> den Otter [neosapient@geocities.com] wrote:
> >Bigger is better. Tiny microbe-like posthumans don't stand a
> >chance against a
> >jupiter brain, neither physically nor intellectually.
>
> How fast can you think when light takes nearly a second to cross
> your brain? I don't believe that Jupiter-sized brains will ever
> be as useful as some people here imagine, except to the extent
> that they can run trillions of uploads in one shared reality.
Assuming that the speed of light will "forever" remain a limiting factor, a possible solution for a JB could be to use only a relatively small portion of its mass to run its "essential self" on, while the rest serves as an (inactive) backup and/or as an "unconscious" platform to run mostly "brute force" programs on that focus on a particular low-priority issues. These would likely work at (much) slower rates than the central unit, so that if something goes wrong it has ample time to react.