I feel like the most obvious thing that kills the concept of a Dyson Sphere is the unimaginable amount of raw material you need to build one in the first place.
Couple that with the structural and other technical concerns of building it, in space, in the obscenely hostile environment of close proximity to a star (both heat and gravity), and I would rate it as pure science fiction with stuff like faster-than-light travel.
I feel like the most obvious thing that kills the concept of a Dyson Sphere is the unimaginable amount of raw material you need to build one in the first place.
Couple that with the structural and other technical concerns of building it, in space, in the obscenely hostile environment of close proximity to a star (both heat and gravity), and I would rate it as pure science fiction with stuff like faster-than-light travel.
Nanomachines!
We are treading dangerously close to the old threads where Patrick M tried to defend ridiculous concepts like that space-launch "train" that reached orbital velocity traveling in a helical tube, centripetal g-forces be damned...
I feel like the most obvious thing that kills the concept of a Dyson Sphere is the unimaginable amount of raw material you need to build one in the first place.
Couple that with the structural and other technical concerns of building it, in space, in the obscenely hostile environment of close proximity to a star (both heat and gravity), and I would rate it as pure science fiction with stuff like faster-than-light travel.
I feel like the most obvious thing that kills the concept of a Dyson Sphere is the unimaginable amount of raw material you need to build one in the first place.
Couple that with the structural and other technical concerns of building it, in space, in the obscenely hostile environment of close proximity to a star (both heat and gravity), and I would rate it as pure science fiction with stuff like faster-than-light travel.
Take that to the extreme and there’s a thing called a black hole bomb. Put a Dyson sphere around a spinning black hole coated with mirrors and let in some energy just outside of the event horizon and then open a mirror pointing at a target...it’s a real life Death Star the size of a small city.
I feel like the most obvious thing that kills the concept of a Dyson Sphere is the unimaginable amount of raw material you need to build one in the first place.
Couple that with the structural and other technical concerns of building it, in space, in the obscenely hostile environment of close proximity to a star (both heat and gravity), and I would rate it as pure science fiction with stuff like faster-than-light travel.
Take that to the extreme and there’s a thing called a black hole bomb. Put a Dyson sphere around a spinning black hole coated with mirrors and let in some energy just outside of the event horizon and then open a mirror pointing at a target...it’s a real life Death Star the size of a small city.
I feel like the most obvious thing that kills the concept of a Dyson Sphere is the unimaginable amount of raw material you need to build one in the first place.
Couple that with the structural and other technical concerns of building it, in space, in the obscenely hostile environment of close proximity to a star (both heat and gravity), and I would rate it as pure science fiction with stuff like faster-than-light travel.
I feel like the most obvious thing that kills the concept of a Dyson Sphere is the unimaginable amount of raw material you need to build one in the first place.
Couple that with the structural and other technical concerns of building it, in space, in the obscenely hostile environment of close proximity to a star (both heat and gravity), and I would rate it as pure science fiction with stuff like faster-than-light travel.
Take that to the extreme and there’s a thing called a black hole bomb. Put a Dyson sphere around a spinning black hole coated with mirrors and let in some energy just outside of the event horizon and then open a mirror pointing at a target...it’s a real life Death Star the size of a small city.
Built with "unobtanium", I'm sure
Of course. But far much less of it needed that a full sol sized Dyson sphere...probably only need an entire moons worth of material! But every time you throw in some matter you steal some of the black holes energy so it’s virtually infinite power! Of course it would just be a superweapon instead.
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
-- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
That book is an awesome read and well worth anyone's time.
Comments
Dyson spheres are crazy to think about.
I feel like the most obvious thing that kills the concept of a Dyson Sphere is the unimaginable amount of raw material you need to build one in the first place.
Couple that with the structural and other technical concerns of building it, in space, in the obscenely hostile environment of close proximity to a star (both heat and gravity), and I would rate it as pure science fiction with stuff like faster-than-light travel.
Nanomachines!
Dyson spheres are crazy to think about.
I feel like the most obvious thing that kills the concept of a Dyson Sphere is the unimaginable amount of raw material you need to build one in the first place.
Couple that with the structural and other technical concerns of building it, in space, in the obscenely hostile environment of close proximity to a star (both heat and gravity), and I would rate it as pure science fiction with stuff like faster-than-light travel.
Nanomachines!
We are treading dangerously close to the old threads where Patrick M tried to defend ridiculous concepts like that space-launch "train" that reached orbital velocity traveling in a helical tube, centripetal g-forces be damned...
Originally posted by: arch_8ngel
Originally posted by: MrWunderful
Dyson spheres are crazy to think about.
I feel like the most obvious thing that kills the concept of a Dyson Sphere is the unimaginable amount of raw material you need to build one in the first place.
Couple that with the structural and other technical concerns of building it, in space, in the obscenely hostile environment of close proximity to a star (both heat and gravity), and I would rate it as pure science fiction with stuff like faster-than-light travel.
So you're telling me the Halo series isn't real?!
Originally posted by: Br81zad
So you're telling me the Halo series isn't real?!
I mean... I guess Master Chief is a more plausible super soldier than Warhammer 40k space marines
But aside from that ... ?
Dyson spheres are crazy to think about.
I feel like the most obvious thing that kills the concept of a Dyson Sphere is the unimaginable amount of raw material you need to build one in the first place.
Couple that with the structural and other technical concerns of building it, in space, in the obscenely hostile environment of close proximity to a star (both heat and gravity), and I would rate it as pure science fiction with stuff like faster-than-light travel.
Take that to the extreme and there’s a thing called a black hole bomb. Put a Dyson sphere around a spinning black hole coated with mirrors and let in some energy just outside of the event horizon and then open a mirror pointing at a target...it’s a real life Death Star the size of a small city.
Dyson spheres are crazy to think about.
I feel like the most obvious thing that kills the concept of a Dyson Sphere is the unimaginable amount of raw material you need to build one in the first place.
Couple that with the structural and other technical concerns of building it, in space, in the obscenely hostile environment of close proximity to a star (both heat and gravity), and I would rate it as pure science fiction with stuff like faster-than-light travel.
Take that to the extreme and there’s a thing called a black hole bomb. Put a Dyson sphere around a spinning black hole coated with mirrors and let in some energy just outside of the event horizon and then open a mirror pointing at a target...it’s a real life Death Star the size of a small city.
Built with "unobtanium", I'm sure
Dyson spheres are crazy to think about.
I feel like the most obvious thing that kills the concept of a Dyson Sphere is the unimaginable amount of raw material you need to build one in the first place.
Couple that with the structural and other technical concerns of building it, in space, in the obscenely hostile environment of close proximity to a star (both heat and gravity), and I would rate it as pure science fiction with stuff like faster-than-light travel.
So you're telling me the Halo series isn't real?!
It's a historial re-enactment.
Dyson spheres are crazy to think about.
I feel like the most obvious thing that kills the concept of a Dyson Sphere is the unimaginable amount of raw material you need to build one in the first place.
Couple that with the structural and other technical concerns of building it, in space, in the obscenely hostile environment of close proximity to a star (both heat and gravity), and I would rate it as pure science fiction with stuff like faster-than-light travel.
Take that to the extreme and there’s a thing called a black hole bomb. Put a Dyson sphere around a spinning black hole coated with mirrors and let in some energy just outside of the event horizon and then open a mirror pointing at a target...it’s a real life Death Star the size of a small city.
Built with "unobtanium", I'm sure
Of course. But far much less of it needed that a full sol sized Dyson sphere...probably only need an entire moons worth of material! But every time you throw in some matter you steal some of the black holes energy so it’s virtually infinite power! Of course it would just be a superweapon instead.
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
-- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
That book is an awesome read and well worth anyone's time.
Carl was the man!!! :-)