Jupiter Brain

"‘Reverse primary thrust, Marvin,’ that's what they say to me, ‘open airlock number three, Marvin. Marvin, can you pick up that piece of paper?’ Can I pick up that piece of paper! Here I am, brain the size of a planet and they ask me to…"
- Marvin the Paranoid Android

Basic Information

A Jupiter Brain is a supercomputer the size of a planet. Rather than being as dense as a planet, the far more reasonable engineering proposal would be a low-density lattice structure. It would thus be the size of a large planet, but only as massive as a moon or planetoid. The lattice structure would also allow it to radiate out waste heat.

See Also:

• Computronium
• Hypercomputer
• Matrioshka Brain
• Megastructure

Sources

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia

Game and Story Use

• AI is a crapshoot, and there's serious engineering issues in making a gigantic computer. Nonetheless, it's a fun concept and definitely quite popular in sci-fi.
• In proper Hitchhiker's fashion, you could have a chain of computers each designing their eventual replacement. The next step up from Jupiter Brain is Matrioshka Brain.