The Dyson Sphere concept really fails the reality test as far as practical application is concerned. However I think we will eventually build city-sized rotating cylinders like Gerard K O'Neil envisioned at key locations throughout the solar system and eventually beyond.

Spaz, sector 3A in what system? That story line system? How do you get back there? I've searched a lot, but to no avail. That system is Omicron Major, isn't it?

The Monkeys are coming. Beware!

Anyone ever read Ringworld by Niven?

"Got anything for me?" - Trent, A.K.A. 'Mr. Eloquent'

So I'm not the only one that reads good books! (Please tell me you a very attractive girl and I'll mary you right now. Yes my search for the perfect girl would be over, but you're probably a guy )

Anyway, wonderful story, and so are the sequels. Though it WAS a bit farfetched, it is more likely to accually build a ringworld than to build a Dyson Sphere. If anyone is still wondering why, read the previous pages.

I would prefere living on a planet, though. Planets have sunsets an sunrises. Ringworld had stationary 'sunscreens' floating in space and a rotating Ring(world). Full daylight would turn into pitchblackness in a matter of minutes.

So, are there more Ringworld fans out there or should I start a 'reading club' topic



---Everything is evolution---

I always burn at the satalites, firing about 5 torpedos. When i get there, it sit about 1m away, in the little crack, so the nomads end up missing me and hitting the satalite, plus im fairly hidin. After a while of shooting it with the orders cheap lasers, it should die.
Then move on to the next one and do the same.

"Game hackers are simply more aggressive versions of game modders."

I should know, I am one, We are one!!!

Heat does not travel through space. EMR does, and the heat we 'recieve' from the sun is a conversion of heat energy to light energy (EMR) and back to heat again when it strikes our skin.

This is an important thing to remember. Heat would not 'bleed' through gaps in a sphere, like it might do on earth (born by the gaseous mix we know as Air). The light would eventually find it's way to the gaps, but not before it had touched down and reflected many many times at various points on the interior of the sphere(creating thermal energy). Putting gaps in will limit the sum total of energy contained within the sphere to a specific level. However, that level is bound to be very high when using only small gaps. The larger the gaps, the lower the level is going to be when equilibrium is reached. Also, the more reflective the surface of the sphere is, the lower that level will be (When speaking of a gapped sphere). In order to make that level hospitable to human life you'd need some pretty titanic gaps and/or a very shielded (and reflective) surface. If the surface was the same as the earth's, then the gaps would have to much larger than the actual surface area of the sphere itself. Remember that 2X the light energy (1x from direct light, and even 1x from reflected light) would cook the earth in VERY short order.

Ah why build a dyson sphere when you can just encase your planet in a 20 mile thick barrier, send massive colums down onto the ground, and "stabalize" the ground with massive quantities of nano-tech, making it as hard as tungsten, or even harder. Then just put a massive engine on one sade, and Vola! A mobile homeworld, safe from the eventualities of nature.

On the energy requirments: Go eat a super-string .

You guys are talking about the spheres like they really exist........ Do they really exist?

Nope, not that we know off anyway.
Only in books and theory and now in a game too

Well, okay
You guys talked about it like they really exist, so you got me anxious.

I don't see how anybody can not agree with the dyson sphere concept. Esentialy un-limited land and resources. Probles only come in when building it. It would need to be BEYOND earths orbit so as not as before mentioned to cook its inhabitants. Alittle extra space should do the trick, or if it were built with matter from the sun the sun would cool a little and so on. If humanity had a dyson sphere than I'd say our potential would be limitless. Ah well.

Speaking of good books... any 1 read enders game, anything by CS Friedman, or anything by Stephen Baxter?

"If the limit of a function exists, than it is unique(and therefore, doesn't exist)" - My Calculus textbook

I flew straight up and into the purple stream and fired my 6 plasmas cannons at them - then flew to another one and did the same. Got hit sometimes but able to withstand a lot of the damage the the shield generators screens protected me!