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Communication is a red herring; the actual Fermi paradox is why huge sections of the night sky aren't black[0] due to all the stars being enclosed by Dyson sphe
by a1369209993 8y ago
Communication is a red herring; the actual Fermi paradox is why huge sections of the night sky aren't black[0] due to all the stars being enclosed by Dyson spheres. Or, for that matter, why the planet hasn't been eaten by von Neumann swarms yet.
0: technically a uniform dim infrared of waste heat
- nonbel 8y agoThis is called Olbers paradox, and is much older: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olbers%27_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olbers%27_paradox
- a1369209993 8y agoThat's "Why are there any parts of the sky that aren't stars?". The Fermi paradox is "Why are there any parts of the night sky that are (unobstructed) stars?".
- perl4ever 8y agoI thought that huge sections of the night sky are empty - we call them Cosmic Voids. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Void_(astronomy) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Void_(astronomy)
- spacenick88 8y agoTo me Dyson spheres seem decidedly low tech. Why do we think a very advanced alien species would a) even need such an amount of power b) use such a primitve method as wrapping a star in solar panels? The only stuff I can imagine needing such energy levels would be wormhole gates or Alcubiere drives. Powering the former with a Dyson sphere might make sense but the latter would have to fit on a ship. The interstellar aliens I find more realistic would be those that just mastered cryo sleep or general AI and built seed ships. We don't really have any way of detecting those, do we?