/sci/ - Science & Math

Some may ask how does a Matrioshka Brain differ from a Dyson Shell? The answer is that the original concept, as envisioned by Freeman Dyson, was a single layer of habitats for human beings orbiting the Sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Given the material requirements of "habitats" it is possible that a civilization may be required to construct them in such a way that the star they surround would remain visible. (This may be why anthropocentric SETI searches for Dyson Shells point their telescopes and radio receivers at visible stars. Alternatively this may just be a problem that insufficient thought has been devoted to the evolution of technological civilizations.) A Matrioshka Brain, in contrast to a Dyson Shell, is a set of nested shells (like the nested Russian Matryoshka Dolls) that surrounds a star most likely from orbits that would range from inside Mercury's to outside Neptune's in our solar system. The material requirements of its computronium are sufficiently low that there is nothing to prevent the civilization from completely harvesting all of the more useful energy produced by the star resulting in it being essentially invisible at visible wavelengths. The computronium would support advanced technological civilizations whose thought architectures and capabilities go far [really far(!)] beyond those found in human brains and humanity as they currently exist.