Basic Information
A Matrioshka Brain is a megastructure-sized supercomputer. In shape and form, it's a multilayered Dyson Sphere, with each of the millions of components being but a portion of the computer. The layers absorb power from the sun, run their processors, and then re-radiate the unused energy up to the next level. The different layers of computer are designed to operate at different layers, colder ones further out. A sufficiently dense Matrioshka Brain could absorb 100% of the energy of a star and turn it all into computing power. No doubt some form of Computronium is needed to make this work.
Comparing the power of a Matrioshka Brain and a Jupiter Brain is difficult. Being so much larger, the Matrioshka Brain has more storage space and processing power. However, it has to transmit and coordinate over very large distances, so it's probably not as fast as the Jupiter Brain.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- The enormous distances that the information has to travel might result in significant lags or compartmentalization amidst the overbrain.
- As an interesting anthropomophism, you could have several artificial intelligences running within the computer - the technological equivalent of Multiple Personality Disorder.
- If constructed as a Dyson Swarm variant, it can be built up piecemeal over time.
- If the local spacetime reference frame ages faster than the PCs via the Twin Paradox, the Matrioshka Brain could be vastly more powerful every time they meet it.
- For additional ideas, see Jupiter Brain, Stellar Megastructure, and Hypercomputer.