Another Opportunity

INSIGHTS OF THE WISE 2, Page 4), casts serious doubt on America’s ability to maintain its lead in the field of supercomputers. Despite the United States’ long-standing dominance in this area, it is expected that by 1990, Japan will surpass it by launching the fastest supercomputer in the world, which will be introduced to global markets. This grim outlook is further corroborated by a recent study conducted by analysts at an American computer corporation. The Japanese computer, named SX-X, can perform 20 billion operations of scientific calculations in one second flat. At this rate, it is 25 per cent faster than the fastest American computer. Besides its perfect performance, it has another speciality: its relative cheapness. This supercomputer has a key role to play not only in scientific research, oil exploration, weather forecasting etc., but also in national security, particularly in the field of nuclear weaponry. America may have destroyed Japan in 1945 with its ‘super bomb,’ but it could not take away Japan’s potential. With its computers, and now this latest supercomputer, Japan revolutionized its own economy in a mere matter of 45 years. Destruction, however massive, can never put an end to opportunities for construction. And the power of construction undoubtedly far exceeds that of destruction.