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Computronium Node
Watcher node
Image from Alex Mulvey
A watcher node overseeing mining operations in the Qu Yuan system
A Computronium node is any discrete megascale data processing structure constructed from computronium, such as an intelligent superobject, moon-brain or planetary brain.

Small-scale processors such as presapient and modosophont brains, and very-large structures such as godstars and matrioshka brains, are not usually counted as computronium nodes, although some authorities do regard them as such for the sake of completeness (or for metaphorical or poetic reasons). Indeed, a Great Archailect may incorporate several godstars or matrioshka brains into eir mental architecture as subordinate nodes, which are almost always interconnected by wormhole networks carrying information.
NeoOrinoco
Image from Steve Bowers
NeoOrinoco, one of the computronium nodes in the Procyon system
Computronium nodes may support the minds of a single transapient or archai: a moon-sized computronium may house a typical S:3 entity, whereas a minor archailect can be housed in a Jupiter brain or similar structure. However not all computronium nodes contain a single mind. A Jupiter-sized node may contain thousands of S:3 entities, millions of S:2 entities, and billions of S:1s, or an assortment of each type.

In many cases a computronium node may also support many trillions of modosophont minds, often living in elaborate and diverse virtual reality scenarios. These virch universes may be connected via the Known Net to other similar realities in other nodes elsewhere in the Terragen Sphere.

Some computronium nodes may include habitable spaces, where living bionts (including both sophonts and non-sophont organisms) can live in environmentally-controlled biospheres. Since computronium nodes tend to generate a lot of waste heat, these inhabited environments can support large populations even in the coldest parts of deep space. In many cases, these modosophont bionts are literally living inside the bodies of the transapient or archailect entities which control and protect their existence; such inhabitants are referred to as God-dwellers (or somewhat less flatteringly, endoparasites) by the rest of Terragen civilisation.
Arcturus Nodes
Image from Steve Bowers
Otherwhen in the Arcturus system, a series of cybercosms housed in moon-sized computronium nodes
Most Dyson Swarms and Matrioshka brains consist of millions or billions of computronium nodes, generally connected by comm-gauge wormholes to allow the formation of a wormhole bus. Computronium nodes are also essential components of matrioshka micronodes and hypernodes, distributed structures which are the product of the disassembly of planets and stars respectively.
 
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Appears in Topics
ComputronicsMegascale EngineeringVirtual/Infotech
 
Development Notes
Text by Steve Bowers
Initially published on 06 April 2021.

 
 
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