I'm a 50-year-old web designer and custom software developer from Lincoln, Nebraska. Distributed Computing gives me the opportunity to put some of my computer power to work for humanitarian purposes and the advancement of the sciences, thus greatly increasing the return on my investment. Whether I benefit from such efforts personally, or future generations reap the rewards is irrelevant... it is the opportunity to do something meaningful with a powerful technology that is the real reward.
The research done by Einstein@Home and similar projects has great potential to advance scientific knowledge and vastly increase our understanding of various science subjects. Early work that doesn't result in earthshaking breakthroughs is as important as work that does do these things. It lays a foundation for later researchers, and perfects the algorithms and technologies required before any such newsworthy developments are even possible.
Every generation is given the opportunity to be part of changes in technology and social values that ultimately will shape how future generations will solve complex problems, and the priorities and values they will place on research that benefits people other than themselves. It's easy to envision a world where a professional athlete makes $40,000/year and a cancer research scientist with a PhD makes $4,000,000 instead of the other way around.
Only when we get involved at multiple layers of the process will any serious change take place. Distributed Computing is a painless, inexpensive way for millions of people around the globe to make a difference at a basic level of the research process that, until recent years, has been largely unavailable to the majority of researchers and students who dedicate much of their lives to improving conditions for all humans.
Name | Avg credit | Total credit |
---|---|---|
SETI@home | 0 | 58.4k |
Rosetta@home | 0 | 656k |
NFS@Home | 0 | 1.79M |
PrimeGrid | 0 | 83.9M |
Pirates@Home | 0 | 7,052 |
Cosmology@Home | 0 | 415k |
Enigma@Home | 0 | 135k |
yoyo@home | 0 | 602k |
MilkyWay@home | 0 | 29.3M |
AlmereGrid Boinc Grid | 0 | 60.0k |
GPUGRID | 0 | 8.25M |
RNA World | 0 | 203k |
Moo! Wrapper | 0 | 15.9M |
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