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So I’m curious, we have a tendency on HN to assume every problem has a technical solution; from autism to inmate rehabilitation, from food insecurity to poverty

by xref 7y ago

So I’m curious, we have a tendency on HN to assume every problem has a technical solution; from autism to inmate rehabilitation, from food insecurity to poverty, solutions are just one good SaaS idea away. Is covid@home really going to solve this by donating cpu cycles before traditional medical research creates a vaccine? Is turning coal into code (ala Bitcoin) that productive in this case? Because I’ve run the app but feel like I’m in some kind of techbro bubble to believe I’m making even an iota of difference

sq_ 7y ago
Based on the "Results" page on the F@H site [0], they have managed to produce some reasonably useful results over the years. At first glance, it definitely seems like what they're doing could be helpful for COVID-19, as they're currently in the exaflop range of available computing power and are using it to identify druggable targets on some of the virus' proteins. [0] https://foldingathome.org/papers-results/ https://foldingathome.org/papers-results/
DanBC 7y ago
(I'm paraphrasing people here and I may have mangled what they're saying, sorry) This thread has some useful commments, one from someone who's actually done F@H research, another from someone who mentions the length of time it takes to get a medication trial through the system (without covid-19 easements) and how few trials actually make it. There's a bit of discussion around the cost in electricity, and whether it's better to just send that money somewhere. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22491910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22491910 This post links to a blog that talks about F@H that you may be interested in. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22662026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22662026 This post is from someone who is a researcher who says that F@H is a form of science, and so it should continue, but that it's probably not as directly applicably useful as F@H says. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22576088 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22576088

by xref 7y ago

sq_ 7y ago

Based on the "Results" page on the F@H site [0], they have managed to produce some reasonably useful results over the years. At first glance, it definitely seems like what they're doing could be helpful for COVID-19, as they're currently in the exaflop range of available computing power and are using it to identify druggable targets on some of the virus' proteins. [0] https://foldingathome.org/papers-results/ https://foldingathome.org/papers-results/

DanBC 7y ago

(I'm paraphrasing people here and I may have mangled what they're saying, sorry) This thread has some useful commments, one from someone who's actually done F@H research, another from someone who mentions the length of time it takes to get a medication trial through the system (without covid-19 easements) and how few trials actually make it. There's a bit of discussion around the cost in electricity, and whether it's better to just send that money somewhere. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22491910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22491910 This post links to a blog that talks about F@H that you may be interested in. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22662026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22662026 This post is from someone who is a researcher who says that F@H is a form of science, and so it should continue, but that it's probably not as directly applicably useful as F@H says. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22576088 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22576088