re: #454 ArchangelMichael

Not such a Dyson sphere (or more likely, shell or ring) fan myself. Great for sci-fi stories, but I think that it would be more realistic to just go elsewhere. Our sun is not going to last forever and a project of that magnitude would eventually go to waste. It’s like building a house on the shore when you are reasonable sure the land will end up underwater in the near future.

Even if no manner of manipulating space-time to create non-local FTL effects is ever discovered, nuclear powered generation-ships could make 1-way journeys to spread humanity and keep up from having the whole “all eggs in one basket” single point of failure problem. I think there’s enough hydrogen isotopes for fusion to remain our primary source of power indefinitely once we figure out how to do it correctly.

The problem with “go elsewhere” is that we are finding that the universe is not only expanding, but accelerating. By time we get the tech to go elsewhere we will likely be in a state where at least a semi-Dyson will be needed. Our Kardashev ranking needs to increase.