approaching magic or witchcraft -- the ability to accurately model how destructive storms such as tornadoes and hurricanes actually work and form, and accurately predict how they will behave.
It would permit our various government intelligence agencies, such as the National Security Agency and well as the National Reconnaissance Office to perform advanced signal intelligence (SIGINT) and space imaging in real time, determine threats to our national security and respond to it in kind with military strikes and with covert operations almost instantaneously. It would completely re-define what we understand today as rapid response and operational readiness.
The very same technology used for military applications, along with a much larger global array of radio telescopes than what we possess today, could also be used to perform much more comprehensive real-time signal spectrum analysis of extraterrestrial radio emissions and actually allow SETI to prove the existence of the E.T's we've been trying to locate for over 40 years, if those signals do indeed exist.
Beyond brute force computational applications, Exaflop and commodity Petaflop computing will almost certainly allow for the creation of intelligent robots and software agents, perhaps as brilliant as a trained circus dog, an advanced primate, a five year old child, or even more depending on advancements in computer learning.
It would allow for the real-time rendering of computer-generated imagery from today's biggest and most expensive Hollywood blockbuster films (or even better) in virtual reality or virtual worlds for the average citizen. These types of games and fully-immersive artificial realities would make the most advanced XBOX 360 or Playstation 3 first-person game look about as sophisticated as PONG.
Essentially, we're talking about the delivery of The Matrix as a commercial software product.
There are certainly other applications for commodity Petaflop and Exaflop supercomputing that people haven't even dreamed of yet. But I think we can say for sure that Moore's law hasn't run out -- instead It's been revised with a calculus that defies imagination.
What else will we do with commodity Petaflop and Exaflop computing? Talk Back and Let Me Know.