4 ms·

Not convinced until they find a Dyson sphere...

by rob74 3y ago

sirsinsalot 3y ago
If aliens have vacuum cleaners, I hope they're better than ours tbh.
- hef19898 3y ago
  Mandatory mention of Spaceballs incoming... I just don't want the reverse function on my home vacuum.
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    IDK, I miss those old vacuums that could run in reverse - they're perfect for building hovercrafts for kids. Make a big disk, punch the vacuum cleaner's pipe through it, put a blanket over the whole thing, add a chair on top. Turn power on, you have a hovercraft. A staple of city science fairs where I live.
    - hef19898 3y ago
      THAT is a great idea! Would one of those leave blowers work? Ideally a battery powered one?
JKCalhoun 3y ago
They built a ring world in order to harness enough solar power to continue and sustain their proof of work economy. Alas, when even that was not enough their world collapsed and the successors to their race returned to the trees.
NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
Dyson spheres are probably really rare. It's just bad strategy, everyone within your galaxy knows you're there pretty much immediately when a star just up and disappears one day. Granted, the non-K2s just stare in awe maybe, but the other K2s will fuck your shit up. Can't exactly pack it up and run either, not with a medium-sized star in your suitcase.
- thfuran 3y ago
  >but the other K2s will fuck your shit up. [Citation Needed]
  - asoberbeck 3y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Forest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Forest
- hef19898 3y ago
  Temporal displacement fields: Wrap you star system in one of those and remove from the normal universe with a time shift of a couple of seconds! Let those pesky K2 Dyson Sphere civilisation figure that out!
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    Tried that, it didn't work; that's how I ended up stuck in this insane reality where JavaScript ate the world, and my nickname is all I have to show for it.
    - hef19898 3y ago
      Ah, sucks when this happens, doesn't it?
- tastyfreeze 3y ago
  > Can't exactly pack it up and run either, not with a medium-sized star in your suitcase. If you're K2 just take the star and solar system with you. Stellar engines can be used to move stars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_engine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_engine
  - ben_w 3y ago
    Eventually. Shkadov thruster: > After a period of one million years this would yield an imparted speed of 20 m/s, with a displacement from the original position of 0.03 light-years. After one billion years, the speed would be 20 km/s and the displacement 34,000 light-years, a little over a third of the estimated width of the Milky Way galaxy. Caplan thruster: > Caplan estimates that the Bussard engine would use 10^12 kg of solar material per second to produce a maximum acceleration of 10^−9 m/s2, yielding a velocity of 200 km/s after 5 million years. Svoronos Star Tug: > The Svoronos Star Tug can, in principle (assuming perfect efficiency), accelerate the Sun to ~27% the speed of light (after burning enough of the Sun's mass to transition it to a brown dwarf).
arethuza 3y ago
I think Culture style Orbitals are more elegant - no need for shadow squares to create day/night cycles.
- wombatpm 3y ago
  Orbitals - The Tiny Houses of solar scale structures
  - ben_w 3y ago
    Every megastructure is an invisible dot compared to the next size up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvKSRKT0nzM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvKSRKT0nzM
    - arethuza 3y ago
      There is also The Ring in the Xeelee universe - which is millions of lightyears across: https://xeelee.fandom.com/wiki/The_Ring https://xeelee.fandom.com/wiki/The_Ring Mind you it might not count as it's a means of escape, not a place to live.

Not convinced until they find a Dyson sphere...

by rob74 3y ago

Not convinced until they find a Dyson sphere...

sirsinsalot 3y ago

If aliens have vacuum cleaners, I hope they're better than ours tbh.

hef19898 3y ago
Mandatory mention of Spaceballs incoming... I just don't want the reverse function on my home vacuum.
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  IDK, I miss those old vacuums that could run in reverse - they're perfect for building hovercrafts for kids. Make a big disk, punch the vacuum cleaner's pipe through it, put a blanket over the whole thing, add a chair on top. Turn power on, you have a hovercraft. A staple of city science fairs where I live.
  - hef19898 3y ago
    THAT is a great idea! Would one of those leave blowers work? Ideally a battery powered one?

JKCalhoun 3y ago

They built a ring world in order to harness enough solar power to continue and sustain their proof of work economy. Alas, when even that was not enough their world collapsed and the successors to their race returned to the trees.

NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago

Dyson spheres are probably really rare. It's just bad strategy, everyone within your galaxy knows you're there pretty much immediately when a star just up and disappears one day. Granted, the non-K2s just stare in awe maybe, but the other K2s will fuck your shit up. Can't exactly pack it up and run either, not with a medium-sized star in your suitcase.

thfuran 3y ago
>but the other K2s will fuck your shit up. [Citation Needed]
- asoberbeck 3y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Forest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Forest
hef19898 3y ago
Temporal displacement fields: Wrap you star system in one of those and remove from the normal universe with a time shift of a couple of seconds! Let those pesky K2 Dyson Sphere civilisation figure that out!
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  Tried that, it didn't work; that's how I ended up stuck in this insane reality where JavaScript ate the world, and my nickname is all I have to show for it.
  - hef19898 3y ago
    Ah, sucks when this happens, doesn't it?
tastyfreeze 3y ago
> Can't exactly pack it up and run either, not with a medium-sized star in your suitcase. If you're K2 just take the star and solar system with you. Stellar engines can be used to move stars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_engine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_engine
- ben_w 3y ago
  Eventually. Shkadov thruster: > After a period of one million years this would yield an imparted speed of 20 m/s, with a displacement from the original position of 0.03 light-years. After one billion years, the speed would be 20 km/s and the displacement 34,000 light-years, a little over a third of the estimated width of the Milky Way galaxy. Caplan thruster: > Caplan estimates that the Bussard engine would use 10^12 kg of solar material per second to produce a maximum acceleration of 10^−9 m/s2, yielding a velocity of 200 km/s after 5 million years. Svoronos Star Tug: > The Svoronos Star Tug can, in principle (assuming perfect efficiency), accelerate the Sun to ~27% the speed of light (after burning enough of the Sun's mass to transition it to a brown dwarf).

arethuza 3y ago

I think Culture style Orbitals are more elegant - no need for shadow squares to create day/night cycles.

wombatpm 3y ago
Orbitals - The Tiny Houses of solar scale structures
- ben_w 3y ago
  Every megastructure is an invisible dot compared to the next size up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvKSRKT0nzM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvKSRKT0nzM
  - arethuza 3y ago
    There is also The Ring in the Xeelee universe - which is millions of lightyears across: https://xeelee.fandom.com/wiki/The_Ring https://xeelee.fandom.com/wiki/The_Ring Mind you it might not count as it's a means of escape, not a place to live.