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smusamashah 3 months ago

I recently had a shower thought that the bigger you go, more energy you need to do computation. As in you could make a computer out of moving planets. On the other hand you could go small and make a computer out of a tiny particle. Both scales achieve the same result but at very different costs.

mock-possum 3 months ago | parent [-]

There is a sci-fi series that I am absolutely blanking on that features that concept - I remember a few characters each having access to a somewhat godlike ability to manipulate physics, and using it to restructure the universe to create computers to augment their own capabilities - definitely some planetary stuff and some quantum / atomic level stuff.. hmmmm maybe gpt can help

aspenmayer 3 months ago | parent | next [-]

This sounds vaguely like the series that Peter F. Hamilton has written, possibly the Commonwealth Saga?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_F._Hamilton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Saga

mock-possum 3 months ago | parent [-]

Man ‘Judas Unchained’ sounds like a real familiar title but the synopsis does not right any bells.

I think the artifact that could be tuned to pull power from celestial bodies was sold to the human / or traded or gambled or something - by an alien entity named ‘wheeler’ maybe?

The protagonist had a friend named Zero or Zeno that was kind of a techno mystic?

Idk my memories are pretty spotty

aspenmayer 3 months ago | parent [-]

The book is Signal to Noise and its sequel A Signal Shattered by Eric S. Nylund.

A personal favorite of mine! Wheeler is such a convincing villain, and the existence of such a character as an explanation of the Fermi paradox is eminently believable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Nylund

heatmiser 3 months ago | parent | prev [-]

would it happen to be "Zones of Thought" by Vernor Vinge?

mock-possum 3 months ago | parent [-]

Ooh no it is not, but I am coincidentally working my way through the third book in that series!