Kiril finished rolling the cigarette, licking the paper at the end to stick it in place before lighting it and ignoring shouted protests from the others. “Tell me,” he said. “In the Academy of Sciences, did you ever hear about the Jupiter Brain? They might also have called it a Matryoshka Brain, but the principle is the same.”

The question was directed at Alexei, who shook his head. “No,” he said. “I can’t say that I have.”

“I’m not surprised,” Kiril said, taking a long, luxuriant drag on his cigarette. “It’s an idea far more of interest o science fiction writers than physicists.”

“If you don’t put that cigarette out, Kiril Vasilyvich, you will soon have the physics problem of my fist to deal with,” snapped Josef.

Ignoring him, Kiril took another puff an allowed the smoke to wreathe his head. “Essentially, you build a series of shells above a power source. When Artemayev talked about it, he used a star for an example, but it could be anything. Anything so long as it produces heat. The core of a planet the size of Jupiter, for instance.”

“Yes, and?” Alexei said.

“And the layer captures that heat, and uses the energy to do computations,” said Kiril. “Then there’s another layer above that one, which uses the waste heat radiated upwards to do more computations. And so on and so forth, layers on layers, until all heat energy is consumed and used at near 100% efficiency. All for computations. Imagine if there was a wireless link between them all, the sheer power of such a system.”

Josef, realizing that Kiril had disregarded his threats, tried a different tack. “If it is as you say, Kiril Vasilyvich, and the object is a…a giant computing machine, why behave so recklessly around it?”

Kiril puffed on the cigarette, declining to respond until he had made a perfect smoke ring. “If I am right,” he said, “and it is a matryoshka brain, it could only be built by beings who are so far in advance of us that we can scarcely comprehend them. We are like ants who hesitate on the threshold of a nuclear reactor, and we are right to do so. To the ignorant, the technology is dangerous, and I do not see my advice to withdraw being heeded. Therefore, I smoke, and enjoy the time I have remaining.”

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