On dark matter
- Banana Blueberry Smoothie (360)
Lunch:
- Pear (80)
- Turkey breast (65)
- Cottage Cheese (120)
- Red Grapes (100)
- Baby Carrots (90)
Dinner:
- Jalapeno Soy Cheese (130)
- Salami (100)
- Thin crust Spinach Pizza (440)
Snacks:
- 4 cups Coffee: (20)
- Nutrigrain Bar (140)
- Grapefruit (90)
Ye Grande Total: 1735 calories
So given the discovery (see last post) of an entire galaxy of dark matter, it brings back a memory of a fascinating idea I once read. I think it was first posed by Robert J. Bradbury on the extropians list, but no clue if that is the origin of the idea.
Dark matter has been a mystery for quite some time now. Another great mystery, given the Drake equation, is that we have not detected or come across any other life in the galaxy. It seems truly odd, given the extreme unlikeliness of our race being the first in the galaxy.
In a post-singularity situation, a transcendant AI wanting to grow smarter and more powerful would need to build as large a computational device as possible. It would need to dissasemble the solar system’s planets and asteroids in order to build as much computational substrate as possible. Besides raw materials, the other thing such a being would need is energy. Nothing could match the sun as a source of raw power. What if the AI was able to build the computational structure as a huge solar shell, completely enveloping the star in a lattice of solar computational material. From the outside, it would appear as if the star had dissapeared. Where are all the aliens?
Perhaps there is no ‘dark matter’, but only billions of missing stars, blacked out by the superpowers for energy, and we just can’t see them. Perhaps this dark matter galaxy is the end result of an exponential growth runaway superpower that has devoured the entire galaxy for energy. Obviously, I’m no astrophysicist. But I can smell a good SciFi novel.
That?s nothing. I produce dark matter every morning right after my first coffee.
I’m fairly sure the idea of that — Dyson spheres, I think they’re called — has been explored before. I know that Ringworld has overtones of it, and even the old AD&D SpellJammer universe had one, not to mention Star Trek 🙂
Sorry, not too unique.
Still, all told, it’s an interesting idea, and certainly would account for the whole galaxy being dark. However, would there not then be a significant amount of radio/&c. traffic from that galaxy as well, if the spheres communicate with each other? I suppose that in the interests of conserving limited supplies of energy we could assume that they use something coherent and near-lossless and laserlike to communicate, but even that should leave some kind of trace for us to detect.
Time will, of course, tell.
http://eliasonscountrycotta… Since the order of the world is shaped by death, mightn’t it be better for God if we refuse to believe in Him, and struggle with all our might against death without raising our eyes towards the heaven where He sits in silence?