[ExI] Fermi Paradox and Transcension

[BillK]

On Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 3:18 AM, spike wrote:
> Cool thanks BillK.  What I want us to do is stop waiting for nanoSanta and
> ponder what we can do with current technology.  At some point, it is logical
> to do that.  Think low power processors and control systems, estimate or
> calculate what your system level requirements will be.  We can, with current
> technology, create very small autonomous nodes.  I clearly recognize we
> can't make enough of them to be anything like an MBrain, but we can make
> nodes, a few thousand perhaps.  Then we launch them in a cubesat package,
> see if they can stabilize themselves and fly in formation.  That looks to me
> like where we are today, the point where we can use current processors and
> current control system technology.
>
>

Like this?
<http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Raspberry-Pi-powered-supercomputer-opens-way-for-educators-1708155.html>

Professor Simon Cox of the University's Computational Engineering
Department and a team of students put together 64 Raspberry Pis
running the Raspbian variant of Debian Linux and a port of MPICH2, the
portable Message Passing Interface software, to create a computing
cluster.
The cluster, excluding the Ethernet switches that connect the boards
together, costs under £2,500 and, with 16GB Class 10 SD cards in each
Pi, has a terabyte of storage and is able to run off a single 13 Amp
mains socket.
-----------------

It is only a teaching system at present, but it shows the scale of
what is happening.


BillK