Please explain "Charity Engine Contributions"

PH
Peter Hucker ID: 8301070 Posts: 14
02 Mar 2023 04:26 PM

On the page https://www.charityengine.com/grants we see all sorts of Boinc projects listed under "Contributions by project"

What exactly does that mean?  They're paying you to do their tasks?  You're doing their tasks when there's no paid work?  I can see non-scientific research in there, all those maths ones that don't exactly cure cancer or anything worthwhile.

 

Mark McA ID: 179 Posts: 226
03 Mar 2023 03:59 PM

Hi Peter,

We send them computing for free, yes.

In our opinion, maths is extremely worthwhile. It also tends to be overlooked and unloved by most people, so we are proud to fill that gap.

PH
Peter Hucker ID: 8301070 Posts: 14
03 Mar 2023 04:55 PM

How does finding a prime number help us cure cancer?  The guy that runs it even admitted to me it's only for fun and would never have any real use.  We have more than enough prime numbers already for cryptography etc.

Mark McA ID: 179 Posts: 226
03 Mar 2023 06:19 PM

We give all these projects as much as they can take from us. The limiting factor is not supply.

Our top project is Rosetta, which is mostly cancer and covid research.

PH
Peter Hucker ID: 8301070 Posts: 14
03 Mar 2023 07:09 PM

I run loads of Boinc projects, which can almost all take a lot more than everyone is giving them, they have massive queues of work to be done.  Rosetta is sporadic in work supply, you oughta consider Sidock.  Unfortunately for cancer, the best thing is Folding at home, which is not Boinc.  I run GPUs on that since Boinc doesn't have any GPU biology (not for AMD anyway).  GPUGrid does Nvidia, but those cards are overpriced.

Tristan Olive ID: 22 Posts: 384
03 Mar 2023 07:28 PM

The field of mathematics doesn't always get much respect, but without it there is no understanding of the world around us. We don't support it particularly for fun, or to say some puzzle has been solved, but to expand the language of science, which in turn expands what is possible to understand and express.

I'd even suggest that neglecting it is a net harm to scientific progress: Without corresponding advancements in mathematics, advancements in science are carried about chaotically on emotion, shifting through tides of human influence, and ultimately producing little of lasting value for present and future generations. I've heard often that science is always changing as new information comes up. Well, the amount of change required is inversely proportional to the effort of mathematical proof that went into it up front.

If only I had a formula, or a method to express this... Without that, my words are just an opinion and an emotional appeal to others to see things my way.

Happy crunching -- and thanks for giving Charity Engine a try.

PH
Peter Hucker ID: 8301070 Posts: 14
03 Mar 2023 07:36 PM

Some maths is useful.  If it creates a new way of understanding quantum mechnics for example.  But more prime numbers when we already have them millions of digits long?  I have to question that one.

I was thinking about Gridcoins, since my Boinc is connected to them.  If I run charity engine, do I still get the gridcoins?  Do you?  Or are none created?  If they don't go to me,  Charity Engine could set up an account with Gridcoin and create a lot of cash for charity, or to increase the prizemoney.