3 ms·
> wouldn't it make sense for such a culture to live near a black hole? Technically the black hole doesn't offer anything beyond what a sun of comparable output
by Udo 11y ago
> wouldn't it make sense for such a culture to live near a black hole?
Technically the black hole doesn't offer anything beyond what a sun of comparable output would offer.
> and other species might avoid the neighborhood in general given that it's not a safe or nice place to be
True, but the reasons for avoiding close contact with it are also the reasons why building a habitat there is potentially risky. All things being equal, a Mercury-like planet would make a better base for a civilization having those goals: it offers a lot of solar energy, affords some protection from detection by being too close to the star to resolve it as a non-natural heat source, and as opposed to the black hole it's also in a stable environment.
- cousin_it 11y ago> Technically the black hole doesn't offer anything beyond what a sun of comparable output would offer. Low temperature (lower than cosmic background).
- Udo 11y agoIf you're really after those 3 Kelvin, you might be happier selecting a host star that is 3 degrees hotter instead, especially considering the practical efficiencies of heat exchange systems near absolute zero temperatures.
- cousin_it 11y agoIf your computer can operate near the Landauer limit, then cooling it to ~10^-7 K makes computing operations cheaper by a factor of ~10^7. Using a 3 K warmer heat source won't accomplish the same.
- pavel_lishin 11y ago> Technically the black hole doesn't offer anything beyond what a sun of comparable output would offer. Doesn't the accretion disk shit pretty violent radiation?