something i've been sitting with for a few months is that the reason we shouldn't see classic-style dyson spheres isn't because they'd be hard to see, or because no aliens, but because blocking the solar wind collapses the heliosphere and it would just get obliterated by interstellar media. - ThreadSky

absolutely-not.bsky.social • 12 hours ago

something i've been sitting with for a few months is that the reason we shouldn't see classic-style dyson spheres isn't because they'd be hard to see, or because no aliens, but because blocking the solar wind collapses the heliosphere and it would just get obliterated by interstellar media.

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absolutely-not.bsky.social•12 hours ago

but just now it occurred to me that geothermal extraction at a replacement scale may¹ accelerate geodynamic collapse over time², and it would be very funny if that's why³ mars is like that
¹ nobody knows how planetary dynamos work
² who can say how long this might take
³ we do know it's not not-why

bistrophysicist.bsky.social•11 hours ago

Hmm, could very efficient localized extraction (read: highly focused points of greater outward heat flux) cause more violent mantle convection? Would those plumes implant big ferromagnetic chunks in the lithosphere? I clearly need to go read up on crustal fields for some more cool not not-whys

absolutely-not.bsky.social•9 hours ago

i'm working with much simpler tools here: would pulling heat out of a system at ≥geological time —whose work creates a magnetic field— be good or bad. how many/large holes can be cut into a hot air balloon with a finite, generally constant fuel source until you have a bad time. things of this nature

bistrophysicist.bsky.social•8 hours ago

Hmm, ok. If we could pipe heat from the outer core directly/faster than the mantle currently does and thereby materially slow the flow that we (somehow, waving fluid dynamics around) attribute the dynamo to, I could see reducing the dipole mag field's strength. Effects = bad

absolutely-not.bsky.social•7 hours ago

see you get it

bistrophysicist.bsky.social•8 hours ago

That would also mean making the surface significantly hotter as a new thermal balance establishes. Effects = seems like much worse

bistrophysicist.bsky.social•12 hours ago

This is a fascinating line of thinking! I might add that, if built within the natural radial extent of the heliosphere, it could be the solar wind itself exerting the more destructive pressure (especially near the solar ecliptic). Same as your result, but a different kind of crazy plasma interaction

absolutely-not.bsky.social•11 hours ago

yes this seems correct. i was willing to grant future science the means for largely attracting and utilizing the solar wind, perhaps as some sort of large adult skybeam or plot device

bistrophysicist.bsky.social•11 hours ago

Love it, and brings up a fun memory...

Star Wars is a fun time and a favorite, belief usually fully suspended. But when Starkiller base ate the sun and then coughed it back out in a different location, I cackled in the theatre. The day was NOT saved; that solar system is screwed within a few orbits

absolutely-not.bsky.social•9 hours ago

no you don't, oprah!

bistrophysicist.bsky.social•8 hours ago

And you become a wandering planet. And YOU become a wandering planet!!!

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