Meanings
- uncountableliteratureProgrammable matter.
Toffoli says he thinks of CAM-8 as “computronium” — a flexible “element” capable of mimicking all other elements and particles, real or imagined.
1990 February 17, I. Amato, “Computronium: the 'element' that imitates”, in Science News, volume 137, number 7, page 1031 more example
Our brains, powerful though they may be, are limited by cranial volume and metabolism; AI, in stark contrast, could extend its reach across the Internet and even set up a galaxy-wide “computronium”—a massive supercomputer that utilizes all the matter within a galaxy for its computations.
2019, Susan Schneider, Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind, Princeton University Press, page 11 - uncountablehuman sciencesA hypothetical material engineered to maximize its use as a computing substrate; matter perfectly optimised for computation.
To this end, the AI might produce computronium (matter organized in a configuration that is optimal for computation) and use it to implement digital minds in states of euphoria.
2014, Nick Bostrom, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, Oxford University Press, page 1402 more examples
The process of making computers on ever smaller scales, using physical degrees of freedom and the laws of physics in an ever more efficient manner, can be thought of as a refining process. In this process we are trying to refine and concentrate the computing power inherent in the laws of physics. You might ask, “Can we achieve 100% pure 'Computronium'?”
1992, Norman Margolus, “Fundamental Physical Constraints on the Computational Process”, in BC Crandall, James Lewis, editors, Nanotechnology: Research and Perspectives, The MIT Press, →ISBN, page 202They should be working on uploading and solving the nanoassembly conformational problem instead. Then we could turn all the available dumb matter into computronium and use it for processing our thoughts. Long-term, it's the only way to go.
2005, Charles Stross, Accelerando, Ace Books, Chapter 1, “Lobsters”
Origin
Cite this entry
computronium. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/computronium
“computronium.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/computronium. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “computronium,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/computronium.
Source: computronium on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.