> A Dyson Sphere is not a solid object. Instead, it's many small objects each of which is in a stable orbit.
Actually, we've never seen one so we have no idea how one might be engineered! It could for example be a "fog" of worlds that extends out past several local AU and to us would look nothing more like a dust cloud obscuring their local star. There wouldn't be a telltale signal of a Dyson Sphere, just another star with a big dust cloud.
Imagine a civilization like this, those closer to the star get more power literally, and those on the outskirts and in the shadows of the other worlds become dependent on the more inner worlds to re-radiate their absorbed energy, or to condense and lase the energy outwards to the shadow worlds...at some cost that limitless free energy can't pay for.
Beyond some distance the worlds become so cold that the inhabitants freeze to death and exile of your entire world at the whims of the inners becomes a real punishment. Dead worlds are recycled for mass for the growing population of the inners, or repurposed for other things.
There are billions of such worlds. Perhaps they are customarily shaped as small ringworlds and rotate in a complex manner to produce gravity and a daynight cycle. Dead or frozen worlds may have a reflective sail hoisted along the inner opening and expeditionary generation ships are sent out to nearby stars powered by lasers collected from hundreds of inner worlds.
Successful colonies may start to immediate transform the mass of nearby planetary systems into new "dust" clouds rather than settle on the planetary surfaces. Many adjacent Dyson spheres may look to us like just interstellar gases between several stars containing an unusual amount of organic molecules but could be the exchange of trillions of generation ships moving mass and energy back and forth between stars.
Such a civilization could eventually become nomadic in a way, moving from star to star as they burn out, leaving behind frozen husks of trillions of dead ringworlds.
Actually, we've never seen one so we have no idea how one might be engineered! It could for example be a "fog" of worlds that extends out past several local AU and to us would look nothing more like a dust cloud obscuring their local star. There wouldn't be a telltale signal of a Dyson Sphere, just another star with a big dust cloud.
Imagine a civilization like this, those closer to the star get more power literally, and those on the outskirts and in the shadows of the other worlds become dependent on the more inner worlds to re-radiate their absorbed energy, or to condense and lase the energy outwards to the shadow worlds...at some cost that limitless free energy can't pay for.
Beyond some distance the worlds become so cold that the inhabitants freeze to death and exile of your entire world at the whims of the inners becomes a real punishment. Dead worlds are recycled for mass for the growing population of the inners, or repurposed for other things.
There are billions of such worlds. Perhaps they are customarily shaped as small ringworlds and rotate in a complex manner to produce gravity and a daynight cycle. Dead or frozen worlds may have a reflective sail hoisted along the inner opening and expeditionary generation ships are sent out to nearby stars powered by lasers collected from hundreds of inner worlds.
Successful colonies may start to immediate transform the mass of nearby planetary systems into new "dust" clouds rather than settle on the planetary surfaces. Many adjacent Dyson spheres may look to us like just interstellar gases between several stars containing an unusual amount of organic molecules but could be the exchange of trillions of generation ships moving mass and energy back and forth between stars.
Such a civilization could eventually become nomadic in a way, moving from star to star as they burn out, leaving behind frozen husks of trillions of dead ringworlds.