4 ms·
I like to imagine that this is how things would look if we entered a Karadashev type III civilization's light cone: One day, in a small quadrant of the galaxy,
by chronolitus 6y ago
I like to imagine that this is how things would look if we entered a Karadashev type III civilization's light cone:
One day, in a small quadrant of the galaxy, we'd notice starts "shutting off", simply going dark. After a few months, our astonomers would confirm their new model: the amount of stars going dark is increasing. Days later: the rate of increase itself, is increasing.
One day we'd wake up, and a small portion of the night sky would be dark. A disk of darkness, right at the brightest part of the galactic plane. By then we would have figured it out of course: most stars in the galaxy were being turned into dyson spheres. They were spreading almost as fast as light, making it look almost instantaneous, even though the process had taken hundreds of thousands of years. In a few thousand years a large portion of our sky would be dark. And after that...
- hagmonk 6y agoThis is approximately one of the opening ideas in the Commonwealth Saga by Peter Hamilton. Highly recommended!
- ncmncm 6y agoDoesn't it seem kind of stupid that a K-III civilization would depend on collecting starlight for energy? Even the most extreme-primitive cultures, barely off their home planet, will have mastered controlled fusion. Almost immediately, they have no more use for small rocky gravity-well planets, or even for stars. They live in Oort clouds where thermal noise is low and cold is plentiful.
- saberdancer 6y agoI agree. It seems very shortsighted to assume a highly advanced civilization would act in this way. Not only would creating Dyson Spheres be extremely visible (Dark Forest comes to mind), but I doubt that these type of civilizations would be energy constrained. Simple fusion reactor solves most of the energy issues.
- schwartzworld 6y agoMaybe Dyson spheres as farms? Fusion wouldn't produce food.
- saberdancer 6y agoSure, but if you have abundant energy you can use hydroponics to achieve the same. Dyson spheres provide vast amount of space but if you have practically infinite power you can create habitats that provide the same functionality with added benefits of gravity (O'Neill cylinder) and not being visible at star distances.