Today we have Super Computers, which are truly incredible indeed and we can use these Super Computers to do all sorts of things. Currently we have computers, which can do tens of trillions of calculations per second and they are great for figuring out things like the weather with massive amounts of data sets from many different sources.
These computers can also be used to track down criminals, by scanning the Internet or databases. These computers can be used for doing genetic manipulation research to prevent disease and problems in the human body. Unfortunately, we do not have enough of these supercomputers yet and therefore different groups must share the technology.
One problem we have with technology Time-sharing for supercomputers is that there are politics involved in the allocating of resources. A cure for cancer is indeed a very important allocation of such resources, but so is an approaching hurricane at the same time or perhaps we are trying to track sneaky bad guys or international terrorists.
You can see how the politics of allocating supercomputer resources can be very important and perhaps you can also see the problems involved. In fact there are so many uses for number crunching such as a NASA space program or figuring out a difficult mathematical problem that there is a lot a competition.
It is important to prioritize what is the most compelling need of the technology and of course those computers should be used for that first. If our nation is at war the supercomputers can come in handy for many things indeed.
However, we should not forget that the forward progression of the human species and science is also important although perhaps not as pressing at the very moment that the military needs the computers. Perhaps you might consider all this in 2006 and join me in promoting the purchase of more supercomputers.
Lance Winslow, a retired entrepreneur, adventurer, modern day philosopher and perpetual tourist. |
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