Government funding for next generation supercomputers is way too low

[francolettieri]

As you already know, President Obama set aside approx $126 million in this years budget to develop next generation exascale supercomputers. Due to the fact that supercomputers have an unlimited potential to help find solutions to serious problems, from drugs for catastrophic illnesses, military development, green energy solutions, etc...... It seems like $126 million is a ridiculously small amount of money to spend on such an important/ critical application. I think $100 billion dollars per year of funding is more appropriate. I was wondering if you feel drastically increasing the amount of money investeted could speed up the development of next generation computing.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-03/how-it-works-light-driven-computer

[valerief]

1. Solutions can keep rich people from getting richer. nt

[Spike89]

2. Seeds are all we need/can afford in some areas

Ideally we'd throw unlimited resources at every promising area. In reality, supercomputer research is an area with significant private industry investment. When the government throws $126 million into the mix, it can and probably will lead to private investors thowing their money in the same direction, hoping to piggyback.