This is adressed directly in TFA: In fictional accounts, the Dyson-sphere concept is often interpreted as an artificial hollow sphere of matter around a star.

This is adressed directly in TFA: In fictional accounts, the Dyson-sphere concept is often interpreted as an artificial hollow sphere of matter around a star. This perception is based on a literal interpretation of Dyson's original short paper introducing the concept. In response to letters prompted by this paper, Dyson replied, "A solid shell or ring surrounding a star is mechanically impossible. The form of 'biosphere' which I envisaged consists of a loose collection or swarm of objects traveling on independent orbits around the star." As I see it, "Dyson sphere" designates the broader category of such devices. You're saying a literal Dyson sphere would be in a perfectly metastable configuration, which is true, though I suppose a solid structure resembling a sphere might be engineered to be in a stable configuration and have some tolerance to perturbation (unlikely though it may be). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metastability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metastability And in the case of a computer, there's no reason to assume that the processing would take place all over the sphere, which is just an energy harvesting tool. The energy would be directed to wherever it's needed, for example an AMD graphics card. I also like the idea of dimming the star directly, though I can't begin to imagine the processes involved. Or rather, I can begin to imagine them but I can't come up with something that holds together even remotely.