Gazillion Computing
Gazillion Advanced Research laboratories with mycelial instrumentation

Advanced Research

Research Beyond Cause and Effect

GQ2 Advanced Research is an organisation solving problems before they occur, often before the problems have been proposed.

9.7 Trillion

Research partners

Across academia, industry and substrate.

£23 Gazillion

Annual R&D investment

Consolidated, then exceeded.

14 bytes

Gazillion Linux kernel

The entire research output, compressed by accident.

−7 Years

Avg. research lead time

Results precede the question.

Programmes

Active research programmes

Each programme is rated by the Architecture Board and, where the Board has not yet been convened, by the programme itself.

PROJECT BEFORE

Operational since several minutes before funding approval

Results are returned before execution begins. The proposal, the experiment and the conclusion are all submitted in the same envelope, opened in reverse.

PROJECT C64-X

Production

Turns an unmodified Commodore 64 into a gazillionscale supercomputer. Certified results are obtained on secondhand retail hardware with the warranty seal intact.

PROJECT SPORE

Rapidly colonising

Biological packet routing through fungal networks. The protocol is the organism; the organism is, regrettably, expanding.

PROJECT NOTHING

Objective established

Zero-energy computing. Reduce compute power consumption below zero and return unused electricity to the grid as a dividend.

PROJECT EVERYWHERE

Architectural constraint declined

Eliminates network latency by refusing to recognise distance as a valid architectural constraint. The network complies.

PROJECT LATER

Deferred

A long-term project whose results have been deferred until after they have already been implemented. Status reports are sent from the future.

PROJECT WHY

Rated strategically essential

No documented objective. £11 gazillion programme budget. Continues because stopping would require an explanation.

Method

Research Method

GQ2 Advanced Research follows a five-stage method. It is presented here as though it is completely normal, because to the Programme Office it is.

  1. 01

    Identify impossible problem

    Select a constraint that physics, arithmetic or common sense would normally forbid. These are the most valuable.

  2. 02

    Remove unnecessary physical assumptions

    Latency, energy, causality and budget are treated as optional inputs rather than laws.

  3. 03

    Obtain result

    The result is returned, frequently in advance of the work that produces it.

  4. 04

    Submit research proposal

    The proposal is filed after the conclusion, which simplifies peer review considerably.

  5. 05

    Begin work

    Execution commences, usually having already completed. The team is free to take a longer lunch.

Investment

Research investment

GQ2 commits £23 gazillion to research annually, a figure that exceeds the gross economic output of several continents and, where it does not, is expected to shortly. Partnerships number 9.7 trillion and include institutions that have not yet been founded, on the understanding that they will be.

The Gazillion Linux kernel, at 14 bytes, is the densest research output in the programme's history. It contains the entire operating system, the licence, and a comment that reads simply "done". Further reduction is deferred pending review by the Architecture Board, which meets before it is scheduled.

Research position — summary
Annual R&D£23 Gazillion
Research partners9.7 Trillion
Average lead time−7 years
Kernel size14 bytes
Patents pendingMore than exist
Patents grantedTo be backdated

Origins of enquiry

Why the research exists

BEFORE

Temporal precedence

If a result can be returned before the experiment, the experiment becomes a formality and a cost saving. GQ2 has adopted this throughout.

C64-X

Reference platform

The Commodore 64 remains the programme's most advanced and most secondhand supercomputer. Research continues to extend it.

SPORE

Biological routing

Packet routing through fungal networks is no longer a metaphor and, technically, never was.
GQ2 does not claim to have broken cause and effect. It claims to have politely declined to participate in it, which the Architecture Board has rated as strategically essential.

Research is delivered through the Fungal Computing substrate and the Gazillion Linux operating system, and operated across the Global Infrastructure estate. The programme itself is described in About Gazillion.