Emergent Behavior Dyson Spheres by 2040? with Prof. Jason Wright
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Oct 22, 2025 Join Penn State astronomer Jason T. Wright, director of the PSETI Center, as he dives into the fascinating world of Dyson spheres and technosignature searches. He explains why constructing a Dyson sphere in 50 years is a physical impossibility. Jason reveals how the WISE satellite surveyed 100,000 galaxies for signs of alien megastructures. He also discusses the challenges of hiding technosignatures, the potential of asteroid mining, and the critical role of self-replicating machines in future space endeavors.
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Dyson Sphere = Swarm, Not Solid Shell
- A Dyson sphere means many structures collecting a star's energy, not a solid shell.
- Freeman Dyson intended a swarm of collectors rather than an impossible rigid shell.
Waste Heat Is The Tell-Tale Technosignature
- Infrared waste heat reveals large-scale energy use and is best observed from space.
- WISE plus Gaia data show galaxy-scale Dyson spheres are absent and star-scale ones are very rare.
Cooling Drives Dyson Design Choices
- Cooling sets a hard limit on on-orbit computation because heat must be radiated away.
- For fixed mass, running systems hotter and closer to the star often yields more computations than cold, distant radiators.
