[p2p-research] the end of theory-driven science?

Mon Jun 30 06:53:44 CEST 2008

BOINC is an open source,  usable way to create massive parallel
supercomputers. BOINC is an evolution of the software that was created to
process SETI at home

BOINC is now used by quite a few different projects to use volunteer spare
computing time to  solve different problems, from studying malaria data, to
predicting climate change, to exploring nanotechnology

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/VolunteerComputing is a good overviewof
concepts. Howard talks about "Computation nations and swarm supercomputers"
in smartmobs, too.

For people like Marcin, Appropedia, Ohio Local Food Systems Collaborative,
or anyone who is tasked with supoorting their own research and development,
volunteer grid computing can be a powerful resource. it can give people the
power to employ search through huge volumes of data in a small amount of
time, for a low cost. A person could write some evaluation programs or data
models, and send data to BOINC clients that users run like screen savers.
see http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/VirtualCampusSupercomputerCenter
The BOINC project provides both clients and servers under an open source
license.

So, let's say that you wanted to run very complex datamining models on sound
data that comes from microphones placed in the outdoors around Europe.
Perhaps you have developed an idea to create a baseline way to measure a
healthy ecosystem based on the sound in the environment. BOINC would let you
split up all of that data into chunks and analyze it for just certain sound
signatures. Crunching all of this data might otherwise be too large for any
average computing system to take on in a reasonable amount of time. Even
more, software liek BOINC makes powerful supercomputing available to many
people. It makes massive search available, as described by Kevin Kelly.

On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 12:08 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi Sam,
>
> I think this comment is already excellent. Could you post it to the blog
> with reference to Kelly's original comment and perhaps an added link too
> http://p2pfoundation.net/Category:Science at the bottom?
>
> I think the title: Using Swarm Computing as an Open Social Utility, would
> be excellent.
>
> For my own benefit: why is BOINC important?
>
> Michel
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 12:20 AM, Samuel Rose <samuel.rose at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> It's worth mentioning that their is no science without theory. The human
>> mind is wired for creating theories. That is why there is a neural network
>> built into our brain/mind system. It was self-built to consider the
>> un-manifested.
>>
>> That being said, what Kevin Kelly describes is a lot like Stephen
>> Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science". Not exactly the same, but closely
>> related.
>>
>> In both cases: a *search* based science. Not that science didn't already
>> have "search". But now you can start to create billions of possible
>> combinations of simulations and then search through them. So it is
>> simulation/search based.
>>
>> This is what I was propsing in our discussion about circuit design:
>> Evolutionary/simulation/search-based research
>>
>> You can compress thousands, or even millions of years or human trial and
>> error into this type of research. Plus, you walk away with billions of
>> potential variations on your design, and ready ways and building blocks to
>> adapt and change your design, and data about how different variations work
>> under different conditions. You have a design DNA.
>>
>> Right now, I use databases like google as a kind of bionic brain
>> extension. So, I say bring on the new databases, the computer clusters, the
>> algorithms. As long as we all have equal access to them.
>>
>> The question for me is: what comes after search? When knowledge bases
>> reach the exabyte level, or higher, and there are algorithms
>> searching/crunching through them and finding patterns, relationships,
>> testing all of the possible combinations, etc, how do handle and process
>> what the machines are outputting?  How do we avoid becoming a cybernetic
>> society?
>>
>> An even more fundamental question is: what can you create with all of this
>> data, and/or with the systems that are used to collect and analyze it? How
>> can it be used as a medium for expression? What are the new ways to "see"
>> and "feel" the data?  How can the data systems be grounded as an ecology
>> that is self-balancing, so that it doesn't overrun our existence like a form
>> of digital toxic pollution, and cause ill effects on living systems, like
>> people being ruled by algorithmic output that is too much in one direction?
>>
>>
>> Another consideration: When we see that entities like google are the only
>> ones that can wield and harness resources like those that process and hold
>> petabyte databases, then we still have the potential for a power imbalance,
>> where those who can hold and process the most data are the "wealthiest" in
>> terms of capability, adaptability, access to knowledge.
>>
>> I wonder how many people realize that existing technology possesses the
>> building blocks to allow p2p networks to exceed the capability of any one
>> entity like Google, etc?
>>
>> I can see the possibilty of something simple, and elegant on a basic
>> scale, that can scale-up easily, that provides a social utility for anyone
>> who accesses it, using the combined resources of millions, or possibly even
>> of people for storage and processing, that cannot be controlled for any
>> specific exclusive purpose by any one person, and that could be controlled
>> democratically by people opting out of participation should they not like
>> the direction things are going in. We could have this today, and some people
>> have already done it on a limited basis with things like SETI at Home, etc.
>> What we need is more evolution in this area, more ways to use swarm
>> super-computers, ways that are accessible by many people. A way to turn
>> swarm super computers into an open social utility. This would is not out of
>> our reach right now. We don't have to wait until networks are totally
>> decentralized to build this into our social systems. We all have computers
>> and operating systems, free cpu cycles, internet connections with extra
>> bandwidth, and likely ideas about what we could do with those resources.
>> There are already clients like http://boinc.berkeley.edu/, and systems
>> like http://ceph.newdream.net/ or even http://www.bittorrent.com/ as
>> building block upon which to improve. http://www.bittorrent.com/ could
>> even work if enough people participated.
>>
>> The point is, a p2p social computing/data utility could exist today even
>> with just BOINC and bittorrent. I am now in discussion with communities,
>> like http://socialsynergyweb.org/oardc/startpage about how they could
>> apply evolutionary computing, simulation, datamining, and other modelling
>> and search to local food systems. (see
>> http://socialsynergyweb.org/oardc/local-food-systems-computer-modeling-gis-datamining-group
>> )
>>
>> A BOINC/bittorrent system could be used with applictions like
>> http://www.urbansim.org/, http://code.google.com/p/optimaes/  and
>> countless other open source simulation systems, not to mention datamining,
>> GIS analysis, etc This can give local communities access to pwoerful
>> research and development facilities. It could also be used to render and
>> crunch numbers on design/ FEA (finite element analysis) etc.
>>
>> The question is, why isn't this already happening? Probably primarily
>> because we get a minimum of what we need from free/ad-based systems like
>> Google. But we could have a lot more, even right now. There is a huge amount
>> of inherent wealth and untapped commons available right now.
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 7:17 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/06/the_google_way.php
>>>
>>> --
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Sam Rose
>> Social Synergy
>> Tel:+1(517) 639-1552
>> Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451
>> AIM: Str9960
>> Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samrose
>> skype: samuelrose
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>> http://socialsynergyweb.com/services
>>
>>
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>> http://p2pfoundation.net
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>> http://barcampbank.org
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>
>
>
>
> --
> The P2P Foundation researches, documents and promotes peer to peer
> alternatives.
>
> Wiki and Encyclopedia, at http://p2pfoundation.net; Blog, at
> http://blog.p2pfoundation.net; Newsletter, at
> http://integralvisioning.org/index.php?topic=p2p
>
> Basic essay at http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=499; interview at
> http://poynder.blogspot.com/2006/09/p2p-very-core-of-world-to-come.html
> BEST VIDEO ON P2P:
> http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=4549818267592301968&hl=en-AU
>
> KEEP UP TO DATE through our Delicious tags at http://del.icio.us/mbauwens
>
> The work of the P2P Foundation is supported by SHIFTN,
> http://www.shiftn.com/
>

-- 
Sam Rose
Social Synergy
Tel:+1(517) 639-1552
Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451
AIM: Str9960
Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samrose
skype: samuelrose
email: samuel.rose at gmail.com
http://socialsynergyweb.com/services

Related Sites/Blogs/Projects:
OpenBusinessModels: http://socialsynergyweb.net/cgi-bin/wiki/FrontPage
http://p2pfoundation.net
http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
http://www.cooperationcommons.com
http://barcampbank.org
http://communitywiki.org
http://openfarmtech.org
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