Re: Dyson spheres are not dark

Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@nada.kth.se)
Fri, 27 Jun 1997 20:30:50 +0200 (MET DST)


On Thu, 26 Jun 1997, Carl Feynman wrote:

> At 11:41 AM 6/25/97 -0500, Dejan Vucinic wrote:
> > o What is the minimal distance from Sun at which a (diamondoid?)
> > statite can preserve its crystalline structure?
>
> The minumum distance is around 136 kilometers [not a typo!].

Sounds intriguing! Although I suppose we need some marginals to deal
with the local "weather" and low-fequency waves in the solar
atmosphere.

> You'll get to see the rest of this essay once I calculate some more, and
> maybe draw a picture or two. Provided I don't decide to first finish my
> essays on re-engineering the human body or burning down the Sun...

I look forward to all of these essays; if you finish yours, I'll try
to finish my half-finished essays about Jupiter brains and von
Neumann probes.

> Blackbody radiation over the largest possible area is the most efficient way
> of getting rid of heat. All other methods of heat disposal will leave less
> energy available for useful purposes.

Is there any good way of proving this? I'm constantly finding myself
bumping into thermodynamics (which I have not studied much) when I
want to do megaengineering.

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Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
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