folding@home

[Master Razor]

I've been meaning to try folding@home but I wouldn't want to share my computer with the whole world for nothing. I personally have some doubts about their activity whether or not they actually do try to discover cures for various diseases.

What are your thoughts on this matter?

[yoco]

I'll just say it! I don't trust americans!

[anon]

I personally don't like leaving my computer doing nothing, and considered running one of these programs, but nowadays I'm online on and off so it wouldn't help much. But if you have computer turned on all the time with the resources to spare, then why not? It won't make a cure for cancer in the near future, but it can produce useful data.

[slikrapid]

I personally have some doubts about their activity whether or not they actually do try to discover cures for various diseases.

well, i'd say that the purpose of these distributed computing projects is mostly 2-fold:
- promote the research/goals, get many supporters, make them feel good about themselves for contributing
- get free supercomputer-like resources for whatever data needs to be processed

the claimed goal of 'discovering cures for various diseases' is probably just used for attracting interest, their main goal is to figure out how proteins work, be able to predict & replicate that behavior, create artificial proteins, experiment with them, control/influence them (and through them, to a certain extent also the human host), expose humans to such modified structures, see what happens, blame any problems on something else, design patented drugs & profit - medicine/pharma is not really interested in curing disease/illness (a healthy person or a person with a good/maintained immune system has no need for their products) - they want consumers=addicts continuously using, depending on their drugs

synthetic drugs are 2nd rate solutions (with numerous potentially dangerous side-effects), top results may only be achieved by using natural remedies due to their balanced/moderate/adjusted contents/effects on the body - so the question is: why even bother with some junk/mediocre artificial products if you can have the 'real deal' so easily available in the nature - the answer: cheap, freely available remedies cannot be patented, no way to make a fortune from/on them, no way to exercise power/control over the 'patients'

regarding this (and other similar) programs, imo they are pretty useless, their effectiveness inflated, their purpose misleading, their creators not trustworthy - i'm not using them and don't bother looking for alternatives either - from this standpoint, whatever data they may process is basically irrelevant - interestingly, if people continue to support such actions/projects/attitudes, there is no reason for medicine/pharma to change their ways and go back to the 'real deal' solutions, as no one is pressing/pushing them to make a change - the majority seems content with whatever gets served, they think the authorities on these matters know what they're talking about, but do they? take a look around and see a large number of weak (read: compromised immunity), medicated (or receiving some therapy), ill/sick people from all walks of life - add to this a plethora of novel diseases (many of them lab-created or appearing as short/long term side-effects from the 'cures') and the picture shows a burdened/troubled society in the age of supposedly 'modern' medicine, shouldn't take long to realize that something is very wrong with the current state-of-health in general

[anon]

the purpose of these distributed computing projects is mostly 2-fold

I see what you did there...

(Sorry for the spam, couldn't resist. )

[slikrapid]

hehe, nice catch, though it wasn't intentional, likely a side-effect of thinking about fold(ing)

guess i could apologize for my share of spam here (this post) as well then, eh?
...or use another solution like:

I'll just say it! I don't trust americans!

you mean usa corporations, government(s) and similar big-wigs?
i'd include scientific authorities (keepers of current dogmas), mainstream media (proliferators of these viewpoints) here as well - not necessarily country-specific (like: usa only) at all

[mammamia11]

i wouldnt be surprised if sutch projects turns to be some kind of spy stuff from usa gov... they put there dirty hands on everything.