this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2025
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Today I Learned

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A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its power output. The concept is a thought experiment that attempts to imagine how a spacefaring civilization would meet its energy requirements once those requirements exceed what can be generated from the home planet's resources alone. Because only a tiny fraction of a star's energy emissions reaches the surface of any orbiting planet, building structures encircling a star would enable a civilization to harvest far more energy.

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[–] [email protected] 117 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

They only work during the day though.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

This is what they said about solar panels too, maybe it'll work out.

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[–] [email protected] 66 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

I pirated this to check it out and enjoyed it so much that I bought it even though it's in Early Access and that's very very rare for me. I still haven't played it more though as I'm still waiting for it to come out of EA, looking very much forward to play it again.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

I'm the same lol. I bought several books in print after pirating the ebooks.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

Same, purchased after pirating. You'll need cheats to convert your pirated save to legit if you want achievements, however.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

this looks like it will suck 500 hours out of my life the moment i press play

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

i cant. tell me if you find a way to escape. please.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

That's correct.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Damn that looks cool

[–] [email protected] 44 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

Be carful with those. You may block the light of constellation aliens use and really piss then off.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Eh, they won't find out until a few centuries later anyway

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

Well unless they are monitoring or are relatively close. The issue was they got annoyed cause their decedendants won't see their "holy constellation". Something like a north star to them I guess. So anyway I started a purification campaign In response.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

...no, they won't know for a few hundred years due to the actual speed of light and vast distances of space.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

Unless they have some fancy alien sensor with quantum entangled particles so they get an alert instantly

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

You're assuming they are not part of the deep state already!

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago

"People of Earth, I am Lrrr of the planet Omicron Persei 8."

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

You need to watch more Star Trek, friend.

Specifically "The Next Generation", Season 6, Episode 4, " Relics".

Thank me later. 😁

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

Classic episode; one of my favorite

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

With a bottle of green.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

A pinnacle of science, a wonder of engineering, that we will never get to see in our lifetimes. Instead, we get to see Taiwan get nuked or something, I don't know. I don't follow the news much, I only know I'm disappointed.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

If we could just speed up cryogenics or hibernation technology…

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Came here to say that if you like this concept, Peter Hamilton has a book series called Commonwealth Saga in the science fiction category that is excellent. Lots of pseudoscience from early 2000s in that series.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Some TIL posts really surprise you, it's crazy to me that you have never heard about this. Not being degrading or anything like that, it's just surprising.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Yeah never heard about it, although I never watched Star Trek personally.

But did you know that we can extract Graphene by heating it up super high so that everything else gets destroyed except graphene?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Read the bobiverse and you'll come across a topopolis. The pictures on wiki suck so here's one from fiction.

https://kardashev.fandom.com/wiki/Topopolis

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

I didn't know that! You keep sharing the hits! Keep it coming!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Eh, there's only one in all of Star Trek, and they forgot about it after one episode. Should have a whole series.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

Wait! The same problem Larry Niven’s Ringworld have also applies to Dyson Spheres? Huh! Saving to read later.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That's crazy that they made this hypothesis based on a steam game

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I don’t remember the math, but you lose return on investment after a certain percentage of coverage.

Dyson Grids are the future!!! 😜

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Or DYson Bubbles, which would also "cover" enough "surface" to be viable without needing god knows how many planets' worth of material

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

The other "benefit" to the sphere is blacking out a star. Other life, should it exist, is less likely to find the structure. ITT people destroying my dreams of a big shelly boi

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I would think it'd make it more likely that you're discovered when you turn your star into a black ball with a gigantic IR signature where a star should be. Any civilization with a cursory understanding of gravity and stellar spectra would turn every telescope they have on you.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

What does IR red shift into over cosmic distances? But it would be just as, if not less, noticeable as a star suddenly dimming to [100%-optimal capture rate]

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Maybe make it a dyson fan since the sphere would only work during the daytime. In polar areas that means half a year without any energy production!

Whereas there is always solar wind.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

wHaT aBoUt wHen iTs NoT WinDy!!??!?!?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

There is also the Matrioshka brain, a hypothetical supercomputer powered by a Dyson sphere

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Okay but where does the invisible hand dryer go?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Kind of looks like an atom

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Is dark matter just Dyson sphered stars?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

My initial reaction: "What? No."

After thinking a little bit: "hmm I guess you could say that..."

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

Start with a dyson ring or swarm

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