It's also not true that it is about *large* investment companies, resp. large is relative. For example RSJ Invest is one of the biggest and it has only about 5 employees, AFAIK. So it is in fact a small company which became financially pretty big over some 15 years of careful development of statistical models and algorithms.
Foldit had the great insight to take you to an algorithmically close starting place and let you complete the final adjustments - in that way the algorithm itself is as much a part of the team as the detail or adjustment members they were talking about.
This kind of problem solving was suggested already by Stanislaw Lem in his book Summa Technologiae as a kind of "augmented intelligence" as opposed to purely human or purely artifical intelligence.
Slashdot Mirror
... can be found here: http://motls.blogspot.com/2011/04/fermilab-cdf-new-force-press-conference.html
Imagine a hair's diameter is 50 km then the diameter of a nanotube is 1 meter. This gives you a pretty good idea how the dimensions compare ;)
But in this case it's interesting and informative nevertheless. At least for me.
It's also not true that it is about *large* investment companies, resp. large is relative. For example RSJ Invest is one of the biggest and it has only about 5 employees, AFAIK. So it is in fact a small company which became financially pretty big over some 15 years of careful development of statistical models and algorithms.
Foldit had the great insight to take you to an algorithmically close starting place and let you complete the final adjustments - in that way the algorithm itself is as much a part of the team as the detail or adjustment members they were talking about.
This kind of problem solving was suggested already by Stanislaw Lem in his book Summa Technologiae as a kind of "augmented intelligence" as opposed to purely human or purely artifical intelligence.