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The issue I have with Dyson Sphere's is in 1960 the idea of the singularity hadn't really been floated. I think it is far more likely that civilizations either die or upload.
Let's be realistic. A civilization so advanced as to be able to capture the entire energy of a star, probably also has energy alternatives, and probably wouldn't want to attract the attention of lesser beings (like us) by trapping a star's output in a detectable way.
>A civilization that built a Dyson Sphere would have to go to great lengths to avoid detection, either by getting rid of its waste heat in some novel way, or by building massive radiators that give off heat so cool that it would be undetectable against the cosmic microwave background, the faint afterglow of the Big Bang. So if a civilization were to completely mask itself in the EM spectrum, the only way to detect th…
This seems to be an unsupported assumption.
Let's be realistic. A civilization so advanced as to be able to capture the entire energy of a star, probably also has energy alternatives, and probably wouldn't want to attract the attention of lesser beings (like us) by trapping a star's output in a detectable way.
Solar power? I'm pretty sure they'd be using nuclear fusion.
On the other hand, if you put your solar collector well inside Mercury's orbit, where the solar flux is dramatically higher, then you get plenty of power, without having to maintain and fuel a reactor.
...assuming that the galaxy's most advanced civilizations are protoplasmic. But
beings whose chemistry is based on molten copper, say, would want a hotter
environment. They might have evolved faster, in temperatures where chemistry and
biochemistry would move far faster. There might be a lot more of them than of
us. And their red-hot Dyson spheres would look deceptively like red giant or
supergiant stars. One wonders.Larry Niven, "Bigger Than Worlds" (1974) ...assuming that the galaxy's most advanced civilizations are protoplasmic. But beings whose chemistry is based on molten copper, say, would want a hotter environment. They might have evolved faster, in temperatures where chemistry and biochemistry would move far faster. There might be a lot more of them than of us. And their red-hot Dyson spheres would look deceptively like r…
Solar power? I'm pretty sure they'd be using nuclear fusion.