cliff@WATSON.IBM.COM ("Cliff Pickover") (03/30/91)
WHAT IF ALL SCIENTISTS HAD A WALLET-SIZED GRAPHICS SUPERCOMPUTER? I am conducting a survey, the results of which will be published in Computer Graphics World, and I look forward to receiving your responses. Send your responses to CLIFF@WATSON.IBM.COM or CLIFF@YKTVMV. So that I may describe the types of people who are responding to this survey, please tell me where you work, your job title and field, and if you have a college, masters, or graduate degree (M.D., Ph.D.). Over the last few years, I've conducted a number of "non-traditional surveys" regarding technology and science. For those not familiar with these past surveys, they have included "What is the social and scientific impact of a soda-can-sized computer with near infinite memory and speed?"(1,4), "Who are the ten most influential scientist in history?"(2,4), and "What if scientists found a computer in 1900?"(3,4). In the present survey, I would like to concentrate on computer graphics and scientific visualization. Here I will collect your opinions on the following question, and will publish an article summarizing the results of the survey and including excerpts of your opinions. Please concentrate your responses on the graphics aspects of this question. If humankind were given a wallet-sized graphics computer with near-infinite computational power and memory -- free of charge to all individuals who requested such a device -- how would humanity be affected from both a scientific and sociological standpoint? The time required to render the most complicated of scenes would be instantaneous. For example, rendering rates much greater than a trillion shaded triangles per second would be attainable with the device. Ray tracing the most complicated of graphics scenes would be instantaneous as would be the manipulation of huge volume (voxel) data. The wallet device proposed here, then, is the "ultimate scientific visualization" device. QUESTIONS and COMMENTS 1. Feel free to add any comments and speculations you wish. If you do not whish to answer the specific questions below, you do not have to. 2. Yes or No: Would there be tremendous scientific gains within a year of distributing this computer? (Or perhaps you think science would plod along at its current rate)? 3. What fields would benefit most? 4. Overall, would this device be good or bad for humankind? 5. How would humankind and science change? 6. Where do you work? What is your job title and field? What level of education do you have (B.A., M.A, PhD, M.D.)? 7. Which country in the world would be most affected by the device? 8. Which country would achieve the greatest gains and discoveries? 9. Who would be affected to the greatest degree: a) Scientists, technologists, inventors b) Political and military leaders c) Secular philosophers d) Religious leaders e) Artists and writers f) other REFERENCES 1. Pickover, C. (1991) The social and scientific impact of a soda-can-sized super-super computer. Computers in Physics, May/June 5: 3, in press. 2. Pickover, C. (1990) Who are the ten most influential scientists in history? The History and Social Science Teacher. 25(3): 158-161. 3. Pickover, C. (1991) The social and scientific impact of a personal computer placed in the year 1900. IEEE Computer, May 24(5), in press. 4. All of these surveys reprinted in greater detail in: Pickover, C. (1991) Computers and the Imagination. St. Martin's Press: New York. (September)