the problems which other collaborators have been experiencing in the early utilization 
of the ICOT hardware and software. The decision by MITI announced at the confer-
ence is a clear indication that the Japanese viewpoints of the utility of international 
collaboration are rapidly changing. The PIMOS operating system should be ported to 
world-standard machines so that scientists all over the world can begin to do program 
development in KL1. 

During this collaborative project we have come to the opinion that even more than 
any single or parallel computer, the network is the most powerful artifact created by 
man. In this trans-global project we have experience the transition from paper letters 
to fax letters to fully electronic messages to interactive use of remote computers. In the 
beginning of the project the InterNet between Bethesda and Tokyo was rather slow and 
unreliable. Machines at either end had trouble talking to each other. As the project 
proceeded, the ability to communicate both electronically and intellectually rose to 
very high levels. The network gives us the ability to reason with each other about 
problems of mutual concern. The reasoning which we can do by sending messages is, 
however, rather limited. The InterNet is coming to the point where scientists can use 
databases and run processes on computers all over the world. New classes of tool for 
utilizing the network are being developed in many places in the world. We would hope 
to use these network tools to more strongly couple our collaborative research efforts. 

We thank the administrators of ICOT for making such a strong and exciting collab-
oration possible. We expect to continue our collaborative work long after the formal 
end of the project. 


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