Science, Simulation and Supercomputers

Abstract

Contributing to the opening session of this seminar on supercomputers and their uses is, I must confess, less easy than I thought it to be when Professor Devreese asked me to do this during last week’s Institute on the Theory of Condensed Matter Physics. Whatever I could say technically on the subject would not only probably pale in the light of the assembled expertise here, but would most certainly be utterly boring for our guests who have been invited to attend just this opening. What I am going to say therefore represents a compromise with a distinct bias towards this latter group. The theme of my talk derives from a remark made by Professor V. Heine at the beginning of last week’s Institute on the subject of computation in physics and a seemingly conflicting statement on the same subject that I have read in a recent issue of the journal Physics Today of the American Institute of Physics.