Science and technology micro-summaries for June 23, 2019

A pay as you use model for distributed computing; 7-figure salaries in big-tech for biological brain researchers; Computer design and computational thinking; Quantum supremacy may be achievable in 2019; Downvotes and hardfork 21

Straight from my RSS feed:

Links and micro-summaries from my 1000+ daily headlines. I filter them so you don't have to.

1. Pay-as-you-use in Golem - The golem project compares two billing schemes for distributing processing in a decentralized computing ecosystem. In the first scheme (fixed price), billing is done based on the job being performed. In the second scheme (time & materials), billing is done based on actual utilization. If the job is more difficult than expected, the first places the risk on the service provider, and the second places the risk on the buyer. The second scheme (time & materials) is the most accurate, but it is also prone to fraud. In this blog post, the folks behind the golem token (GNT) describe their mechanism for implementing T&M billing for their distributed computing project while using a reputation-like system to minimize fraud.


2. Apple, Google, and Facebook Are Raiding Animal Research Labs - Bloomberg reports that animal neuroscientists are landing 7 figure salaries to work in technology fields like autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, and others. Despite the nomenclature, AI's neural networks are actually rudimentary imitations of the biological brain, so tech companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, and Twitter are all hiring actual brain researchers with expertise in animal-brains like mice, finches, sheep, and even fruit flies and worms in order to improve their capabilities. h/t Communications of the ACM


3. A Design Perspective on Computational Thinking - In this article, Georgia Tech's Mark Guzdial explores the idea that students need to learn computational thinking. Using the definition that computational thinking is expressing a problem in a way that can be solved by a computer, Guzdial argues that it's not obvious what this really means. In support of this arguments, he points out that some programming languages don't use "standard" constructs like iteration and boolean operators. He also notes that domain-specific programming languages are frequently more efficient than general purpose languages, and even notes that expert programmers do no better than novices when they switch from one functional domain to another. He agrees that humans need to accommodate the needs of a computer, but that as computer design progresses the need for accommodation is reduced.


4. A New Law to Describe Quantum Computing’s Rise? - Neven’s law describes the rate at which Google's Quantum Computing technology has been overtaking classical computing. It says that Quantum computing is gaining speed at a doubly-exponential rate. Moore's Law for classical computing predicts growth at a rate of repeated doublings. If Neven's Law holds, it will far surpass Moore's Law, as it predicts a sequence like this: 2, 2², 2⁴, 2⁸.... As a result of this stellar rate of increase, Google's Hartmut Neven thinks that the firm may achieve Quantum Supremacy as soon as 2019.


5. STEEM Is Flagging Really The Solution We Need....? - I try not to include many Steem posts that talk about Steem, but this post by @metametheus is worth reading because it offers a unique perspective on the upcoming HF21 changes. The argument is that you can get desired behavior by rewarding positive behavior or punishing negative behavior - the carrot and the stick. It goes on to question the mass appeal of increasing the punishing behavior on the platform, given the already high drama of "flag wars" among a number of high stakes players, and the cultural trend towards censorship on other social media platforms. Here is a related article that I wrote a couple years ago, Down-votes: Steemit's Achilles' Heel?. (@metametheus will receive 5% of the rewards from this post.)

For example, feel free to comment on any or all of these discussion topics:

• Have you used the golem platform for grid computing? As a decentralized and distributed platform, what distinguishes it from gridcoin and EOS?
  
  
• What do you think of Guzdial's argument on computational thinking? Is it better to teach computer science students to think like a computer or to teach them to design away the need to think like a computer?
  
  
• How long do you think that Neven's Law will continue to hold? What are the implications for cryptocurrency if Google achieves quantum supremacy during 2019?
  
  
• What are your thoughts on the new downvote pool in hardfork 21?
  
  

About this series

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