12-15-2014, 01:26 AM
OA does like it's megastructures (and I definitely include myself in this; I've originated more than a few of them in my time). But they don't represent a 'must happen', but rather a 'could happen'.
Even if a civ did go in for some amount of megaengineering it could be relatively 'small scale' in the sense that the structures are 'merely' measured in tens to thousands of km across rather than dyson or equivalent size. Clouds of space habs orbiting a star would be very hard for us to spot.
One fun idea: Our observations of stars have detected lots of very large planets orbiting very close to their stars, something that was quite a surprise and I'm not sure if we've yet come up with a solid theory on why that should happen. Which leaves the door open to a notion: Those giant planets are actually Jupiter Brains hosting superintelligences or upload civilizations (or both), and are orbiting so close to the star to make use of lots of solar power...
So many possible options...
Todd
Even if a civ did go in for some amount of megaengineering it could be relatively 'small scale' in the sense that the structures are 'merely' measured in tens to thousands of km across rather than dyson or equivalent size. Clouds of space habs orbiting a star would be very hard for us to spot.
One fun idea: Our observations of stars have detected lots of very large planets orbiting very close to their stars, something that was quite a surprise and I'm not sure if we've yet come up with a solid theory on why that should happen. Which leaves the door open to a notion: Those giant planets are actually Jupiter Brains hosting superintelligences or upload civilizations (or both), and are orbiting so close to the star to make use of lots of solar power...
So many possible options...
Todd