Re: COMP: Computational economy (was: "MIPsucking"...)

Hara Ra (harara@shamanics.com)
Sat, 15 Feb 1997 12:37:23 -0800


Alexander Chislenko wrote:
> At 11:44 AM 2/13/97 -0800, Hara Ra <harara@shamanics.com> wrote:
> >When you park your car, will you let the local taxi company use it
> >while you have your cuppa java??

> If you work in your office on some low-security stuff, like designing
> brochures or proof-reading students' homework, you will probably not
> lose much by letting it evolve some cellular automata when you are not
> using the machine anyway, and periodically communicate the results
> back to the server (forget JavaScripts).

There's certainly a difference between executing unknown code for
unknown
uses and stuff you know about and like. I doubt there will be much of a
market for running CAs, but there's lots of boring stuff like genetic
algorithms applied to the stock market, etc, which eat lots of CPU
cycles.
Now do I get to use the results of that when I rent my machine to you??
Probably not. I can also think of somthing which appears harmless like
"factor this big number" which isn't. Looks like a good theme for a SF
short story here....

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| Hara Ra <harara@shamanics.com> |
| Box 8334 Santa Cruz, CA 95061 |
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