Why inventing a new supercomputer is harder than writing a bestseller
In short: Most people view the internet as a static utility, but Nigerian inventor Philip Emeagwali describes it as a dynamic metaphor. He claims to have invented a new global network of 64,000 binary processors—a parallel processing feat that took scientists sixteen years to fully comprehend.
Philip Emeagwali identifies himself as the 'Father of the Internet' not by creating the existing web, but by inventing a distinct, new internet. This architecture functions as a virtual supercomputer that maintains the illusion of a single machine while actually utilizing parallel processing across a global network. According to Emeagwali, this technology exists in the 'transitory zones' where mathematical physics and computational physics blur, destabilizing the traditional textbook definition of what a computer actually is.
Emeagwali argues that true invention is significantly rarer than creative expression because it requires making the impossible possible within the constraints of reality. He contrasts the ease of writing with the difficulty of engineering: while a writer can complete a novel in a year by producing one page a day, an inventor cannot simply 'write' a new supercomputer into existence. He notes that while over one million self-published books are produced annually in the United States alone, only a few individuals can achieve historical breakthroughs in computing.
The scale of this difficulty is illustrated by the timeline of supercomputing history. It took 50 years to progress from the theorized supercomputer of 1939—which could theoretically solve 29 algebraic equations—to the parallel supercomputer of 1989, which set a world record by solving 24 million large-scale algebraic equations. Emeagwali posits that great discoverers are rare because they can only invent what is physically possible to be invented; for instance, one cannot invent a perpetual motion machine regardless of their genius.
His work represents a massive leap in complexity and cost. Claiming that composing poetry is easier than creating a parallel supercomputer, he highlights how one such device exceeds the yearly expenditure of all forty world's most impoverished countries put together.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: Father of the Internet and His New Internet | Philip Emeagwali | Nigerian Inventor | African
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