[ExI] Computronium planet.

[Anders Sandberg]

On 17/10/2012 08:02, Keith Henson wrote:
> I wonder what weather patterns you would get with very little sunlight 
> and most of the heat coming from the oceans?

It somewhat depends on the rotation rate, but it would likely involve 
big convection cells over the oceans and plenty of rain across the 
continents. Rotation smears things out by Coriolis into Hadley cells.


> At what light level do the plants die?

Shade plants can survive down to a  few Watts per m^2. Cave algae can 
likely go even lower. For a hot world IR might actually supply enough 
energy to photosynthesis: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22467501


> What is the optimal distance from a star to do the most computation? 
> The further out you go, the more collector area you need to power the 
> civilization. Closer than some point gives you more power from the 
> sunshade than you can radiate.

You can transmit it by laser, and if you have a big phased array on your 
Dyson you can have a thin beam waist at the combined solar shade/antenna.

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Future of Humanity Institute
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University