Supercomputer guru out of Africa, into future T-mail will replace e-mail, he
says. In a century, everyone will be 'logged on;' communication will be
telepathic: Emeagwali
When most people talk about the future of the Internet, they think 10, maybe 20
years down the road. Philip Emeagwali thinks in millennia.
Having visions of consumer electronics networked to create a "smart home" that
can respond to its owner's commands? Sorry, heard that one. How about a world
in which humans with chips in their brains communicate through telepathic
e-mail? Forget e-mail, "t-mail" is the future.
It's one of the provocative, some would say outlandish, ideas to flow from the
formidable mind of Emeagwali, supercomputer virtuoso, Internet prophet,
civil-war survivor and African hero.
Superlatives abound on Emeagwali's lengthy resume.
In 1989, he programmed more than 65,000 computer processors to perform the
world's fastest computation: 3.1 billion calculations per second.
The feat smashed the previous record and proved a network of small computers
could outperform more powerful, expensive supercomputers. (Today's fastest
supercomputers can perform well over a trillion calculations per second.)
He has been called one of the "fathers of the Internet," alongside pioneers
such
as Tim Berners-Lee and Vint Cerf.
Last year, he placed 35th among the 100 greatest Africans ever in a poll by New
African magazine. The list is topped by Nelson Mandela and includes Martin
Luther King, Kofi Annan and Bob Marley.
Born in Nigeria, young Philip was recognized early as a math prodigy. His
father
drilled him to solve 100 problems an hour to help pass school entrance exams.
But at the age of 12, civil war forced him to drop out and he was conscripted
into the Biafran army. He earned a high school diploma through self-teaching
and won a math scholarship in the U.S. He has since earned several degrees,
including a PhD in scientific computing, and delved into fields such as
oceanography, meterology and oil exploration.
In recent years, Emeagwali, now 50, has used his knowledge of supercomputers to
develop a theory of the Internet's evolution. He dismisses the common notion
the Internet evolved out of the security needs of the U.S. defence
establishment. For him, it was about finding ways for scientists to access
remote supercomputers, the colossal calculators housed in scientific and
military labs.
And he believes supercomputers, not software applications such as e-mail and
Web
browsers, will continue to drive the Net's development. A century from now, the
computers at each node of the Internet will be a "zillion times" faster and
more intelligent, rendering the computer, and even the Internet, obsolete.
Meanwhile, bionic implants will rewire our brains into computers, he predicts.
With everyone "logged on" at all times, e-mail will be telepathic.
Emeagwali realizes this sounds like science fiction, he said in an interview.
But in this case of his supercomputer discovery, fiction was the spark of
genius. His idea to harness the power of thousands of computers came from a
book that imagined 64,000 humans around the world performing calculations to
improve weather forecasting.
Emeagwali has also distinguished himself for his stand on social issues, such as
the effects of colonization on Africa and the ongoing "brain drain" of
promising African scholars to the West. "I'm a black scientist and an African
scientist. So when I became prominent, I tried to use that voice," said
Emeagwali, a Washington-based consultant.
"If the Internet and telecommunications break down the barriers of space and
time, it means somebody in Africa or India could be employed in the United
States or Canada."
BY -- ANDREW MAYEDA [CAN WEST NEWS SERVICE]
KINGSLEY
http://www.cashcards.net/rep/115078
