Random Thoughts, Observations, and Questions.

[Arkcon]

Renegade 13 said:
Not selfish, not evil. No life existed, so who cares?

I suppose you have to think in Star Trek (tm) terms -- there are thousands of civilizations, each in close proximity (relative to warp travel), each one arising, flourishing, interacting, falling, and rising again from the dust clouds of a past civilization.

The Dyson sphere halts all that -- it is the ultimate plowing of virgin forest to build an apartment complex. Maybe they plowed under a Demon class world that could have held some of that intelligence replicating silver goo. Or completely ate up a Silicate world -- Horta and all. And for what -- they don't even live there anymore. Just like Space Empires -- if you can build it, you pretty much don't need it anyway.

Our current sparse solar system, and the short lifespan of the effects we can have will leave us with a more casual point of view. It came up in these forums once a while back -- a civilization that was the extreme preservationists -- no forming planets from asteroids and stuff like that.

[Wade]

Um...wouldn't a civilization far advanced in the Star Trek universe use a construction method of some sort of energy to matter? Why would it bother with harvesting planets and asteroids to construct a Dyson Sphere?

The energy could be from the star or many stars or from a black hole or from a generator/power plant; or even some other technology we can't imagine. .

The matter created could be self replicating nanites that are the basis of the construction; or even some other technology we can't imagine.
Maybe they harvested the theoretical dark matter and converted it to regular matter. Only a tiny fraction of the overall amount of dark matter in this galaxy would be needed even for a Dyson Sphere.

Maybe they used some process that we can't imagine.

Maybe the builders of a particular Dyson Sphere are Trancended and "placed" it there for their "pets" or for study.

I think that if a civilization is advanced enough to construct a Dyson Sphere and stay powerful then a much lesser civilization most likely would not be able to unwelcomly encounter it. As the lesser civilization approched the borders of the advanced civilization they might be met by ships, barriers, or transporters. The entire advanced civilization might even be cloaked and/or phased.

-Wade

[AgentZero]

energy to matter conversion is totally imba!

[Wade]

What's "imba"?

How can we know what science will reveal thousands or even millions of years from now? Just over a hundred years ago our science told us it was impossible or not worth the cost for much of our current technology.

Much of what we now have as science and technology could not even be imagined by earlier generations. Much of what was imagined has developed. We can currently imagine much, including energy/matter conversion.

All matter is just organized energy.

(Besides, I stated, "in the Star Trek universe" where there is energy/matter conversion.)

-Wade

[AgentZero]

Wade said:
What's "imba"?

If you spent more time on #spaceempires, you'd know such things. You'd also know strange, disturbing and frightening things that would keep you up at night. But hey, everything has it's price!

[Arkcon]

Wade said:
Um...wouldn't a civilization far advanced in the Star Trek universe use a construction method of some sort of energy to matter? Why would it bother with harvesting planets and asteroids to construct a Dyson Sphere?

Well yeah, there is that whole point of view. The whole "ethics of a Dyson sphere" was just a train of thought from Picard, as he tried to understand the stellar fragment on a collision course and the Dyson sphere "dodging" it.