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The only conclusion we should make right now is that the Dyson Sphere doesn't exist and we're the only intelligent life in the Universe, which makes it all more
by buryat 5y ago
The only conclusion we should make right now is that the Dyson Sphere doesn't exist and we're the only intelligent life in the Universe, which makes it all more terrifying.
- azernik 5y agoOr that it does, and advanced civilizations just don't need that much energy.
- jl6 5y agoPerhaps civilizations with eternally increasing energy demands inevitably encounter a great filter of their own making, while civilizations that learn to live with more modest energy requirements live on in peace and silence.
- buryat 5y agoevolution seems to be a constant fight for energy, this can be even expanded broadly: the universe is all about gathering energy. So not sure that someone would be fine with a constant limited energy supply. Plus those supplies eventually run out
- azernik 5y agoEvolution is also a constant fight for food calories, and modern societies have escaped that struggle. Judging the dynamics of technological societies by those of evolving organisms is a common and extremely misleading trap.
- gfodor 5y agoThe second doesn’t follow from the first. Dyson Spheres might just not be worth building.
- buryat 5y agoagreed, but where do you get a lot of energy from? stars are the only answer seems like right now, nothing else produces/radiates energy in the universe in quantities needed
- ncmncm 5y agoAnybody who can't fuse hydrogen and helium to produce as much energy as they can imagine using can hardly be considered civilized at all.
- gfodor 5y agoCorrect it’s not even hard to imagine in our lifetimes humanity will have a solid footing to reject the cost/benefit of Dyson Spheres based on existing alternatives.
- ncmncm 5y agoDyson spheres (actually not spheres, in any sense, originally) were a clever idea, but it seems terribly parochial, not to say gooberish, to assume that anybody sophisticated enough to build such a thing would want one. More specifically, anybody sophisticated enough would dismantle their local gas giant and ice planets and convert them directly to energy, and leave the local daystar entirely out of the transaction. An advanced civilization will exist almost exclusively in the far outer reaches of a solar system, where the daystar provides nothing more than gravitation to keep the Kuiper belt organized. The most valuable resource for this advanced civilization will not be energy, which is cheap, or materials, which are cheaper, but cold. The abundunt cold out in the Kuiper Belt is essential to not being vaporized by the waste heat of the high energy processes more or less advanced civilizations cannot resist indulging in.
- buryat 5y agohow do you disassemble a star? wouldn't you need a ton of energy to fight off the gravity? agreed that cooling might be something to look for therefore outer reaches are very tempting but then how do you deliver energy there?
- ncmncm 5y agoWho suggested disassembling a star? You would burn your fingers. I stay well away from my star, and recommend it.
- buryat 5y agoah, I see, take a gas giant and put into fission through whatever process you want. Still seems like a lot of energy to go through until you can do fission while the star is right here