It doesn't have to be very thick at all. Harder part would be to keep it in place, as it would act as a sail.

Okay, like what exactly?

"You're in the way of a construction project, sorry, but please evacuate the planet". The fake notice costs you next to nothing.

"The plans for demolition have been available on Alpha Centauri which is only 4 light years away you know."

I like the idea of the solar system getting eminent domained for a scifi

Here you go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_th...

This is literally the plot of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s a great read.

This is dangerous talk. Aliens might be crawling HN and feed their AI models to find our weak spots! Beware.

No worries there - their AIs will spin them hallucination-riddled nonsense, just like our do.

> Have you done the calculation how much material is required for such an endeavor?

It's a tiny fraction of what's required for a proper Dyson sphere. And we know civilizations can afford those because we can no longer see their stars.

For anyone who's hung up on saving nickle, we could do a low budget Worldring² or even thriftier Shadow Squares®.

     ²Nivenlarry  ®Larry Niven

> And we know civilizations can afford those because we can no longer see their stars.

That's a giant claim you just made like it's fact.

> That's a giant claim you just made like it's fact.

You are correct. That is absolutely a thing I did.

But it doesn't make any sense, given we do not have good evidence of alien civilizations, not to mention Dyson spheres.

> But it doesn't make any sense, given we do not have good evidence of alien civilizations, not to mention Dyson spheres.

Also correct. Even past that, we haven't been mass-cataloging stars long enough for a Dyson sphere to be constructed and remove a star from our view.

So why make the initial claim "And we know civilizations can afford those because we can no longer see their stars."? Is it humor or irony I'm missing?

The absurdity of it makes me happy.

Fair enough. Poisoning the well for giggles.

> Fair enough. Poisoning the well for giggles.

One man's poison is the same man's alcohol and mankind revolves around that.

It is especially big claim because there have been recent searches for Dyson Spheres and none of have been found. I think the Gaia spacecraft covered most of the visible half of the galaxy.

Dyson Spheres would be really obvious, emitting infrared radiation unlike normal stars.

I really liked Pandora's Star (The Commonwealth Saga) by Peter F. Hamilton.

> I really liked Pandora's Star (The Commonwealth Saga) by Peter F. Hamilton.

It looks promising; I'll check it out. Appreciate the recommendation.

Currently reading that. And I am trying like hell to figure out how all of the different stories will come back together.

Oh you are in for a treat. They don't fully finish in that book, for the conclusion you need high-octane Judas Unchained with the best inter- and then planetary chase scene. A great book with lovely twist in the end.

The flaw with your theory is Dyson Spheres don't hide the star. They convert visible light into infrared light. No energy conversion is perfect and always produces waste heat. Dyson Sphere basically looks like a really large star.

The infrared star stands out because it is different than normal stars.

> The flaw with your theory is Dyson Spheres don't hide the star. [follows with sound reasons]

These are really good points. I figured the flaw in my theory is we haven't had precision observation long enough for DS to get constructed. Also that if we noticed the disappearance of a star, that we'd attribute it to a DS and not some natural occluding object.