One way I can see that changes that viewpoint in a really interesting way would be for the computers to work something like a recycling plant -- large things are input, they are broken down, stripped, cleaned and reassembled into something new and useful.
For a very straightforward and simple (yet useful) application of this idea see: mapreduce.

update: there's a module on backpan, but none on search.cpan.org.

"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"

In reply to Re^4: agents for distributed computation by Joost
in thread agents for distributed computation by Win

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