[BBC] US's IBM supercomputer overtakes Japan's Fujitsu as world's fastest - Page 6

Wrong.... the stockpiles are maintained... but that does not mean the weapons still work. This has absolutely and utterly nothing to do with leakage. This has to do with half-life, atomic stability, and explosive chemical stability.

The real question is:
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

If only we could use the money spent in military to give education and health to out most needed colleagues, and other needed countries, the world would be a much, much better place.

I foresee Cylons in the near future

Maintaining nukes is cool and all, but I for one can't wait till I can game on something this powerful in the future.

USA USA USA!

One quick thing from a post I read but forgot to quote:

As long as we're making comparisons from China to Japan:
Does everyone remember a few decades back when everyone thought the Yuan would overtake the dollar? I grew up seeing books predicting the overthrow of the dollar by the Yuan. Now the Japanese economy is becoming stagnate, and while still extremely powerful, the myth that they would take things over has ended. There's a reason that spree ended and the U.S. remained dominant, and that will not soon change, China or not.

While our K-12 education leaves something to be desired, I'd offer you to take a look at the world's top 10, or 100 universities and find how many reside in the United States.

Human nature defies this possibility. On the plus side, imagine how much military R&D and Hardware has helped push the limits of civil technology. Just recently the NSA gave some free satellites to NASA that were state of the art only a decade or so ago. [Beating Hubble, and a nice bridge between that and the overpriced and delayed James Webb]

The United States is presently the only existing Superpower, and that will not soon change. While China has vibrant economy (which is now slowing, by to by) - there are too many internal problems, political and civil problems for it to attain the capacity to become a superpower. Can its cultural or military influence compete with the United States? No. And in time, their economic influence will wane, like Japan's did. Will they remain a strong player? Of course, I have no doubt that even thirty years from now, in my fifties they'll play a strong role. But replace the United States? No.


Incorrect.
http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?t=10&v=99
http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/world-top-ten-doners-of-foreigner-aid-map.html

And America, in more nations, and supplying vastly more infrastructure.

I don't recall reading any deals where China is in control of the infrastructure it builds. It typically finds an agreement with the host nation for natural resource rights, though.
"Almost any country" is far from the truth, and the United States both as a government and private citizen still supplies vastly more.

You'll see the Chinese have a crippling "Baby Boomer"-esque issue in the coming decades as the gender disparity becomes a larger issue. Tell me, what do you think China's answer will be to 320M retiring citizens in the next twenty five years?

Beyond that, who ALREADY has stake in most resources in the world? U.S.
China has no military comparable to the Americans to make use of. Not having the ability to do so would not mean they wouldn't if they had the chance.



Back on the actual topic, glad to see the moratorium can continue being honored. While I'd love to see further development into atomic sciences (For clean weapons, or civil research such as energy) - we also have to be responsible about the subject, and whether or not you appreciate the reality of things, this is the best way to go about it.

And before anyone infers that I'm a war-mongerer - weapons will always be used. You can use a thousand weapons, complete with duds, misses,wasted materials and risk to military personal, or you can use a single 100% clean weapon to get the job done.

War is Hell, so any small step towards making it Humane is a good step, no matter how unfortunate the reality of things is.
Edited by Iblis - 6/19/12 at 2:35am

can you make me a nuke ??

Hey guys. A nuclear warhead is a complex piece of chemistry that needs to execute a very complex bunch of physics properly in order to work. The key here is complexity and predictability- At the end of the day, a computer can only crunch numbers we already understand. This machine can simulate nuclear fissile material decay/chemistry balance changes over time within the scope of established nuclear science, in case America ever needs to use them in order to prevent something worse from happening (it's a deterrent primarily, not a weapon. The fact that the US has nuclear weapons has probably influenced their enemies' courses of action at several points through history, like the cold war, and will continue to provide a passive defense capability, given that the things still work.)

And for those of you who said they should use it to find a cure for cancer? Atomic fission is a very well understood science, and this machine extrapolates expected results in simulations. Cancer is actually way trickier.

EDIT: Think of a nuclear warhead as this thread, for example. This computer will run simulations of an untold numbers of variables (keystrokes) to predict the point at which it devolves into an out-the-ass argument over when China will conquer the world. At that point, the thread will be closed; i.e., the nuclear warhead destroyed.
Edited by lowfiwhiteguy - 6/19/12 at 3:13am

This is actually a problem.... developing nuclear weapons is somewhat of an art. The scientist who built the last generation are retiring/dying and they have not trained enough newer generation of developers. Unless there are continuing projects, some of the knowledge is loss without "apprenticeship".