[ExI] Slow thinking

[Eugen Leitl]

On Mon, Oct 03, 2011 at 11:49:57AM +0200, Stefano Vaj wrote:

> If M-brains are ultimately... brains, what else is new?

They aren't. They're the physical layer of a postecosystem.
 
> Our tech is already going from (relatively) low-latency, high-frequency,
> broad-bandwith, closely knit systems to systems much more similar to
> biological nervous systems, that is (relatively) low-frequency,
> high-latency, narrow-bandwith systems but with increasing parallelism and
> redundancy and architectural complexity.

There are large populations of highly diverse critters present.
The size distribution will probably follow a power law, with a cut-off
at the top.

It is perfectly feasible to have extremely large (kilolighyears and more)
sizes as only top-level processes are slow (but damn deep). It is not possible
for human equivalents to interact with such top layer processes sensibly.

But you'll probably find even their parasites extremely smart.
 
> Since I still do not have my 10Ghz processor under my desk extrapolated in
> the nineties, I suspect this to be a generalised trend, but at the other
> extreme one should consider that the most powerful "computer" today in use
> is probably Folding at Home, where processes easily take weeks to speak with
> one another.
> 
> I would say that if we also end up switching from silicon to... carbon (as
> in biochips, microtubules, etc.), this is really wet transhumanism coming
> back with a revenge. :-)

Anything solvated would be much too slow. In fact, buckytronics and graphenes
are degraded when mucked up, and/or running hot. So there might be just
radiation-cooled tensegrity structures without actual coolant (helium or such)
flow.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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