Multiple news sources are reporting that players of a protein-folding game Foldit have broken a decade-long problem in creating a replica of the simian AIDS virus. What's even more compelling is that they completed this task in three weeks.
Foldit was created through a collaboration between the Departments of Biochemistry and Computer Science at the University of Washington. While previous scientific endeavors based on the concept of distributed computing, such as SETI@Home and Folding@Home, relied on passive computing as a background process, Foldit asks its participants to actively participate in the folding process. The idea is that while distributed computing relies on brute CPU force, the participation of intelligent humans in a game environment will foster creative thought and quicker results. The simian AIDS announcement today certainly seems to prove that hypothesis.
This is an excellent illustration of one of the points made by Jane McGonigal in her book Reality is Broken - that gamers and game mechanics will be employed to achieve quantum leaps in knowledge, science, and solving the world's problems.
