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[Nepleslian Superproject] Project Cicero

K

Kevyn

Inactive Member
Project Cicero

Project Cicero is, at the basic level, an attempt to turn the primary gas giant of the Nepleslia system into a massive hypercomputer.

The proposed plan is to use swarms of programmed nanomachines to deconsitiute the atmosphere, core and moons of the giant into raw materials. These raw materials would then be used to construct a similar sized but much less dense structure in the planet’s orbit.

The structure of the computer would be a series of concentric lattice works with hundreds of imbedded high efficiency aether taps for power. Each lattice would be made of nanoscale computronium ‘painted’ on top of a stabilizing matrix. The entire system is optimized for minimum signal propagation delay.

To deal with heat dissipation, the proposed structure would also have thousands of heat towers, extending from the depths of the structure to well beyond it’s nominal diameter While the average equatorial radius works out to around 70,000 km, the towers would extend almost two thirds again more, the largest capping off at 180,000 kms from base to top. The tops of these towers would feature wide dissipation arms to allow the heat from the coolant to disperse into the vacuum.

Programming the structure would be difficult unto impossibility by conventional means. Current proposals are to implant a small artificial intelligence into a cordoned off portion of the structure’s computational matrix and raise it into the role of ‘system administrator’, gradually increasing the amount of processing power allowed to it. Another proposal is to follow similar guidelines to the above, but instead use dozens, hundreds or even thousands of constructs to achieve the same goal.

(This is just a preliminary proposal of Project Cicero. I’m putting it up now in a slightly unformed state so I don’t become attached to a final product incompatible with the SARPverse. I think I’ve adequately explained what I’m trying to accomplish with it, now I just need some help with the technical details.)
 
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How long would it take to build, ICly?
 
Working off HNI precedent, and assuming similar resource commitment, one to two years. Under optimal conditions, of course.
 
Now people just shot down my planet ship idea, which was 1/7th the size of this Nepleslian submission. How can I justify approving this?
 
Well, presumably Project Cicero would be stationary, and would require defense from both attack and environmental hazards. One of the major points of contention with the Planet Ship idea was that they would be freely mobile.
 
Also, while it is massive,

a) Nepleslia doesn't have any thing comparable, unlike Yamatai.

and

b) there is significantly less material involved. It is the size of Jupiter, but it has a net density closer to a dense nebula then a rocky planet.
 
I think the Nep GMs should look at this and have it go through their Nep Tech approval process.
 
And we will! Thanks for pausing it for us Kim.

We'll get to reviewing this as soon as we can, Kevyn...but seeing as it's just a preliminary writeup, our verdict will be subject to change depending on the answers to the questions we'll be giving ya.

I appreciate the attempt, though. You are right; Nepleslia doesn't have anything that counts as our Hoshi No Iori.
 
Admittedly, this ideas rocks. Security might be an issue, but I suppose that will be an aspect of the verdict passed by the gang.
 
Though its level of consciousness is ostensibly incomprehsible to mere mortals, one wonders how the PANTHEON core at HNI would feel about the new Jupiter Brain on the block...
 
Like it had a little brother to influence?
 
Well, depending on how PANTHEON is formated, Cicero may actually be smarter. Or at least, think faster. Of course, it is somewhat more fragile.
 
Consider your computer would be the size of a planet and PANTHEON is the size of a planetary orbit.
 
True. Which means that signals take longer to get from one side of HNI to the other then Cicero does.

Cicero may have less raw power, but it can bring the entirety of that processing power to bear faster then HNI can. Signal propagation delay. Even at the speed of light, it takes time for data to move.

Besides, if you really came down to it, you could build several Ciceros for the cost of one HNI, if one were so inclined.

Edit: Read up a little more on HNI. Another thing to remember is that, unlike HNI, Cicero is built solely to be a computer. It has no defensive armaments, no on board living quarters, minimal areas with life support and no producing food supplies for an entire Empire.
 
Also note the vastly parralel capacity of a project such as Cicero as compared to the necessarily serial processing of an orbital ring.

The human brain (the definitive example of the power of parralel processing) is composed of EXTREMELY inefficient components, and is remarkably slow in its component processes, yet manages to perform massively complex tasks with speeds as yet unsurpassed by modern technology.
 
Approved, with a build time of 2 years or so.
 
Self awareness basically comes down to reaction time on such a large scale. In other words: the longer the communication type between synapses, the less conscious it is. So under normal circumstances, both PANTHEON and the Jupiter brain would be relatively dumb systems; the time and distance between synapses on the entire network would be far too great to give you a single, self-aware, hyperintelligent genius. (Of course, that's assuming no FTL communications, or even lightspeed ones).

So my guess is this thing would turn out like PANTHEON; something that behaves more unconsciously, like an ecosystem, rather than a hyperintelligent being. The synapse time lapse for something as huge as a gas giant simply is too great for the other alternative.
 
Sorry, I tend to anthropomorphise machines. Yes, Cicero, like PANTHEON, would not be sentient in any way that we would understand. I still hold that it would react faster then PANTHEON, due to the reasons outlined above.

Also, I'll get in touch with you soon, Moon. I only just found out that this was approved.
 
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