Scijacking
For those unaware, distributed computing is a way to help out scientists with near-zero effort on your part. You install a program that, when you’re not using your computer, will run simulations to help scientists. While your old Pentium II isn’t very fast, when combined with the thousands of others the result is faster than the worlds best supercomputers.
The oldest, most famous (and least likely to succeed) of these is SETI@home which looks for patterns in electromagnetic radiation from space — possible indicators of extraterrestrial intelligent life. There are also projects like Folding@home and BOINC that let you use your computer to help try and find cures to diseases or model the climate.
I love these programs, and run them nearly all the time on my ‘lil laptop — at home, in Starbucks in hotels. But running them inside a church gives me a particular thrill.
I’d like to coin a term for my insignificant theft of resources from a church:
Scijack
Verb
A portmanteau of the words ‘science’ and ‘highjack’
To use the resources of a religious institution to further scientific research.
In my frequent travels around London I’ve found that St. Martin-in-the-Fields is the best place, by far, to scijack. There’s a little cafe below the main church in an old crypt. In addition to having unsecured wifi and electrical outlets, it’s an atmospheric location. (And it’s where I met my wife)
Anyone know of any other good places in London or around the world to scijack? I’m thinking this could turn into a competitive sport — how many people can you get into a church, and how many units of computing can you complete before being removed. And remember: pics, or it didn’t happen.
January 5th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I suppose it would not fit your worldview to imagine that many Christians & churches might be doing that already…
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=4;t=003738
This is a not-very-good video (not mine) of lots of Christians using computers for an alt.worship service inside York Minster. I know that many of them run distributed computing projects. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1×9oKff4bJQ&feature=related If you turned up, you could stay until you got bored & joined us in the pub afterwards. It’s a big church, bring as many fellow-geeks as you like, and the coffee is free.
January 5th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
@ Brainduck:
The more CPU’s on the grid the better : ) Don’t worry, it doesn’t mess with my world view — I’m aware that many religious people do many good things and I’m glad they do. I still think though, that on balance, religion causes more harm than good. I’d bet though that there are the more moderate religious people — it’s a bit hard to swallow fundamentalists who think that HIV is a curse from God on the gays contributing their time to try and help the problem.
I just made the comic to express of my feelings of being a heretic when doing science in a religious environment.
January 5th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Hey, encouraging more geeks into churches is a good thing, & definitely a fair exchange for the supply of electricity and wifi. If you hang around for the God-bothering bit, coffee & cake are often free also.
Thank you, you may have spawned a new and rather more interesting variant of evangelism :)
January 5th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Always worth noting that modern CPUs throttle back when idle and use less power. Or can be shut down/put into standby when not in use.
I like distributed computing, but it’s worth noting both sides.
January 6th, 2009 at 8:19 am
The fundies are running SIDI - the search for intelligently designing intelligence.
January 6th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
I always enjoy neologisms, and I do like “scijack”. However, there’s no part of the word that directly calls to mind the “from religion” aspect. It sounds simply like “hijacking anything for the furtherance of science.” I can’t, at the moment, come up with one that does and is still quick and easy to say.
I follow the scientific method. I am a Christian. I run Folding At Home. You’re welcome to use the wireless at my church. :-)
January 7th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
@ Wombat
At some stage do you not see science and religion as incompatible? For example, how do you select what is the word of God and what is metaphorical. Does God only exist in the places that science is so far unable to explain?
Thanks for another wonderful comic WG :)
January 7th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
My f@h rank is 9362 - what’s yours?
http://fah-web.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=userpage&username=gwendes
January 10th, 2009 at 5:13 am
@Gi
God does not exist at all, in the traditional sense. Does science only exist in the absence of God, you could rephrase that as. I don’t think so. Many people disagree with me there. I belive that the two are intrinsically entwined, so far that it is almost impossible to tell the difference. Thus, science actually does have a part in religion.
January 16th, 2009 at 10:59 am
@rossthefroboy
Science is modelled on doubt. Religion is modelled on faith. They conflict when religion refuses to doubt the ridiculous. Livebal religion is no problem to anyone.
March 11th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Look! They trust people! Let’s take advantage of their trust! Aren’t we great!
March 15th, 2009 at 2:54 am
see, Christianity and science arent really conflicting.
the only controversies are the beginning of the universe, the beginning of life, and the existence of a higher being. all of which cant really be proven either way, and shouldnt be a cause for fighting.
the problem comes when one group (of any kind) believes their group is better specifically because its their group.
my point is unless youre running software that recreates models for life creation, then its not really heretical.
March 26th, 2009 at 4:38 am
sert, I could not possibly have said it better myself.
May 8th, 2009 at 11:54 am
SETI@Home was definately not the oldest. If my memory serves me correctly, the oldest large scale distributed community computing project was the RC5-56-effort that preceeded distributed.net. That was back in 1997 while SETI@Home did not start until 1999.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed.net
May 8th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
This made my day. I will indeed attempt to do this as soon as I have a chance.
@Gi Correct!
@sert Incorrect! The issue of “god”’s existence is irrelevant, except for insight as to how much damage religion causes. Morality has its only provenance in non-belief!
May 8th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
How much bandwidth are you using? These jobs are very CPU intensive, with a small exchange of data. Now if you were to mirror some torrents…
You might also like FightAIDS@home:
http://fightaidsathome.scripps.edu
May 9th, 2009 at 2:15 am
By running a “CPU burner”, you are generating lots of extra CO2, and thus must be a Republican. Shame on you, you evil Republican!!!!
June 8th, 2009 at 4:09 am
As I read through these archives, I keep running into situations like these, where I already made my point in an earlier strip. Science and religion are not incompatible; just because some reject science for creationism or the like, doesn’t mean every religious person does! The core beliefs of Christianity have nothing to do with science, and cannot be proven or disproven.