Public Computing: Reconnecting People to Science
David P. Anderson · 2003
The majority of the world’s power is no longer in supercomputer centers and institutional machine rooms. Instead, it is now distributed in the hundreds of millions of personal computers all over the world. In a few more years, other consumer devices like game consoles and television set-top boxes may comprise a large fraction of total power. This change is critical to scientists whose research requires extreme power. Projects like SETI@home and Folding@home have attracted millions of participants who donate time on their home PCs to a scientic eort. Work is underway to create similar projects in many other areas, enabling scientic explorations that were previously infeasible. The implications of this computing paradigm are social as well as scientic. It provides a basis for global communities centered around common interests and goals. It creates incentives for the public to learn about current scientic research. Ultimately, it will give the public more direct control over the directions of science progress.