarding scientific progress. It is more important to democratize computing power because you cannot beat thousands of people hacking inexpensive computers as far as idea generation goes…
One thing that the government is good at funding are projects that need lots of expensive and novel hardware. This can spur whole new industries in a way that is arguably more efficient than having the government try to create the industry through direct subsidies.
So it is possible that this is the path taken by the Chinese governments. They may not know what to do with these supercomputers, but building them requires acquiring lots of high-level expertise.
jldsays:
Yes, we should all be very grateful to porn and video games for it is these two markets which drive computer tech progress by infusing enough money in it, even better than the military.
Human beings have this ability to engage in apparently frivolous activities… yet there is a long track record of these frivolous activities generating useful outcomes. We did not engage in the industrial revolution to feed people, but rather, initially, to generate better clothing (textile was the driver)… it is not like the people of Europe were naked before the industrial revolution… but they certainly did seek better underwear. The first mechanical computers (automata) were frivolous machines that were meant to amuse children… The first keyboard was meant to play music. And so forth.
PabloRQsays:
Nice review!
Dominic Amannsays:
I am not sure what the driver was, but I think DNA sequencing falls under the “massive amounts of computing power” gamut. The gene therapy being mentioned probably needed that at the outset.
“For all of the money invested in massive computers, I cannot recall any discovery or breakthrough that followed.” — the Mosaic web browser, the best thing ever developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
I am not sure how to read your comment but I choose to take as supporting my point of view that building enormous computers that are tremendously expensive to operate does not have a great track record regarding scientific progress. It is more important to democratize computing power because you cannot beat thousands of people hacking inexpensive computers as far as idea generation goes…
You read my comment correctly. Mosaic was a great thing, but it’s sad that NCSA hasn’t accomplished more, given the money invested in it.
One thing that the government is good at funding are projects that need lots of expensive and novel hardware. This can spur whole new industries in a way that is arguably more efficient than having the government try to create the industry through direct subsidies.
So it is possible that this is the path taken by the Chinese governments. They may not know what to do with these supercomputers, but building them requires acquiring lots of high-level expertise.
Yes, we should all be very grateful to porn and video games for it is these two markets which drive computer tech progress by infusing enough money in it, even better than the military.
Human beings have this ability to engage in apparently frivolous activities… yet there is a long track record of these frivolous activities generating useful outcomes. We did not engage in the industrial revolution to feed people, but rather, initially, to generate better clothing (textile was the driver)… it is not like the people of Europe were naked before the industrial revolution… but they certainly did seek better underwear. The first mechanical computers (automata) were frivolous machines that were meant to amuse children… The first keyboard was meant to play music. And so forth.
Nice review!
I am not sure what the driver was, but I think DNA sequencing falls under the “massive amounts of computing power” gamut. The gene therapy being mentioned probably needed that at the outset.
I’d be surprised if DNA sequencing was helped by supercomputers.
I expect that a PC with lots of RAM can probably handle all the DNA sequencing you can to do.