I definitely agree with you. I’m not a physicist but I did watch a ton of pop sci growing up and saw so much stuff about Dyson sphere, Fermi paradox, etc. I g

I definitely agree with you. I’m not a physicist but I did watch a ton of pop sci growing up and saw so much stuff about Dyson sphere, Fermi paradox, etc. I got so bored of it and hate how it drags down most discussions about potential alien life etc. The Fermi Paradox itself was supposed to proof we’ve got something wrong, not that we’re alone in the universe and something scary lurks. I think the answer may be that most civilizations never need or want to colonize everything in sight. It could also be political: no species gets to the level of being able to build structures like this without breaking up into competing polities. We think about colonizing everything because we’re still in the mode of a creature who evolved on a planet and spread out everywhere. It’s probably the case that with fusion dyson swarms aren’t used due to the opportunity cost of building them. In 1-200 years we’ll find the idea of surrounding the sun with metal as laughable as there being canals on Mars.