3 ms·
Because of the square–cube law. Planets are an unfathomably inefficient form factor in terms of material use to available surface area/volume ratio.
by Sharlin 4y ago
Because of the square–cube law. Planets are an unfathomably inefficient form factor in terms of material use to available surface area/volume ratio.
- ben_w 4y agoCounterpoint I’ve been thinking about recently: Imagine you have a fancy self-repairing spaceship, so good that even accounting for the slow wear and tear of micrometeorites, outgassing, and the motion of feet slowly polishing grooves into walkways, it still only looses 1% of its mass to the outside vacuum every thousand years. A Dyson swarm of those still becomes a mysterious cloud slowly puffing away from its parent star, and after just 2150 millennia, it’s declined from a Kardashev II to a Kardashev I civilisation. A planet-based civilisation may live or die, but it won’t burn out quite like that.