Re: Odd - China Building "Space Supercomputer"

On 6/4/25 6:44 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 04/06/2025 09:15, c186282 wrote:

On 6/4/25 3:56 AM, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

[ snip alt. groups that the news server I use doesn't know about ]
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In comp.os.linux.misc c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:

https://greekreporter.com/2025/06/03/china-world-first-supercomputer-space/ >
>
China has begun building what could become the world's
first supercomputer in space. On May 14, a Long March 2D
rocket launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center,
carrying 12 advanced satellites into orbit.
. . .
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   This is kind of strange ...
>
   Not entirely sure of the POINT in building anything
   quite like this in orbit.
>
   SOUNDS like they're implementing a distributed computing
   setup, with each sat as a 'motherbox' of a sort ... and
   the overall OS will be able to use on or many to do a
   given task. This kind of cluster computing is perfectly
   common on the ground (think Google runs on ONE box ?)
   but in SPACE, with the inherent delays between the
   nodes, VERY weird.

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Optical communication works in space without fibre-optics so I'm
not sure why inter-satellite communication delays would be an
issue.
>
See this article:
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3990472/china-takes-edge-computing-to-orbit-with-first-space-based-processing-network.html >
>
They expect link speeds to match fibre-optics, and avoid the round
trip of Earth -> space -> Earth -> Space -> Earth which satellite
internet networks currently encounter. I was already wondering if
something like this would happen - something like Starlink offering
on-satellite VPSs, but of course everything's AI-focused now while
that hype train is still rolling.
>
The other thing I was wondering, which the that article also touches
on, is the legal aspect. Already satellite internet allows people to
circumvent content restrictions imposed on terrestrial ISPs in their
country to browse foreign websites. If illegal content like pirated
videos is hosted in space, can anyone force it to be taken down?
Could we get a contellation of pirate and porn satellites that
operate outside the law (assuming the law can be tricked into
letting them get launched)? What if a satellite-server gets hacked?
There's nobody up there to pull the plug, access to it could be
traded illegally for the rest of its lifetime. If a whole
constellation got hacked that could really ammount to something.
>
Or is this finally a commercial use for space stations - somewhere
that the orbiting internet can be fixed from?

>
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   My concern is not with the underlying TECH- but
   the underlying INTENT.
>
   You don't invest THIS much without INTENT.

 As with Russia, don't overestimate Chinas competence.

   That was the story maybe 15+ years ago ... but
   that seems to have CHANGED considerably. China
   has put HUGE effort into becoming cutting edge.
   Seems to have worked.
   "... it says Made In Japan". "What do you
   mean Doc, all the best stuff comes from Japan"
   Sorry, can no longer underestimate this particular
   enemy. That always turns out badly.

There are credible analyses suggesting they  lost *half* their population fromn Covid and it wasn't what they claimed in the first place, and that their economy is in freefall and Xi Ping is being 'replaced'/

   Umm ... no ... I don't think they lost half their
   pop to Covid. China is still a very populated
   BUSY place.

How true any of this is, we wont know. The CCP keeps its problems well hidden, but the prices some stuff is being flogged off at on e.g. Ali Express suggests they have huge product surpluses and no local buyers.

   Over-production. It was ASSUMED there would be a huge
   US market for this junk. The Chinese already have as
   much as they can use.
   The authoritarian nature of the CCP govt means they
   can just tell complainers to shut up OR ELSE. This
   puts them in a better position to persist in the
   tariff wars than the USA. This ability does not
   show up in any books or reports, but it's there.
   Trump may SLIGHTLY improve the US position, but not
   by nearly as much as he hoped. Xi will hold firm
   for now.
   As said, do NOT underestimate China. Even more
   than Russia it's THE big player now.
   And I still don't clearly see the WHY of this
   major 'space brain' project. It's not another
   StarLink ... something different.