Achievements to date: Internet backbone, Web browser. So when Larry Smarr takes the reins of a new $400 million institute and starts talking about intelligent highways and digital genomics, people listen.
The twice-annual ranking of the world's 500 fastest computers, being issued today, shows that the United States still has a significant lead in building powerful supercomputers.
The internet is about to undergo a profound transition via wireless technologies. How will people interact with each other in this enriched internet environment? How can new forms of creativity be unleashed? And what new cultural forms will evolve?
Gray, J.N., Hillis, W.D., Kahn, R.E., Kennedy, K., Miller, J.P., Nagel, D.C., Shortliffe, E.H., Smarr, L., Thompson, J.F., Vadasz, L. and Viterbi, A.J., 2001. Using information technology to transform the way we learn.
The Internet, he explained, is evolving into a single vast computer fashioned out of billions of interconnected processors. Then he went another step: ''The real question, from a software point of view, is: Will it become self-aware?''