Robin McKie, Science Editor
Sunday May 21, 2000
Scientists plan to link the nation's major computers in a single, all-powerful 'thinking' network.
Known as The Grid, the massive connection project would allow computers in different centres and technology companies to exchange computing tasks and gain access to unlimited amounts of data without using search engines.
The Grid - which some researchers compare to omnipotent robot systems in science fiction films such as The Matrix and The Terminator - would be millions of times more powerful than the Internet.
Its creation is seen as vital to the viability of future research projects such as the new particle smasher to be built at Cern in Geneva, the unravelling of the human genome and the launch of a series of massive Earth observation satellites.
These projects will generate vast volumes of data which would swamp present computing systems. To prevent that, researchers believe that only by linking their machines with special communication systems can they create a network powerful enough to prevent an information overload.
'Think of this as the Mark II Web,' said Professor Ian Halliday, who chairs the committee set up to investigate the building of the Grid. 'The first Web was invented by British scientists but exported to the United States. Now we have to buy back our access from Microsoft or Netscape. We don't want that to happen again.'
This urge to ensure the continued viability of UK science is balanced by warnings that such a system brings closer the day when computers will take over the running of the world and discard humanity. One such gainsayer is Bill Joy, inventor of the web language Java and chief scientist at computer giant Sun Microsystems.
'It is no exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of the further perfection of extreme evil,' he states in the magazine Wired. 'I may be working to create tools which will enable the construction of technology that may replace our species.
'Unable to afford the necessities of life, biological humans would be squeezed out of existence,' he adds.
Most researchers disagree, however. 'The issue of consciousness in such a powerful thinking system has to be considered, but that is different from suggesting The Grid would be a threat to Homo sapiens,' said astronomer Dr Paul Murdin.
This point was backed by Professor Ian Hillier of the Molecular Environmental Science Centre at Manchester University. 'Just compare this Grid with the national electricity grid. When you switch on the kettle, you have no idea of the vast network that is working to provide power.'
Research councils have asked the Government to provide an extra £80 million to help set up the Grid, and a similar amount is being sought from the Department of Trade and Industry to support commercial applications.
'Many countries are thinking about setting up something like the Grid,' added Cambridge scientist Dr Ewan Birney, of the European Bio-infomatics Institute. 'We already have one model system in operation. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence organisation is currently searching through radio astronomical signals for intelligible transmission using volunteers' personal computers, and these machines carry out the operations. The Grid will do the same sort of thing - but on a much grander scale.'
The Observer 21.05.00
Mark Jones http://www.egroups.com/group/CrashList