It. Will probably take me a. Full year to draft the. Application - is that too slow?
On Mon, 1 Apr 2024 at 09:22, Frank Von Delft < 0000bcb385fe5582-dmarc-requ...@jiscmail.ac.uk> wrote: > Oh dear, your prime number oversupply crashed the crypto Ponzi scheme > market. Will you accept $10e2 proposals now? > > Sent from tiny silly touch screen > ------------------------------ > *From:* James Holton <jmhol...@lbl.gov> > *Sent:* Monday, 1 April 2024 08:01 > *To:* CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK > *Subject:* [ccp4bb] request for applications > > Hey Everyone, > > It may sound like an incredibly boring thing that there has never been a > formal mathematical proof that finding the prime factors of very large > numbers doesn't have a more efficient algorithm than simply trying every > single one of them. Nevertheless, to this day, encryption keys and > indeed blockchain-based cryptocurrencies hinge upon how computationally > hard it is to find these large prime factors. And yet, no one has ever > proven that there is not a more efficient way. > > It occurred to me recently that cryptocurrencies (blockchains) are > nothing more than a sequence of numbers, and Large Language Models > fundamentally take a sequence of "words" and predict the next one in the > series. So, they seem naturally suited to the task of finding a more > efficient way. I spent some of my free time trying my hand at this. > There were some twists and turns along the way, but as of today it seems > to be working. Predictions are now coming pretty fast. By the end of > April 1, I expect to have ~ $1e12 USD on current ledgers. This may have > certain socioeconomic ramifications, but that is not what I want to > discuss here. What I want to discuss is how to use this new source of > scientific funding! > > My question for the BB is: what would YOU do if you had $1e12 USD for > your science? No non-scientific proposals please. There are plenty of > other forums for those. This BB is about biological structural science, > so please stay on-topic. OK? And now: suggestions! > > I am particularly interested in projects that can only be done with a > large, cooperative $1e12 USD, but not by 10e6 independent and unrelated > $100e3 projects. The Apollo moon missions, for example cost $300e9 > (adjusted USD). On a smaller scale, re-doing the whole PDB from cloning > and expression to crystallization and structure solution would only cost > about $500e6 USD. That would finally give us a good database of > crystallization conditions for training an AI to tell you, given a > sequence, what the crystallization conditions (if any) will be. That > might take a lot of computing power, but there is plenty left over to > buy 10 zettaflops of computing power (and the solar panels needed to > power it). Or, if we really want to just divide it up, that would be > $10e6 for each of the ~1e5 people on this planet who fit into the > category of "biological scientist". That's not just PIs, but postdocs, > grad students, techs. Everybody. > > I'm sure this will solve a lot of problems, but not all of them. And, I > like to get ahead of things. So, what are the non-financial problems > that will remain? I think these are the most important problems in > science: the intellectual and technological hurdles that money can't > overcome. I'm hoping this will be an opportunity for all of us to focus > on those. I know we're all not used to thinking on this scale, but, at > least for today, let's give it a try! > > Looking forward to your applications, > > -James Holton > MAD Scientist > > ######################################################################## > > To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: > https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 > > This message was issued to members of www.jiscmail.ac.uk/CCP4BB, a > mailing list hosted by www.jiscmail.ac.uk, terms & conditions are > available at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/ > ------------------------------ > *From:* James Holton <jmhol...@lbl.gov> > *Sent:* Monday, 1 April 2024 08:01 > *To:* CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK > *Subject:* [ccp4bb] request for applications > > Hey Everyone, > > It may sound like an incredibly boring thing that there has never been a > formal mathematical proof that finding the prime factors of very large > numbers doesn't have a more efficient algorithm than simply trying every > single one of them. Nevertheless, to this day, encryption keys and > indeed blockchain-based cryptocurrencies hinge upon how computationally > hard it is to find these large prime factors. And yet, no one has ever > proven that there is not a more efficient way. > > It occurred to me recently that cryptocurrencies (blockchains) are > nothing more than a sequence of numbers, and Large Language Models > fundamentally take a sequence of "words" and predict the next one in the > series. So, they seem naturally suited to the task of finding a more > efficient way. I spent some of my free time trying my hand at this. > There were some twists and turns along the way, but as of today it seems > to be working. Predictions are now coming pretty fast. By the end of > April 1, I expect to have ~ $1e12 USD on current ledgers. This may have > certain socioeconomic ramifications, but that is not what I want to > discuss here. What I want to discuss is how to use this new source of > scientific funding! > > My question for the BB is: what would YOU do if you had $1e12 USD for > your science? No non-scientific proposals please. There are plenty of > other forums for those. This BB is about biological structural science, > so please stay on-topic. OK? And now: suggestions! > > I am particularly interested in projects that can only be done with a > large, cooperative $1e12 USD, but not by 10e6 independent and unrelated > $100e3 projects. The Apollo moon missions, for example cost $300e9 > (adjusted USD). On a smaller scale, re-doing the whole PDB from cloning > and expression to crystallization and structure solution would only cost > about $500e6 USD. That would finally give us a good database of > crystallization conditions for training an AI to tell you, given a > sequence, what the crystallization conditions (if any) will be. That > might take a lot of computing power, but there is plenty left over to > buy 10 zettaflops of computing power (and the solar panels needed to > power it). Or, if we really want to just divide it up, that would be > $10e6 for each of the ~1e5 people on this planet who fit into the > category of "biological scientist". That's not just PIs, but postdocs, > grad students, techs. Everybody. > > I'm sure this will solve a lot of problems, but not all of them. And, I > like to get ahead of things. So, what are the non-financial problems > that will remain? I think these are the most important problems in > science: the intellectual and technological hurdles that money can't > overcome. I'm hoping this will be an opportunity for all of us to focus > on those. I know we're all not used to thinking on this scale, but, at > least for today, let's give it a try! > > Looking forward to your applications, > > -James Holton > MAD Scientist > > ######################################################################## > > To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: > https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 > > This message was issued to members of www.jiscmail.ac.uk/CCP4BB, a > mailing list hosted by www.jiscmail.ac.uk, terms & conditions are > available at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/ > > ------------------------------ > > To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: > https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 > ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the CCP4BB list, click the following link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=CCP4BB&A=1 This message was issued to members of www.jiscmail.ac.uk/CCP4BB, a mailing list hosted by www.jiscmail.ac.uk, terms & conditions are available at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/
