Originally published on Playstation Underground Gamer Advisory Panel (GAP) 2007-03-16 11:18:

Yesterday, when I heard that Folding@Home was going to be available for the Playstation 3 by the end of the month, I was extremely excited. The reports on how exactly the PS3 will benefit the Folding@Home Project aren’t exactly clear, and many of them are based entirely on speculation or PR rhetoric. Regardless of how fast a single PS3 will be able to run these calculations, the fact of the matter is that the more users they can get to run Folding, the more processing power there will be. The project has been going on for over half a decade and there are only 200,000+ active users. Just half of the number of PS3’s online would double that number. I think that’s a conservative estimate, since it’s much easier to get a PS3 on Folding@Home than a PC. Not every PC has Folding on it, but since it’ll be part of a firmware update, every PS3 will soon have Folding@Home, and running the app is just a couple of button presses away. With that in mind, hitting that 50% mark of all PS3 online users should be simple.

It seems though that many people do not share my enthusiasm. Quite frankly, I am shocked at some of the things I’ve seen on other forums and messages boards where I had gone to spread the good news about F@H. A lot of people simply don’t see the benefits and would rather not spend the little-bit-more on electricity to leave the PS3 running occasionally. Listen, if you’re worrying about electricity costs, you shouldn’t have bought a PS3. Seriously. Would you rather save the few extra dollars today on power, or the possibly hundreds of thousands of dollar in the future when you don’t have to worry about diseases that Folding@Home may have helped cure?

Others are actually criticizing Sony for including Folding@Home in 1.6. Why don’t you fix your other problems, upscaling and what not? First of all, I’m sure they’re trying, but you release what you have finished, right? Folding@Home for PS3 is ready now, and it might actually do some good in the world. Sure, this might be a Sony PR stunt, but is that going to stop you from helping? Are you really going to sabotage Sony at the cost of possibly invaluable research results?

It’s not all bad out there though. There are some people who are genuinely excited about this. Some people who read my posts said, “Yes, definitely going to run Folding,” or things to that effect. The Folding@Home forums actually have people talking about buying PS3’s, just to Fold on. I guess they are cheaper than supercomputers.

Remember when Doug Lowenstein criticized us for not doing the important stuff? This is a chance at redemption. This is a chance for PS3 gamers to possibly make a significant impact on important scientific research. Come on people, run Folding@Home. (It’s pretty, and pretty useful.)

And if you must make it a game, and I think I will, join Team GAP (started, I think, by Promethh. Team ID: 53472) Here’s the team webpage. Rack up some points and lets show those PCs what some gamers and their PS3’s are made of.