"Et tu, Berkley?"

[Potoooooooo]

Bloom County seems to have gotten religion

 

[Nexus]

I think he is just criticizing the ad hoc nature of dark matter in the cosmological model. Think of it like the Ptolemaic system of epicycles and deferents to explain observations that were not in accord with contemporary cosmology. As the discordance persisted, the epicycles and deferents got increasingly complicated and unwieldy. What if instead of calling the unexplained gravity from astronomical observation or dark matter the cool sounding sci-fi name we use, what if we called it God dust or invisible pink unicorn poop in space.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I think he is just criticizing the ad hoc nature of dark matter in the cosmological model. Think of it like the Ptolemaic system of epicycles and deferents to explain observations that were not in accord with contemporary cosmology. As the discordance persisted, the epicycles and deferents got increasingly complicated and unwieldy. What if instead of calling the unexplained gravity from astronomical observation or dark matter the cool sounding sci-fi name we use, what if we called it God dust or invisible pink unicorn poop in space.

Well, unlike God, we can see the effects of dark matter and energy, even if we can't detect the actual things themselves. We know that there's a something there as opposed to a nothing. They aren't things which are arrived at by faith, but are the conclusions drawn from the data we have available.

The specualtions regarding it involve thinking up ways to try and get more information about what kinds of somethings they are so that we can peel back our current veils of ignorance even further.

Everything about them is the exact opposite of everything about gods.

 

[Nexus]

Everything about them is the exact opposite of everything about gods.

Good point.

Here's an idea I just read on a strange blog. We know that dark matter and dark energy account for 95% of the mass/energy in the universe. We only know this because of the gravitational effects on the visible matter/energy we can observe. The cosmological model explains the physics of normal or visible matter/energy but not dark energy/matter, so we assume the excess gravity is from two types of matter/energy.

Here's the interesting speculation, what if the dark matter/energy is simply normal matter/energy just hidden by Dyson spheres. So we can't detect it directly but still see the gravitational effects on non-Dyson sphere harvested stars. It might be that intelligent life arose throughout the universe and the different species achieved type 3 status.

They have "claimed" 95% of the universe for matter and energy harvest but live in generational spaceships and are in a state of total warfare with each other. And space warfare is essentially like submarine warfare or snipers hunting each other. Offensive capability far exceeds defensive technology. So the only viable strategy is hiding from each other and attacking first if an enemy gives away their position.

The visible universe we can observe are the areas they can't colonize without giving away their position. Planets like earth with radio waves blaring out into space could simply be used as a hunting decoy. We wouldn't need to be attacked by the first ETs discovering us because we are no threat. But they would watch and hope an enemy attacks so they could counter attack a real type 3 threat.

 

[Bronzeage]

I think he is just criticizing the ad hoc nature of dark matter in the cosmological model. Think of it like the Ptolemaic system of epicycles and deferents to explain observations that were not in accord with contemporary cosmology. As the discordance persisted, the epicycles and deferents got increasingly complicated and unwieldy. What if instead of calling the unexplained gravity from astronomical observation or dark matter the cool sounding sci-fi name we use, what if we called it God dust or invisible pink unicorn poop in space.

Well, unlike God, we can see the effects of dark matter and energy, even if we can't detect the actual things themselves. We know that there's a something there as opposed to a nothing. They aren't things which are arrived at by faith, but are the conclusions drawn from the data we have available.

The specualtions regarding it involve thinking up ways to try and get more information about what kinds of somethings they are so that we can peel back our current veils of ignorance even further.

Everything about them is the exact opposite of everything about gods.

If his eye is on the sparrow, certainly He can see dark matter.

 

[James Brown]

I've read that Dyson spheres would glow in the infared. They're also highly unstable.

 

[Nexus]

We can't really know how the tech of a Dyson sphere will be until we start engineering them. But if infrared is leaking they're not working as theoretically intended.

 

[bigfield]

We can't really know how the tech of a Dyson sphere will be until we start engineering them. But if infrared is leaking they're not working as theoretically intended.

Don't worry; they come with a warranty.

 

[Underseer]

He got dark matter and dark energy mixed up.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

I've read that Dyson spheres would glow in the infared. They're also highly unstable.

I thought they'd be more wireline based, with strips around the sun, not entirely encasing the sun, which would require an absurd amount of material.

 

[James Brown]

I've read that Dyson spheres would glow in the infared. They're also highly unstable.

I thought they'd be more wireline based, with strips around the sun, not entirely encasing the sun, which would require an absurd amount of material.

That's Larry Niven's take with Ringworld. Yes, an enclosed sphere, spinning to provide gravity, would have its atmosphere pool near the equator. So just build the ring around the equator since everything else will be just empty waste.

But as Niven learned, even a Ring World wasn't gravitationally stable.

Furthermore, a Ring World would be even less likely to be confused for dark matter.