You'll find explanations and comments after the table.

Note: The above rankings are based on statistics from SETI on July 12, 2000. For statistical reasons, Countries (territories) with less than 200,000 in population, or fewer than 80 SETI users, or fewer than 4,000 completed packets are excluded. As a result, this report covers 102 countries (out of 225), which processed 99.7% of total packets received.

"HIGHEST COMPUTER OWNERSHIP"
is the percentage of SETI users in a given country’s population. Eastern European and South American countries are the ones that are advancing most rapidly in this category. The category could maybe be more accurately labeled: "Highest Computer Ownership by open-minded people with Internet access."

Eye-balling the list, you may notice that local conditions, such as cold weather, may affect the ranking as much as industrialization. Language is another deciding factor for computer ownership. For example, Japan, the second largest economy, ranks only 39th (out of 102) in this category. The bottom of the ranking is composed mainly of countries using non-Western languages -- Iran, Vietnam, Pakistan, Indonesia, India, China, etc.

"NEWEST COMPUTERS"
simply represent the least average CPU time for processing a packet of SETI data. (Fast=new?) Namibia and Ghana are the first African countries to make the top rankings since we started analyzing the data in 1999. It appears that not only the rich countries have the best access to high-level technology. You will also notice in the list that emerging economies, notably many Eastern European countries, are quickly arming themselves with state-of-the-art computers as well.

The lowest ranking countries in this category are still predominantly located in South America: Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Venezuela, and Uruguay. Now I know where those old 486's are going. South America should turn out to be a gold mine for PC makers -- people there use western alphabets, and, on old computers!

"LOWEST COMPUTER UTILIZATION"
reflects the average time a user spends running the SETI program. Because SETI runs mainly as a screen saver or in the background, the more time a user allots to SETI, the less she utilizes her computing power. On average, a user in Namibia spends around 6,000 hours on SETI (compared to 560 hours in Spain or 1000 hours in U.K.), that's eight straight months of CPU time, doing nothing but running SETI! Computer education is definitely needed there, as well as in Estonia, Vietnam, Iran, Latvia, etc.

Interestingly, many of the countries in this list, namely, Lithuania, Austria, Namibia, Denmark, Iran, also appear in the newest computer list. Hmm. It looks as if many fast, new computers are doing nothing but SETI-ing. Does this ring a bell, computer game makers?

Computers in the U.S. and Canada are not much better utilized, with the U.S. ranking 12th and Canada, 18th. However, those at the bottom, countries like India, Afghanistan, North Korea, Pakistan, Colombia, Egypt, Turkey, Mexico, etc., do not necessary utilize their computers better than others do. Quite likely, people are just more cost-conscious, and simply turn their computers off when they're not doing something with them.

"MOST COMPUTING POWER"
is straightforward, just the largest number of completed data packets. While the top of the ranking is predominantly the usual "suspects," two countries, Poland and Czech Republic, have quietly and steadily advanced in rank and and now, for the first time, made it into the top 15.

Lastly, the most curious countries are Denmark and Austria, the only countries which appear in all four lists. It makes you wonder what good it does for them to have lots of fast new computers, but not to know what to do with them. Who knows. Maybe the Danes are just too busy eating Danish (so to speak) and the Austrians are too busy living in their glorious musical past.

END

How many voices of humor and hope
do you encounter on the Internet?

We need your support.
Thank you.

Click here for the complete list of rankings.

Magellan's Log front page

Douglas Huang, a trained economist, is looking for a position in investment management/stock analysis.
You can reach him here.