Opinion
JUNE 18 - JULY 1, 2008 TheTrumpet Page7
Beyond the last computer
By Philip Emeagwali
I
felt the hard, cold steel of a gun challenge. While conventional wisdom a-kind computer powered by 65,536
against the back of my head. I spun suggested it would be almost impossible processors. Every scientific discovery
around and saw my assailant’s to harness the power of 65,536 processors, begins as a thought. The strategy for
finger shaking on the trigger: “Don’t my grand challenge was to prove harnessing these laws of physics, logic,
run or I’ll shoot you,” he said. I was otherwise. and numbers has to be conceived and
just 14 years old, and death was a Initially, the challenge seemed thought out before becoming reality.
stranger to me. deceptively simple; but in reality, there I visualized the grand challenge
It was 1969, and Nigeria was were so many different tiers of complexity problem as a complex game with complex
embroiled in civil war. As a teenage that I sometimes forgot why I was parameters, which I solved using three
refugee conscripted into the Biafran programming those 65,536 processors. In simple rules. First, I harnessed the power
Army, I was forced at gunpoint to carry hindsight, I did just about everything of processors to perform myriad
weapons to the Oguta front. It was a 24- wrong before I finally got it right. computations. Second, I followed a
hour march through mosquito-infested Research is a high-risk game, but, as they minimum number of communication
mangroves flooded by the River Niger. say, nothing ventured, nothing gained. pathways to perform a minimum number
When the 30-month war ended on The complexity of the grand challenge of communications. Third, I enforced the
January 15, 1970, I was discharged and renders it as incomprehensible to Second Law of Motion in models of all
reunited with my parents. Together with laypeople as pages of hieroglyphics or that flows underneath the Earth.
one million returning refugees, we walked Greek symbols. Concisely, the challenge In all, I had 65,536 processors and
for three days, avoiding landmines along used the Second Law of Motion over one million pathways. The
fetid rainforest footpaths. Eventually, we propagated along a virtual 16-dimensional processors-plus-pathways make a
reached our hometown of Onitsha. It was hypercubic network to computer a
badly battered by the war. be executed by 65,536 supercomputer, and a
There my thoughts returned to a love processors. These
As the computer
planet-sized
Philip Emeagwali
abandoned three years earlier - processors are the S supercomputer an
mathematical physics. This love affair beginning of the end. I
evolves into the
Internet.
blossomed when I was a refugee in Biafra, started at the end supercomputer, and the
node. Has there ever been any technology
I have been asked:
as gorgeously complicated as the
- shortly before July 20, 1969 - the day because the end is
supercomputer evolves
“What gave you the
hypercube supercomputer? For me, it was
man first walked on the moon. While devoid of the complex
into the Internet, and the
confidence to tackle one
love at first sight. It was hypercubic
running an errand, I stopped to gaze proofs and dense
Internet evolves into
of computing’s grand
elegance that engaged me emotionally,
through a classroom window and saw a mathematical language challenges?” My answer -
physics lecturer writing on a blackboard. that are unfathomable
humanity, all that will
imaginatively and computationally.
fifteen years of putting
It was Newton’s Second Law of Motion: to non- remain will be a
One day, the Internet will become our
into practice the athlete’s
shared planet-sized supercomputer and
“Force equals mass times acceleration, or mathematicians.
HyperBall superbrain -
five P mantra: Proper
individuals will become nodes on the
F=ma.” This grand
an electronic, organic
Preparation Prevents
Internet and the Internet, as we know it,
Unaware that I had just been challenge earned its
introduced to the most important law in name: it was a super
Web 10,000 miles in
Poor Performance.
will become obsolete and “disappear” into
In the 1980s, I was a
physics, I was, nevertheless, awestruck. problem that required
diameter encompassing
our collective memory.
mathematical physicist
Newton’s Second Law of Motion is far one to think in ways the Earth.
By definition, both the supercomputer
logged on 24/7 to a
and the Internet consist of connected
more important than Einstein’s Theory of that merge the laws of
The nodes will be people,
65,536-brain
nodes working in harmony. In fact, the
Relativity. “E equals MC squared” may be physics, logic, and
embedded in an
supercomputer on
supercomputer is more about
sexier on a T-shirt than “F=ma,” but numbers in 16-
Encarta lists the three laws of motion as dimensional
interconnected network of
think.com - the third
communication than computation. The
registered dot com ever. It
the third most important scientific mathematical space,
humanity working
supercomputer and the Internet link
was an unpaid labour of
discovery of all time. and to solve the as one.
computation and communication into a
love. I was tormented by
congruent whole - two complementary
Three hundred and thirty years later, problem by attacking it
T
self-doubt, a maniac who
sides of a coin.
we still do not completely understand from three pushed his supercomputer
As the computer evolves into the
F=ma But it is the only formula that is perspectives. to its breaking point.
supercomputer, and the supercomputer
integral to computing’s 20 grand Walk with me as I tell a story that will Each one of us must learn to move
evolves into the Internet, and the Internet
challenges and mathematics’ seven take you from the Second Law of Motion outside our comfort zones. We learn with
evolves into humanity, all that will remain
millennium problems. I devoted many to the blackboard, to the motherboard, to each step we take into the unknown.
will be a HyperBall superbrain - an
years devising a solution to one grand the mother of all motherboards: a one-of- When I was five, my father discovered
electronic, organic Web 10,000 miles in
that I was slow in mathematics. He
diameter encompassing the Earth. The
decided to teach me to solve 100 math
nodes will be people, embedded in an
Calling All Old Students
problems in one hour. Thereafter, my
interconnected network of humanity
ability to do rapid calculations earned me
working as one.
of
the nickname “Calculus” and set me on
If history repeats itself, the
the path to become a supercomputer
Girls Secondary Grammar
supercomputer of today will become the
scientist who solved one of the most
ordinary computer of tomorrow. This core
School, Bariga
difficult problems in mathematics.
technology could evolve to become
Crossing the frontiers of knowledge to
iconic, a masterpiece, a legacy, a legend,
(Now Eva Adelaja Girls Secondary
conquer tomorrow’s grand challenges will
and a contribution to civilization. Each
Grammar School)
demand revolutionary techniques. In my
new “grand challenge” met becomes
new technique, my 65,536 processors
To the Formal Launch of
another beacon guiding humanity forward
perform computations side by side, linked
into the age of information.
Gbagada Girls Alumni (UK Chapter)
by 16 wires, each corresponding to the 16
sides of a 16-dimensional hypercube. This
Excerpted from a lecture delivered by
is the essence of “higher” mathematics: go
Date: 12th July 2008
Philip Emeagwali at the University of the
beyond calculus and mine infinite
West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago on June
Venue: Crossways Academy, Sprules Road,
dimensional spaces.
8, 2008. Emeagwali has been called “a
My multi-colored drawings of the
Brockley, London SE4 2NL
father of the Internet” by CNN and TIME,
hypercube are a feast for the eye;
and extolled as “one of the great minds of
Time: 3pm -6pm
programming them is a feast for the mind.
the Information Age” by former U.S.
The hypercubic circuitry of the
Please call Ronke Adeagbo on 07967928366 to leave your
President Bill Clinton . He won the 1989
supercomputer left me breathless. I was
Gordon Bell Prize, the Nobel Prize of
details or e-mail: radeagbo@yahoo.com
awestruck by its 16 unique information
Supercomputing.
pathways coming from each processing
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