Matrioshka brain
Encyclopedia
A matrioshka brain is a hypothetical megastructure
proposed by Robert Bradbury, based on the Dyson sphere
, of immense computational capacity. It is an example of a Class B stellar engine
, employing the entire energy output of a star to drive computer
systems.
This concept derives its name from Russian Matrioshka dolls
.
. A matrioshka brain design is concentrated on sheer capacity and the maximum amount of energy extracted from its source star
, while a Jupiter brain is more optimized for computational speed.
Such a structure would be composed of at least two but typically more Dyson sphere
s built around a star
, and nested one inside another. A significant percentage of the shells would be composed of nanoscale computers (see molecular-scale computronium). These computers would be at least partly powered by the energy exchange between the star
and interstellar space
. A shell (or component, should a Dyson swarm be the design model used) would absorb energy radiated onto its inner surface, utilize that energy to power its computer systems, and re-radiate the energy outwards. The nanoscale computers of each shell would be designed to run at different temperatures; shells or components at the core could be nearly as hot as the central star, while the outer layer of the matrioshka brain could be almost as cool as interstellar space.
The ideal mechanism for extracting usable energy as it passes "through" a shell or component, the number of shells (or orbital levels) that could be supported in such a manner, the ideal size of the shells to be constructed, and other details, are all issues of speculation.
The idea of the matrioshka brain violates none of the currently known laws of physics, although the engineering
details of building such a structure would be staggering, as such a project would require the "disassembly" of significant portions (if not all) of the planetary system
of the star for construction materials.
, in his novel Accelerando, would be to use it to run perfect simulations or uploads
of human minds into virtual reality
spaces supported by the Matrioshka brain. Stross even went so far as to suggest that a sufficiently puissant species utilizing enough raw processing power could launch attacks upon, and manipulate, the structure of the universe itself.
In Godplayers (2005), Damien Broderick
surmises that a matrioshka brain would allow simulating entire alternate universes.
The futurist and transhumanist
author Anders Sandberg
wrote an essay speculating on implications of computing on the massive scale of machines such as the Matrioshka brain, published by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
.
A whole class of transcomputational problem
s would require (at least) planet-sized computers and aeons of time for solution.
The idea of immensely powerful computing devices was discussed in an essay by Nick Bostrom
in The Philosophical Quarterly
. Bostrom speculates that if humans deliberately evolved to a post-human stage the species would run massive computer simulations before each stage using machines such as the Matrioshka brain. Going further, Bostrom speculates that humans may in fact be actors in a massive computer simulation.
Raymond Kurzweil
mentions the concept several times in his book The Singularity Is Near
(2005), following a similar train of thought. He makes the point that existence within a computer simulation could be as "real" as within the conventional biosphere - if indeed the distinction can be made. An article in the April 2003 journal of the British Interplanetary Society
also discussed the concept.
the size of a planet. Unlike a Matrioshka brain, a Jupiter brain is optimized for minimum signal propagation delay, and so has a compact structure. Power generation and heat dissipation are formidable concerns for a Jupiter brain implementation.
While a rigid solid object the size and mass of a rocky
planet
or gas giant
could not be built using any currently known material, such a structure could be built as a low-density lattice with a mass comparable to a large moon or a small rocky planet but a far larger volume, or as a solid but non-rigid structure with the mass and density of a planet (as long as the internal heat gradient is carefully controlled to prevent convection
).
Megastructure
A megastructure is a very large manmade object, though the limits of precisely how large this is vary considerably. Some apply the term to any especially large or tall building....
proposed by Robert Bradbury, based on the Dyson sphere
Dyson sphere
A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure originally described by Freeman Dyson. Such a "sphere" would be a system of orbiting solar power satellites meant to completely encompass a star and capture most or all of its energy output...
, of immense computational capacity. It is an example of a Class B stellar engine
Stellar engine
Stellar engines are a class of hypothetical megastructures which use a star's radiation to create usable energy. Some variants use this energy to produce thrust, and thus accelerate a star, and anything orbiting it, in a given direction...
, employing the entire energy output of a star to drive computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
systems.
This concept derives its name from Russian Matrioshka dolls
Matryoshka doll
A matryoshka doll is a Russian nesting doll which is a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other. The first Russian nested doll set was carved in 1890 by Vasily Zvyozdochkin from a design by Sergey Malyutin, who was a folk crafts painter at Abramtsevo...
.
Concept
The term matrioshka brain was invented by Robert Bradbury as an alternative to the Jupiter brain—a concept similar to the matrioshka brain, but on a smaller planetary scale and optimized for minimum signal propagation delayPropagation delay
Propagation delay is a technical term that can have a different meaning depending on the context. It can relate to networking, electronics or physics...
. A matrioshka brain design is concentrated on sheer capacity and the maximum amount of energy extracted from its source star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
, while a Jupiter brain is more optimized for computational speed.
Such a structure would be composed of at least two but typically more Dyson sphere
Dyson sphere
A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure originally described by Freeman Dyson. Such a "sphere" would be a system of orbiting solar power satellites meant to completely encompass a star and capture most or all of its energy output...
s built around a star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
, and nested one inside another. A significant percentage of the shells would be composed of nanoscale computers (see molecular-scale computronium). These computers would be at least partly powered by the energy exchange between the star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
and interstellar space
Interstellar medium
In astronomy, the interstellar medium is the matter that exists in the space between the star systems in a galaxy. This matter includes gas in ionic, atomic, and molecular form, dust, and cosmic rays. It fills interstellar space and blends smoothly into the surrounding intergalactic space...
. A shell (or component, should a Dyson swarm be the design model used) would absorb energy radiated onto its inner surface, utilize that energy to power its computer systems, and re-radiate the energy outwards. The nanoscale computers of each shell would be designed to run at different temperatures; shells or components at the core could be nearly as hot as the central star, while the outer layer of the matrioshka brain could be almost as cool as interstellar space.
The ideal mechanism for extracting usable energy as it passes "through" a shell or component, the number of shells (or orbital levels) that could be supported in such a manner, the ideal size of the shells to be constructed, and other details, are all issues of speculation.
The idea of the matrioshka brain violates none of the currently known laws of physics, although the engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
details of building such a structure would be staggering, as such a project would require the "disassembly" of significant portions (if not all) of the planetary system
Planetary system
A planetary system consists of the various non-stellar objects orbiting a star such as planets, dwarf planets , asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and cosmic dust...
of the star for construction materials.
Possible uses
The possible uses of such an immense computational resource tax the imagination. One idea suggested by Charles StrossCharles Stross
Charles David George "Charlie" Stross is a British writer of science fiction, Lovecraftian horror and fantasy. He was born in Leeds.Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera...
, in his novel Accelerando, would be to use it to run perfect simulations or uploads
Mind transfer
Whole brain emulation or mind uploading is the hypothetical process of transferring or copying a conscious mind from a brain to a non-biological substrate by scanning and mapping a biological brain in detail and copying its state into a computer system or another computational device...
of human minds into virtual reality
Virtual reality
Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...
spaces supported by the Matrioshka brain. Stross even went so far as to suggest that a sufficiently puissant species utilizing enough raw processing power could launch attacks upon, and manipulate, the structure of the universe itself.
In Godplayers (2005), Damien Broderick
Damien Broderick
Damien Francis Broderick is an Australian science fiction and popular science writer. His science fiction novel The Judas Mandala is sometimes credited with the first appearance of the term "virtual reality," and his 1997 popular science book The Spike was the first to investigate the...
surmises that a matrioshka brain would allow simulating entire alternate universes.
The futurist and transhumanist
Transhumanism
Transhumanism, often abbreviated as H+ or h+, is an international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human...
author Anders Sandberg
Anders Sandberg
Anders Sandberg is a researcher, science debater, futurist, transhumanist, and author. He was born in Solna, Sweden. He holds a Ph.D...
wrote an essay speculating on implications of computing on the massive scale of machines such as the Matrioshka brain, published by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies was founded in 2004 by philosopher Nick Bostrom and bioethicist James Hughes. Incorporated in the United States as a non-profit 501 organization, the IEET is a self-described "technoprogressive think tank" that seeks to contribute to understanding...
.
A whole class of transcomputational problem
Transcomputational problem
In computational complexity theory, a transcomputational problem is a problem that requires processing of more than 1093 bits of information. Any number greater than 1093 is called a transcomputational number...
s would require (at least) planet-sized computers and aeons of time for solution.
Commentary
The concept was deployed by its inventor, Robert Bradbury, in the anthology Year Million: Science at the Far Edge of Knowledge, and attracted interest from reviewers in the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal.The idea of immensely powerful computing devices was discussed in an essay by Nick Bostrom
Nick Bostrom
Nick Bostrom is a Swedish philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk and the anthropic principle. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics...
in The Philosophical Quarterly
The Philosophical Quarterly
The Philosophical Quarterly is a quarterly academic journal of philosophy established in 1950. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Scots Philosophical Club and the University of St Andrews. The current editor-in-chief is Tim Mulgan. Every year the journal holds an Essay...
. Bostrom speculates that if humans deliberately evolved to a post-human stage the species would run massive computer simulations before each stage using machines such as the Matrioshka brain. Going further, Bostrom speculates that humans may in fact be actors in a massive computer simulation.
Raymond Kurzweil
Raymond Kurzweil
Raymond "Ray" Kurzweil is an American author, inventor and futurist. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition , text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and electronic keyboard instruments...
mentions the concept several times in his book The Singularity Is Near
The Singularity Is Near
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology is a 2005 update of Raymond Kurzweil's 1999 book, The Age of Spiritual Machines and his 1990 book The Age of Intelligent Machines. In it, as in the two previous versions, Kurzweil attempts to give a glimpse of what awaits us in the near future...
(2005), following a similar train of thought. He makes the point that existence within a computer simulation could be as "real" as within the conventional biosphere - if indeed the distinction can be made. An article in the April 2003 journal of the British Interplanetary Society
British Interplanetary Society
The British Interplanetary Society founded in 1933 by Philip E. Cleator, is the oldest space advocacy organisation in the world whose aim is exclusively to support and promote astronautics and space exploration.-Structure:...
also discussed the concept.
Jupiter brain
A Jupiter brain is a theoretical computing megastructureMegastructure
A megastructure is a very large manmade object, though the limits of precisely how large this is vary considerably. Some apply the term to any especially large or tall building....
the size of a planet. Unlike a Matrioshka brain, a Jupiter brain is optimized for minimum signal propagation delay, and so has a compact structure. Power generation and heat dissipation are formidable concerns for a Jupiter brain implementation.
While a rigid solid object the size and mass of a rocky
Rock (geology)
In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...
planet
Planet
A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
or gas giant
Gas giant
A gas giant is a large planet that is not primarily composed of rock or other solid matter. There are four gas giants in the Solar System: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune...
could not be built using any currently known material, such a structure could be built as a low-density lattice with a mass comparable to a large moon or a small rocky planet but a far larger volume, or as a solid but non-rigid structure with the mass and density of a planet (as long as the internal heat gradient is carefully controlled to prevent convection
Convection
Convection is the movement of molecules within fluids and rheids. It cannot take place in solids, since neither bulk current flows nor significant diffusion can take place in solids....
).
See also
- AstroengineeringAstroengineeringAstroengineering is the construction of megastructures in space by technologically advanced beings. It is a form of megascale engineering. Typically proposed feats of astroengineering are on the scale to remake an entire stellar system....
- ComputroniumComputroniumComputronium is a material hypothesized by Norman Margolus and Tommaso Toffoli of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to be used as "programmable matter," a substrate for computer modeling of virtually any real object....
- Megascale engineeringMegascale engineeringMegascale engineering is a form of exploratory engineering concerned with the construction of structures on an enormous scale. Typically these structures are at least 1,000 kilometers in length—in other words, at least 1 megameter, hence the name...
- Strong AIStrong AIStrong AI is artificial intelligence that matches or exceeds human intelligence — the intelligence of a machine that can successfully perform any intellectual task that a human being can. It is a primary goal of artificial intelligence research and an important topic for science fiction writers and...
- SuperintelligenceSuperintelligenceA superintelligence, hyperintelligence or superhuman intelligence is a hypothetical entity which possesses intelligence surpassing that of any existing human being...
- Technological SingularityTechnological singularityTechnological singularity refers to the hypothetical future emergence of greater-than-human intelligence through technological means. Since the capabilities of such an intelligence would be difficult for an unaided human mind to comprehend, the occurrence of a technological singularity is seen as...