Even after years of innovation from the computer industry, we’re still not to the point where everyone is lucky enough to have a HAL 9000 in their kitchen. But if you consider your home computer part of a large supercomputing network, then you may be able to pretend it’s worth something more than just solitaire and Google searches. This is called “distributed computing,” and it’s like a massive collection of computers sitting anywhere (your office, your home, etc.) all chugging away to solve smaller bits of a larger data.

Think about it like this: the very machine you are using right now can be used to find aliens. People are already doing it!

The idea is to download software which takes advantage of your computer when you are not using it. So instead of running a boring screensaver while sitting idle, your PC can actively take part in a massive distributed supercomputing network that crunches data. This data can be narrow-band radio signals from space, or theoretical projections to create model universes.

There are dozens of ways to use your computer’s free time effectively. Discover Magazine compiled 14 of them. One of the noble causes is “FightAIDS@Home” which uses your computer to help identify molecules that can best be used to fight HIV.

What if you could win $100,000 for finding the largest prime number? Your computer can help. “GIMPS” is a project that aims to find the largest known Mersenne prime number. A foundation is going to award somebody a lot of money if they can find the answer (as long as it’s 10 million digits long). But that’s what computers are for!

These are just a few examples. In case you haven’t figured it out, the software you download will automatically communicate back to a central location to pool the data. So you can play a small part in finding cures for cancer, or lend a helping hand in finding aliens! It’s up to you (and your computer).

Tags: distributed computing, aliens, supercomputer, pc, spare time

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