We Should Be Looking for Small, Hot Dyson Spheres
If you chart humanity's rising energy use, we'll eventually be using all the solar radiation that falls on Earth, and then all the energy emitted by the Sun - a Dyson sphere (or swarm). A new paper investigates the thermodynamics of Dyson spheres, considering the different trade-offs between the energy received, the amount of computation they could perform, and how they could dissipate their heat. According to the paper, the most efficient use of mass is to create very small, hot Dyson spheres. This will help astronomers search for them across the galaxy.
#dysonspheres
http://arxiv.org/abs/2309.06564
https://m.universetoday.com/system/media_attachments/files/111/065/432/292/329/053/original/bcdbd694283e975c.jpg
@6a30a78d dunno, but I think just the name "hot balls" might mitigate against them being adopted in any great measure
@6a30a78d @0c1a9324 it strikes me that a species capable of building an expensive, fragile megastructure will obviously be aware of how *visible* they are.
Maybe they will use their advanced technology to disguise the structure in some way?
Maybe nobody ever builds one because someone always wipes you out before you finish painting that giant target on your back?
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