Distributed Computing Creates Virtual OceanDistributed Computing Creates Virtual Ocean

Distributed computing--in which huge tasks are broken up and performed by thousands of PCs instead of a single supercomputer--could ultimately revolutionize computing. It's been used by cryptographers to break codes, by astronomers to search for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence, and by biologists to look for a cure for cancer. But now a little-known company, Distributed Artificial Life Inc., or Dali, has come up with a really deep application--ocean-deep, that is.

Dali has released a test version of DaliWorld, a program that lets users run a virtual aquarium on their desktop. While fish tanks are nothing new to computing (Netscape has had a fish-tank Webcam at its headquarters since 1995, and screen savers simulating underwater environments predate that), DaliWorld furthers the fishy paradigm by connecting each user's tank to others via the Internet.

The result is a virtual ocean, where fish can swim freely from one computer to the next. Each user's computer calculates the behavior of the digital fish it's displaying, but then those fish can float off to another machine. And because each fish will be clearly identified as being owned by a particular user, participants in DaliWorld will be able to tell where the fish on their screen came from.

While it all seems like good fun, DaliWorld may provide a model for future client/server architectures, allowing millions of users to interact simultaneously. Company execs maintain that their technology is the first to let millions of users and billions of entities co-exist in one huge digital world. To download the DaliWorld application, visit www.daliworld.net.