The earth is turning into a sort of poor man's Dyson sphere. A century ago, advancing telecommunications involved building ever more powerful transmitters. Toda

The earth is turning into a sort of poor man's Dyson sphere. A century ago, advancing telecommunications involved building ever more powerful transmitters. Today, the bulk of our communication occurs via enclosed waveguides such as fiber optics and coaxial cables. Our wireless comms are increasingly designed to operate at lower and lower power levels, using signal protocols that are designed to resemble noise. If we colonize the Moon or a neighboring planet, we'll probably communicate via a laser beam. Long distance power transmission will be converted to DC if it becomes more efficient. A century after the dawn of the radio age, we're going dark.