Although I didn't read every sentence of that great article you linked, a few points still resonate in my mind about the issues with WCG or in the larger sense, BOINC that David Anderson didn't mention:

1)I've read dozens of times on BOINC and WCG and Seti@Home communities that they are not well funded, eat bread and water, are staffed "on a shoestring", only work West Coast time, and only work part-time M-F and are 100% volunteers. I hate to tell you, but any business or project that is designed to run like this is going to burn out very quickly. You need money, plain and simple. Volunteering is great (and I do) but to run a project 100% on volunteers as well as begging (and spending a good deal of your time doing so) for Funding is not how to run a project (outside of the medical and science worlds).

2)Why hasn't BOINC or WCG or DC in general given a Ted or Tedx Talk? They've been extremely popular since 2010 since they were widely available on Youtube and thus literally reach billions of people. So in 15 years we could never get a Ted Talk spot?! Heck, this 4.5 minute talk about drying your hands was showcased but WCG couldn't get one? Wow.

3)Lastly, all these problems create a circular reference: Projects aren't going to sign up to WCG if WCG isn't popular enough to drive donors. And donors aren't going to sign up to WCG if there's a shortage or unpopular choices of Projects. I'm not trying to pick on any projects but when the projects are rainfall in the Amazon and finding prime numbers, that's not exactly very exciting to drum up donors trying to help humanity. The only health projects on WCG are Cancer (which I love) and TB. Why aren't there more health projects that affect a vast majority of donors (and their families, loved ones, friends, peers at work, etc.) that WILL ATTRACT donors such as asthma, heart disease, diabetes, etc.


Again, all these pitfalls and problems that led to a large decline in DC/BOINC/WCG interest would have and should have been foreseen by an actual group of paid individuals (from the business world who bring expertise) who work 40 hours a week all year long.

We are glad you are back and have decided to stay for while. Your contribution is valued.

Cheers

It's just that we haven't or can't provide enough computing power yet. The leader of another DC project, Rosetta@home just won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. That's a great achievement, but it still looks like they haven't found anything for the participant of the project. And also that project is currently out of work. It's not that they have nothing to do, but that they are well funded enough to use supercomputers. Nowadays, supercomputers can easily provide more computing power than an entire DC project. The supercomputer owner doesn't complain about why there's a break of work distribution, doesn't need PR, doesn't have memory limitations, doesn't have data protection issues.

Currently, there's a rush for more computing power amid the generation AI trend across many disciplines, including medicine. But none of these many scientists are using DC. They are paying for cloud and supercomputers, this computing demand cannot be satisfied by DC projects.

Finally, I also do not recommend people to join DC project either unless they have free electricity. Your computer will be like a hair blower, because the CPU and GPU are designed to boost to the maximum to increase a few % of FPS in games at the cost of power efficiency. Then you either have to underclock the computer and downgrade your PC experience, or continue to push out hot air using free electricity if you have. Not to mention memory requirements etc.

Rosetta@Home has done a lot and found a lot of technology that a user can say to someone "this is what DC has done". It is a totally different animal than WCG and is the only other DC project I currently support. For finances and support, they are 5-star as they want for very little. That is not WCG. I agree that AI and machine learning models are the future. They will soon provide at a level that will in some fashion replace what some of us have tried to do for 20 years. Will there still be a need for us in the short term, yes, but, the age of AI is upon us and if it can be used to benefit society, then it's a win-win.

Ironically, the faster the processor for consumer level, the less power they use. Every time there's a new processor, more powerful and it uses less electricity. I stopped using some old dual-core machines as they don't make much sense anymore. I know what your talking about as when I was running 6 machines on DC, in the winter I put them where I slept as it was in effect a space heater. AI is so cheap and popular and one this wave passes, will become even cheaper.