The Quest for Power

If you are a tech-freak of sorts (like myself) then you probably concern yourself with happenings such as the release of AMD's (or Intel's) quad core microprocessors, dual GPUs, terabyte-sized hard drives, and all other sorts of tech-geekfoolery in existence. Nonetheless, it may seem rather disconcerting to inquire about the need for all these advancements. Interestingly, an article on The Inquirer addressed part of this issue (Core Insanity Replaces Megahurtz Madness). If you don't mind me deviating or displaying my ignorance just a little bit, why on earth do these The Inquirer folks insist on using horribly mindblowing language and acronyms such as "DAAMIT" (AMD/ATI), "The Vole," and all that other nonsense - they have interesting viewpoints though! That aside, the aforementioned article addresses the sensibility in purchasing affordable hardware that one will not regret having obtained six months down the line (the point of which is obviously functionality!)

Nonetheless, these techonology advances beg the question why? Say 30 years down the road we have machines powerful enough to understand speech, perform horrendous calculations in nanoseconds (such as factoring numbers or solving discrete logarithm problems - using brute force), etc. Of what use would these be to us? Ultimately, anything we make is of any value to humanity based on its utility. What can we do with it? Entertainment's currently one flourishing arena. The Nintendo Wii, the Playstation 3, and the Xbox 360 are just a sampling of what sort of entertainment is possible with number crunching, vertex spinning, pixel churning power. How much more is needed though before we'll be satisfied and say "well, we can now stop development since we've come far enough."

Perhaps that's the beauty of the enterprising human spirit - we always find a new utility. After all, God's command was to subdue the earth (and fill it :D). Subduing and caring for the earth definitely involves discovering the workings of nature. Perhaps I should clarify that I consider mathematics to be a fundamental part of nature, a viewpoint not shared by many. In light of this
the pursuit of faster computers (robots, CPUs, GPUs, ) then basically becomes part of that quest to understand our universe - something unavoidably integral to our nature, as is evident from the thousands of degree churning institutions worldwide (another of which I hope to join someday). This makes it rather thrilling to think about what will happen when manufacturing processes hit the sub 20nm range - or what will happen when the next Einstein appears! I'm willing to bet crazy science fiction ideas like space or even (gulp) time travel will come to pass - they probably sound as ridiculous as the thought of flight once did to people the world over.

I do admit though that I at once realized the implications of more power (thankfully - since this will probably be my focus in graduate school should I end up there). Think of all the protein folding/DNA research/Cancer research areas in the medical field (in fact the Playstation 3 boasts about protein folding research capabilities). These research areas involve horrendously time and power consuming modeling computations which are still rather inefficient for all purposes practical - like finding a cure for cancer! That point alone is enough to settle my concerns about the need for faster systems. However, I do confess that even without any justification for building faster computers (I'm not talking about just your desktop/laptop but everything - mainframes, servers, cell phones, ...) I believe computation is still an enterprise we should engage in just because of the great advancement in the knowledge of our world that we gain as a result. Perhaps the best example of this would be the Mars Rover project - and the obviously related Opportunity, etc. Perhaps you can now understand why I follow every space shuttle launch and the construction of the International Space Station, awesome stuff!

Did I say I love science/technology (oh, non-MLA citation: "the PS3 image if from Wikipedia")