12-23-2020, 04:12 AM
IIRC a fully developed Matrioshka brain would radiate at just barely above CBR temp and so might be very hard to detect. Dysons might be seen as a primitive solution to the idea of a fully developed solar system. Similar issues might apply to things like interstellar comm and travel. Very tight beams might be used or maybe such systems use gravitational solar foci to reduce their transmission power to a tiny fraction of what it might otherwise be. Interstellar travel might be done in some analogous way that maximizes efficiency and is minimally detectable to our tech as a side effect.
On the flip side, something as simple as highly effective birth control might slow down a civilizations growth to the point where it could take a very long time for it to need to develop the universe to the point where we would notice. Or such projects might take place only every few thousand years - so we just aren't seeing one in action atm.
Taking a page from Greg Egan's Diaspora setting - even a civ that can build dysons or similar structures may choose not to and see such efforts as primitive or environmentally destructive.
Basically there are more options than just 'lots of aliens doing what we might currently expect' and 'no aliens'.
Just some thoughts,
Todd
On the flip side, something as simple as highly effective birth control might slow down a civilizations growth to the point where it could take a very long time for it to need to develop the universe to the point where we would notice. Or such projects might take place only every few thousand years - so we just aren't seeing one in action atm.
Taking a page from Greg Egan's Diaspora setting - even a civ that can build dysons or similar structures may choose not to and see such efforts as primitive or environmentally destructive.
Basically there are more options than just 'lots of aliens doing what we might currently expect' and 'no aliens'.
Just some thoughts,
Todd