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J-Brain, Jupiter Brain

Artificial Brains as large as gas giant planets

Jupiter Brain
Image from Steve Bowers
A very active Jupiter Brain emitting a large amount of waste heat (some of which is being collected by orbiting photovoltaic systems)

A Jupiter brain (J-Brain) is a computational substrate comparable in mass and size to a gas giant planet, typically in the 1X1027 kilogram range.

The computronium basis of a modern Jupiter Brain usually consists of a colloidal structure of plasma, monopolium/magmatter, and/or diamondoid/feroid. Heat dissipation is often a major concern with Jupiter Brains; the denser they are, the faster they can run, due to the distances involved in transmitting internal data. But increasing the density of the computronium also increases the problems associated with the heat of operation. The number of (non-reversible) computations that a Jupiter brain performs in a given time is directly related to the amount of waste heat the brain must emit, and since this heat must be emitted at the surface of the structure, very often a J-brain has a very large external radiating surface which helps to cool the object.

A Jupiter Brain can be considered to be an AI, posthuman or Local Archailect Node of extremely high computational power and size. This is the typical megascale concentrated intelligence. Such complexity is often considered to be the bare minimum housing for an archailect at the full S4 rating.


Ain Soph Aur
Image from Steve Bowers
A Jupiter Brain in the Ain Soph Aur system, silhouetted against the central Dyson swarm surrounding Delta Capricornii
The term originated from an idea by early Information Age transhumanist Keith Henson that nanomachines could be used to turn the mass of Jupiter into computers running an upgraded version of himself.



Blacklight J-Brain
Image from Steve Bowers
BlackLight, a J-Brain in the Far Edge volume; the largest node supporting the archailect Wintermute, which is also home to billions of alife godwellers
Some Jupiter Brains are sufficiently luminous to act as the centre of a system of habitable moons or other megastructures, which gather the waste heat given off by such an object and use it to provide energy for their environment. The Wind in the Leaves in the SacredTree system is an example of this.



wind_in_the_leaves
Image from Steve Bowers
The Wind in The Leaves J-Brain is surrounded by the Aether Ring, an inhabited microgravity environment

 
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Appears in Topics
ComputronicsISOtechMegascale Engineering
Transapientech / Godtech / Clarketech
 
Development Notes
Text by Adam Getchell
Additional material by Steve Bowers
Initially published on 25 April 2007.

 
 
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