17 Dec 2018

The Dyson Sphere: I’m Not Saying It’s Aliens, But…

Deep Thoughts 3 Comments

On Twitter I came across the actual paper (it’s one page) in which Freeman Dyson spelled out his idea of a sphere that harnesses the total energy output of a star. I never knew the context, though: He suggested that aliens had already built them, and explained the signature we should look for.

3 Responses to “The Dyson Sphere: I’m Not Saying It’s Aliens, But…”

  1. Mark says:

    Watch the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode called Relics.

  2. Tel says:

    Yup… you just solved the mystery of dark matter.

  3. Andrew_FL says:

    Well to be more precise Dyson suggested that if there is other intelligent life out in the universe, detecting the presence of Dyson Spheres would be the most obvious evidence we couldn’t possibly miss.

    There don’t seem to be any Dyson Spheres anywhere within the Past Light Cone. So either we are alone in the universe or nobody in the entire universe has as of yet, achieved this level of technological advancement. Of course, we’ve no sign of anyone emitting radio signals in the past light cone either, which is a level of technological advancement we *know* intelligent life can achieve so maybe we’re just alone in the universe, as unlikely as that would seem.

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