El Capitan. Yes, it’s the mountain in the United States, in California, and it’s also the name of the Mac operating system when Apple started calling the new MacOs after mountains. But now we talk about it because it is the name of the most powerful supercomputer in the world. I’m not going to tell you the characteristics in detail (11 thousand computing nodes, 5 petabytes of memory, 1,742 exFlops), since if you are an IT expert you already know it, if you aren’t, nothing will change you, except learning that it has a enormous computing power, never seen before.
Except that, among the many things that El Capitain can do, it is curious how the news came out, giving relevance practically only to one aspect: it can simulate the effects of a nuclear bomb and, I quote the Corriere della Sera“without dropping a single bomb” (and of course, it would be strange if to calculate the effects of a bomb you would have to drop one). Also because the nuclear powers have carried out dozens of tests.
Rather, this is given relevance precisely the day after Putin revised his nuclear doctrine, declaring that he could use the atomic bomb in response to an attack on his territory even with conventional weapons. We are all afraid of nuclear power, but we must remember one thing: in forty years of cold war between the West and the Soviet Union (even when Stalin was there) an atomic bomb has never been used, for a simple reason: whoever uses it, will in turn be hit in a devastating way. Could the end of the world be triggered? With the thousands of warheads that the former USSR and NATO aimed at each other, probably yes, but that is precisely why they will not be used. Deterrence theory was effective in causing Europe to see its longest period of peace ever. As we know, Putin also knows this, otherwise he wouldn’t have been fighting against the Ukrainians for two and a half years, who in the meantime have also entered Russia. Just as he cares about his own life, and that of his country. He knows very well that NATO’s reaction would be immediate and equally lethal, and thank goodness that after the Second World War we ended up in NATO (which is a defensive treaty, and has defended us to this day).
In short, I would not engage in nuclear psychological terrorism (Russia is already thinking about it), rather the computing power of El Capitain will be useful for multiple uses. One among many: calculating the effects of global warming in the short and long term, an operation that requires enormous computing power and speed, since the consequences will occur (in part they are already happening) in various more or less catastrophic ways and the variables to calculate are immense.
Among other things, Greta Thunberg has done more damage than good in raising public awareness on the issue, both due to the naivety of the solutions and in becoming the symbol of a battle that would have been nicer if they had taken Chucky the killer doll. The scientific community has also failed, little listened to by deniers of all kinds, even on vaccines, let alone on something that is not immediately perceived. Who knows, El Capitain might succeed instead.