Scenarios8/9
Baseline · Earth atom by atom since 1900, as a starting point for changing one dial at a time.
Earth, atom by atom, everyone a real player, functional minds, one timeline since 1900. Far more than today’s computers can run, but within physical limits. Change one dial and you see how much it adds to the total.
Required computing power rough
1.3 × 1068 FLOPS
Never on one star’s power with ordinary logic, even at the thermodynamic floor. The countdown ▸
More power than the Sun puts out, even on ordinary chips at the thermodynamic limit (one bit erased per operation, at room temperature).
Computer sizetextbook
10²¹ × a Sun of Landauer-limit chips
The Sun’s whole output, at the thermodynamic floor of one bit erased per operation, at room temperature.
At Lloyd’s bound this takes 246.3 trillion tonnes of matter, all of it computing.
Feasibility
Beyond the Sun’s whole output
More power than the Sun emits, even with conventional logic at the thermodynamic floor.
Universe-computerstextbook
1.6 × 10-36
One universe-computer is every kilogram in the observable universe computing at Lloyd’s bound.
Power draw, Landauer floortextbook
1021 Suns
The thermodynamic minimum for flipping bits at room temperature. The best real hardware uses about five billion times more energy than that.
1021 Suns of power at the Landauer floor, assuming perfect chips. The best real chips use about five billion times more energy than that.
On every computer on Earthrough
4.2 × 1039 years per second
How long it takes, on a clock, to compute one second of simulation on all of humanity’s computers, ~1021 FLOPS.
3.1 × 1029 ages of the universe, on all of Earth’s computing, for every simulated second.
World actually computedwild guess
100%
1.4 × 10-6% of the mass is watched by 8.2 billion observers. The observation dial sets how much of the remainder is computed at the full floor.
- Which dial changes the total most?
- Which assumptions matter, and which barely register?
“Worked out Earth at atom resolution: 1.3 × 10^68 FLOPS, or 10²¹ × a Sun of Landauer-limit chips.”
Instance report
A RECENTLY STARTED WORLD
A RECENTLY STARTED WORLD
Settings
ScaleEarth
Matter floorAtom
LobbyMultiplayer
Inner lives8.2 billion · functional
Computed100%
TimeLinear, live from 1900
Computing needed
1.3 × 1068 FLOPS
Computer size10²¹ × a Sun of Landauer-limit chips
Universe-computers1.6 × 10-36
FeasibilityBeyond the Sun’s whole output
Judged, not measured
The author’s reading. None of these changes the computing total.
SufferingAs found
Free willFeels free
Utilitariandivided
Deontologicalleans for
Virtue ethicsleans for
Existentialistdivided
“Worked out Earth at atom resolution: 1.3 × 10^68 FLOPS, or 10²¹ × a Sun of Landauer-limit chips.”
Two of these are rough and three are wild guesses, and each is tagged that way. Change any one dial and you get a different universe.
Matter computingrough
1.3 × 1068 FLOPS
1.3 × 1050 atom-sized units across Earth, each updated every 1 fs.
Mind computingrough
rides along free
At the atom floor, brains are already computed as matter. On their own they’d take 8.2 × 1027.
At this matter floor the brains are already computed as matter, so minds add nothing to the total.
Inner liveswild guess
8.2 billion
8.2 billion real minds. 4.5 × 1020 organisms left as scenery.
Operations so farrough
5.3 × 1077
126 years on the clock, at 1.3 × 1068 per second.
History that is only storedrough
99.9999991%
Computing begins in 1900. 1.6 billion humans are present at the start, with preinstalled memories.