<OT> SETI-style quest for cancer drugs

[Velocet]

On Tue, Apr 03, 2001 at 09:02:30AM -0700, JParker at coinstar.com's all...
> G'Day !
> 
> Didn't they have a similar project for cryptography purposes ?  If I 
> remember correctly it successfully cracked DES and was working on its 
> replacement when I lost track of it.

yes, first was DESChall (the DES challenge), then was rc4, then was rc5.
In between there were other DES challenges to crack it in 24 hours (along
with the help of the EFF's deep crack machine).

the point of my post was that there's no profit to be had from rc5
crypto challenges - no real profit, the $10K prizes are token and usually
go to helping run the machines at distributed net or to the EFF or otherwise.
Seti has no reward associated with it at all and there's no financial
profit to be made from the discovery (well, Im sure someone will figure
out a way, but it will be hard).

With cancer drugs however, its quite obvious how to make a profit, and
it concerns me that 'public' effort (money for power, money for machines,
man hours) is being used to produce results which are not going to be
in the public domain when discovered.

/kc

> cheers,
> Jim Parker
> 
> Sailboat racing is not a matter of life and death ....  It is far more 
> important than that !!!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Velocet <mathboy at velocet.ca>
> Sent by: beowulf-admin at beowulf.org
> 04/03/01 08:47 AM
> 
>  
>         To:     beowulf at beowulf.org
>         cc:     tek at semiotek.com
>         Subject:        Re: <OT> SETI-style quest for cancer drugs
> 
> On Tue, Apr 03, 2001 at 11:14:12AM -0400, hesselsp at ashaman.dhs.org's 
> all...
> > 
> > I wonder which one I would prefer, "I found the cure for cancer", or "I
> > found proof of the existance of aliens".
> > 
> > http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/2/18056.html
> 
> I assume the results of this research are owned by the university 
> conducting
> the project? (This question hasnt come up with DESChall/RC5 or SETI yet - 
> the
> knowledge gained from all of those projects are 0 (not possible/not found) 
> or
> 1 (we did it/we found it)).
> 
> I wonder if people are considering who will own (and profit) by the 
> results
> that are discovered by this effort. If they're not open to public use
> at the completion of the project, I'd question joining the effort.
> 
> /kc
> 
> 
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-- 
Ken Chase, math at velocet.ca  *  Velocet Communications Inc.  *  Toronto, CANADA