[extropy-chat] flash crowd super computer
Damien Broderick
thespike at satx.rr.com
Mon Feb 23 18:51:28 UTC 2004
Well, gee, eh?
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/23/technology/23SUPE.html?th=&pagewanted=print&position=
< There are already many Internet-connected virtual supercomputers, like
the SETI at home project, which uses the spare computing cycles on the
personal computers of volunteers to hunt for signs of alien civilizations.
Several universities have shown that it is possible to hook hundreds of
off-the-shelf personal computers together to create supercomputers. But
until now no one has tried to build an instant supercomputer in one place.
"It struck me as being something of a 60's idea," said Dennis Allison, a
founder of Dr. Dobbs, a Silicon Valley magazine for computer programmers.
"This could easily be an idea from one of William Gibson's science-fiction
novels, where everyone gathers in Grand Central station to save the world
by plugging their machines into the Net." >
Actually, it could be an idea from a Dam Clemmensen post to this forum,
cited in THE SPIKE seven years ago--except that Dan's approach to a home
brew singularity-grade AI *didn't* require all the machines to be
physically `in one place', which is a bizarrely 1940s' idea. But hey.
Damien Broderick
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