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Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. -- Arthur Clarke An advanced civilization (Type II on Kardashev scale, i.

by dexen 7y ago

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. -- Arthur Clarke An advanced civilization (Type II on Kardashev scale, i.e, able to harvest their sun's energy output), having built a Dyson sphere[1] or similar, would appear to outsiders to be a red dwarf or a brown dwarf: a mildly hot star or sub-stellar object. It would be a sphere that emits more-or-less typical black-body radiation of a slightly warm (in stellar sense) object, with some spectral lines related to the surface material. Granted, the apparent "red/brown dwarf" of a Dyson sphere would have much larger size than usual, but on cosmic distances, individual object sizes aren't measured directly - instead we infer them from indirect measures such as light emission and gravitational effects, & comparing to known references & theoretical models. We can assume some advanced civilizations would want to keep private for safety reasons - as to not invite hostile attention - and thus would do their best to closely approximate spectrum of actual red or brown dwarf through engineering. Meaning we couldn't tell them apart from actual red or brown dwarf without getting close enough to observe the size directly, or somehow recognizing minute deviation from expected spectra. Right now we may be looking at several advanced (Type II) civilizations, mistakenly dismissing them as mere red dwarfs. dexen's dictum #2: presume all apparently planet-less cold stars to be potential Dyson spheres until positively proven otherwise. [1] I've just realized a full Dyson sphere would be a good Faraday cage, preventing radio emissions leaking outside.

taneq 7y ago
"Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced." - Corollary to Clarke's Law Also, on the topic of advanced civilizations being coy: > "Once there were three tribes. The Optimists, whose patron saints were Drake and Sagan, believed in a universe crawling with gentle intelligence—spiritual brethren vaster and more enlightened than we, a great galactic siblinghood into whose ranks we would someday ascend. Surely, said the Optimists, space travel implies enlightenment, for it requires the control of great destructive energies. Any race which can't rise above its own brutal instincts will wipe itself out long before it learns to bridge the interstellar gulf. > Across from the Optimists sat the Pessimists, who genuflected before graven images of Saint Fermi and a host of lesser lightweights. The Pessimists envisioned a lonely universe full of dead rocks and prokaryotic slime. The odds are just too low, they insisted. Too many rogues, too much radiation, too much eccentricity in too many orbits. It is a surpassing miracle that even one Earth exists; to hope for many is to abandon reason and embrace religious mania. After all, the universe is fourteen billion years old: if the galaxy were alive with intelligence, wouldn't it be here by now? > Equidistant to the other two tribes sat the Historians. They didn't have too many thoughts on the probable prevalence of intelligent, spacefaring extraterrestrials— but if there are any, they said, they're not just going to be smart. They're going to be mean. - Peter Watts, Blindsight And the corollary to Watts' Law (if he doesn't already have one I call dibs on this being called that) is, of course, that if there are any intelligent, spacefaring extraterrestrials, they're going to be sneaky.

by dexen 7y ago

taneq 7y ago

"Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced." - Corollary to Clarke's Law Also, on the topic of advanced civilizations being coy: > "Once there were three tribes. The Optimists, whose patron saints were Drake and Sagan, believed in a universe crawling with gentle intelligence—spiritual brethren vaster and more enlightened than we, a great galactic siblinghood into whose ranks we would someday ascend. Surely, said the Optimists, space travel implies enlightenment, for it requires the control of great destructive energies. Any race which can't rise above its own brutal instincts will wipe itself out long before it learns to bridge the interstellar gulf. > Across from the Optimists sat the Pessimists, who genuflected before graven images of Saint Fermi and a host of lesser lightweights. The Pessimists envisioned a lonely universe full of dead rocks and prokaryotic slime. The odds are just too low, they insisted. Too many rogues, too much radiation, too much eccentricity in too many orbits. It is a surpassing miracle that even one Earth exists; to hope for many is to abandon reason and embrace religious mania. After all, the universe is fourteen billion years old: if the galaxy were alive with intelligence, wouldn't it be here by now? > Equidistant to the other two tribes sat the Historians. They didn't have too many thoughts on the probable prevalence of intelligent, spacefaring extraterrestrials— but if there are any, they said, they're not just going to be smart. They're going to be mean. - Peter Watts, Blindsight And the corollary to Watts' Law (if he doesn't already have one I call dibs on this being called that) is, of course, that if there are any intelligent, spacefaring extraterrestrials, they're going to be sneaky.