Thinker2222 wrote:How about a Dyson sphere?
Herald
I meant the book
Ringworld. But if you want to talk pointlessly large superstructures, then I would say that a Ringworld is a saner option but only just.
My thing is that if you're technologically sophisticated enough to be able to build a Niven Ring, let alone a Dyson Sphere, why would you ever need to build one?
I can only really think of three reasons why you would ever build something that big:
To ease overpopulation,
To harness the power of a star,
To centrally protect your civilization from the rest of the universe.
What I don't understand, as I have intimated, is that if you're powerful enough to be able to build a Ring/Sphere, why is it easier to do that than to solve these three problems in other ways?
Why is it easier to demolish a star system worth of planets, comets, asteroids and the rest to obtain the raw materials needed to build a Ring than it is to just colonize those planets? If your civilization is overcrowded, it's still going to be overcrowded while you're building the damn thing, and that's time you could've spent setting up home on those planets and terraforming them if necessary. Why is it easier to go to the effort of building from scratch a geography for your Ring with mountains and oceans and deserts and forests and all the rest -- the effort to make those tens of millions of planets' worth of surface area habitable -- than to just colonize suitable planets?
Why is it easier to use the central star as a source for power if you're a civilization that has enough power at its disposal to demolish the planets needed for construction then arrange that material as you want it? Let alone a civilization that has the power to get the thing rotating to simulate gravity? You can clearly utilize great energies; why settle on a Ring and use solar?
Why is it easier to build a Ring or a Sphere than to just make lots and lots and lots of guns and machines of war? The Ringworld books include something about the Ringworld being able to influence the star's magnetic field and cause an eruption that can destroy incoming targets. Why is it easier to build something that can do that than to invest in a military of some description that can the same job with less fuss?
In short, in my opinion, if you're advanced enough to be able to build one of these things, you're probably advanced enough not to need to.
But if you can tell me something I've missed I'll be happy to read it.
Triple-F wrote:Is that what their calling their new range of vacuum cleaners?
Yes. Yes, it is. You've heard of black holes hoovering up everything in sight; well, here's the competition. And you don't need to change the singularity when the suction goes and it gets all clogged up.
"Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards."
- Fred Hoyle
Fri Oct 05, 2007 7:51 am 
