Speed Folding -- Suggesting New Puzzle Type

Started by phi16

BootsMcGraw Lv 1

And what are we gaining by all this?

Remember, kids, we're trying to determine the correct (and usually unknown) structures of real-life proteins. I don't see "speed folding" as something moving us in that direction.

B_2 Lv 1

And the client crashes so often, maybe we should have a "how many moves can you do before a crash" contest?

jeff101 Lv 1

I think one goal of Foldit is to develop more efficient methods for finding the best structures. I think "speed folding" puzzles would help achieve this goal.

jeff101 Lv 1

If you don't believe me, see http://fold.it/portal/info/science#whygame where it says:

"Can humans really help computers fold proteins?

We’re collecting data to find out if humans' pattern-recognition and puzzle-solving abilities make them more efficient than existing computer programs at pattern-folding tasks. If this turns out to be true, we can then teach human strategies to computers and fold proteins faster than ever!"

You can also read papers like the following:

Algorithm discovery by protein folding game players. Firas Khatib, Seth Cooper, Michael D. Tyka, Kefan Xu, Ilya Makedon, Zoran Popović, David Baker, and Foldit Players. In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2011).

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/11/02/1115898108.full.pdf+html

Its abstract says:

"Benchmark calculations show that the new algorithm independently discovered by scientists and by Foldit players outperforms previously published methods. Thus, online scientific game frameworks have the potential not only to solve hard scientific problems, but also to discover and formalize effective new strategies and algorithms."

infjamc Lv 1

Such a contest would have to separate the users by OS. Otherwise, Windows users would have too much of an advantage. :-)

phi16 Lv 1

Hi smilingone. Thanks for commenting. Your comment is noted and understood. So that I'm not being misunderstood, let me respond that I wouldn't want a 'who can work fastest 'speeding' contest, either. What I'm hoping will happen is that people fold more efficiently which means ending scripts sooner, or running scripts without excessive amounts of repeated processes which they were doing now simply because they can, or more manual folding without scripts or finding more efficient scripts. Folding is not about doing things quickly.

In this 'race' it will mean folders are using shorter runs, switching more often, making the right choices about which scripts to run and thinking more globally about what they are doing. It's an experiment. We shall see.

phi16