News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Mercurial Dyson – a plan for the disassembly of planet Mercury.

Re:Mercurial Dyson – a plan for the disassembly of planet Me... by rafterydj on Friday April 03, 2026 @02:59PM (#47630660)
This reads like an LLM plagiarizing this video from Kurzgesagt:

https://youtu.be/pP44EPBMb8A?si=fSwWPOCnCsC1QEny

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Mercurial Dyson – a plan for the disassembly of planet Me... by ethmarks on Friday April 03, 2026 @03:11PM (#47630808)
Kurzgesagt didn't invent the concept of disassembling Mercury to build a Dyson swarm. Stuart Armstrong proposed it in a lecture in 2012[0].

[0]: https://youtu.be/zQTfuI-9jIo?si=3jwmhoB7zx6rclhb

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Mercurial Dyson – a plan for the disassembly of planet Me... by 0xf00ff00f on Friday April 03, 2026 @03:13PM (#47630838)
Pretty sure the idea predates that lecture, it appears in Charles Stross' novel Accelerando from 2005 (which is based on short stories that were published years earlier).
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Mercurial Dyson – a plan for the disassembly of planet Me... by rmijic on Saturday April 04, 2026 @04:31PM (#47643070)
That video is describing the generic concept of building a Dyson sphere from Mercury but lacks a proper account of waste heat removal and energy. It also lacks a specific timeline.
[ Parent | on HN ]