Scenarios6/9
Universe Lite · The observable universe at molecular resolution, with half of it left out.
The whole observable universe, simplified down to molecules, with half of it left out and every nervous system counted. Reality, but with detail thrown away.
Required computing power rough
5.8 × 1091 FLOPS
Never on one star’s power with ordinary logic, even at the thermodynamic floor. The countdown ▸
More than a computer with the mass of the Earth could do at the physical limit.
Computer sizetextbook
a galaxy-mass ultimate computer
The Milky Way as a single computer.
At Lloyd’s bound this takes 0.89 Milky Ways of matter, all of it computing.
Feasibility
Beyond an Earth-mass computer
More than a planet’s worth of matter could compute at the physical limit.
Universe-computerstextbook
7.1 × 10-13
One universe-computer is every kilogram in the observable universe computing at Lloyd’s bound.
Power draw, Landauer floortextbook
4.3 × 1044 Suns
The thermodynamic minimum for flipping bits at room temperature. The best real hardware uses about five billion times more energy than that.
4.3 × 1044 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
1.8 × 1063 years per second
How long it takes, on a clock, to compute one second of simulation on all of humanity’s computers, ~1021 FLOPS.
1.3 × 1053 ages of the universe, on all of Earth’s computing, for every simulated second.
World actually computedwild guess
0.001155%
1.3 × 10-8% of the mass is watched by 2.0 × 1036 observers. The observation dial sets how much of the remainder is computed at the full floor.
- What gets lost between atoms and molecules?
- If mind is everywhere but thin, is it still mind?
- Does leaving half of it out change what’s real?
- Is choosing not to compute suffering a kindness, or a dodge?
“Gave every nervous system an inner life. The minds barely change the total. The matter dominates: 5.8 × 10^91 FLOPS.”
Instance report
EVERY NERVOUS SYSTEM COUNTED
EVERY NERVOUS SYSTEM COUNTED
Settings
ScaleObservable universe
Matter floorMolecule
LobbyMultiplayer
Inner lives2.0 × 10^36 · functional
Computed0.001155%
TimeLinear, live from 1.4 × 10^10 yrs ago
Computing needed
5.8 × 1091 FLOPS
Computer sizea galaxy-mass ultimate computer
Universe-computers7.1 × 10-13
FeasibilityBeyond an Earth-mass computer
Judged, not measured
The author’s reading. None of these changes the computing total.
SufferingBackground hum
Free willDice
Utilitarianleans for
Deontologicalleans for
Virtue ethicsdivided
Existentialistdivided
“Gave every nervous system an inner life. The minds barely change the total. The matter dominates: 5.8 × 10^91 FLOPS.”
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
5.8 × 1091 FLOPS
5.0 × 1079 molecule-sized units across universe, each updated every 10 fs.
Mind computingrough
rides along free
At the molecule floor, brains are already computed as matter. On their own they’d take 5.3 × 1048.
At this matter floor the brains are already computed as matter, so minds add nothing to the total.
Inner liveswild guess
2.0 × 1036
2.0 × 1036 real minds. 8.8 × 1037 organisms left as scenery.
Operations so farrough
2.5 × 10109
13.8 billion years on the clock, at 5.8 × 1091 per second.
History that is only storedrough
0%
Computing begins 13.8 billion years ago. No humans are present at the start.