> I think a dyson sphere is a tremendous waste of matter. If ones
> intent is to maximize useful surface area - a mandelbrot foam-like
> structure beats a dyson sphere by several orders of magnitude.
The dyson sphere isn't intended to maximize surface, but rather to
collect all available energy from a star. I would guess the real fun
stuff goes on outside it, perhaps in orbiting stations (like in
Robert Bradbury's presentation at Extro3) or in lots of small
computer nodes orbiting in the shadow of the sphere. They might be
fractal, but I don't see any point in it (it won't cool better than a
sphere in vaccuum, and increases internal delays).
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Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
nv91-asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~nv91-asa/main.html
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