We've Built Cities We Can't Afford

Re:We've Built Cities We Can't Afford by fastball on Saturday April 18, 2020 @09:42PM (#22912753)

So the actual logistics of starting work on a Dyson sphere wasn't really the point of my comment. My only point was that we could make a start, because we grasp the principles – surround the sun with a structure that can capture most of its energy output.

Contrast with the plentitude of natural things we presumably don't understand / know about (unlike the sun) and there is a lot of potential for the future.

That being said, for the construction of a sphere you would presumably not be shipping matter from earth. You'd be towing in matter from asteroid belts and such.

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Re:We've Built Cities We Can't Afford by sudosysgen on Sunday April 19, 2020 @12:46PM (#22917051)

Towing materials from asteroid belts would require almost as much energy, and you would need some sort of megastructure for processing.

What I'm telling you is that there are hard limits that mean that our growth must slow down. There is a hard limit to how much energy we can harness from the earth, and a hard limit for how fast we can avoid this. Progress will have to slow down, a society based on endless exponential growth at short-term significant rates is untenable.

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