Current Events > Sam Altman says we'll just create a dyson sphere to power AI

(+) Yeah! (+)

Linking this forbes article because it inexplicably glazes this incredibly dumb fucking idea and somehow makes it seem remotely plausible:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwerner/2025/05/12/sam-altman-on-harvesting-star-power/

These people are billionaires

None of these people are living in the same reality the rest of us are.

I forget the guy's name, but I think he's a physicist who appeared on TV, the news, etc., where he laughed at the idea of dyson spheres because he said something about how there wasn't enough resources in a solar/star system to encase the star they were meant to, or something like that.

What a lunatic.

First they would have to build a Dyson Sphere. Then we would have the energy to build a Dyson Sphere.

These fucking tech bros are the poster children for the phrase 'if you had kept your mouth shut, we might have thought you were clever'.

boxoto posted...

I forget the guy's name, but I think he's a physicist who appeared on TV, the news, etc., where he laughed at the idea of dyson spheres because he said something about how there wasn't enough resources in a solar/star system to encase the star they were meant to, or something like that.

The original "paper" about dyson spheres was a literal joke written by a physicist poking fun at how dumb ideas keep getting funded. It was a single page, had about 4 paragraphs of arguments and literally no maths or physics. it simply proposed that like, surely in 3000 years we'll be advanced enough to deconstruct jupiter and use the materials to build a megastructure around the sun. Freeman Dyson said that it was funny that his dumbest joke idea was what he became famous for.

They included dyson spheres in an episode of star trek and even there it was considered too outlandish to be real.

Billionaires are so out of touch with reality. I wished, more people would stop hailing to them. Instead, they should hail to people who have the best interest of our planet and its civilians in mind. To people, who are decent human beings and add something meaningful to our society while not harming others.

I see you're still watching Angela Collier.

To anyone wondering about the feasibility of actually building a Dyson Sphere. Step 1 is...Harvest Jupiter and / or Mercury for resources.

Which uh. Yeah we don't have the tech to mine Earth of all its resources so like. The fuck do you mean harvesting an entire extra planet???

Step 2 btw is "The rest of the fucking owl" we do not have even a working concept of how to build a megastructure as sophisticated as a Dyson Sphere would be. Like, can we even build a solar panel in space capable of transmitting the energy back to earth?

humans will be extinct long before we leave earth let alone before we are capable of building a Dyson sphere

but at least let me believe theres some aliens out there who are hyper-advanced and built one :(

boxoto posted...

I forget the guy's name, but I think he's a physicist who appeared on TV, the news, etc., where he laughed at the idea of dyson spheres because he said something about how there wasn't enough resources in a solar/star system to encase the star they were meant to, or something like that.

The concept was originally pitched as a parody of the SETI program. It was never meant to be taken seriously.

pinky0926 posted...

The original "paper" about dyson spheres was a literal joke written by a physicist poking fun at how dumb ideas keep getting funded. It was a single page, had about 4 paragraphs of arguments and literally no maths or physics. it simply proposed that like, surely in 3000 years we'll be advanced enough to deconstruct jupiter and use the materials to build a megastructure around the sun. Freeman Dyson said that it was funny that his dumbest joke idea was what he became famous for.

They included dyson spheres in an episode of star trek and even there it was considered too outlandish to be real.

thanks for the background.

I've heard about Dyson Spheres before, including with fiction, but besides knowing the guy's name, I never looked into them.

Uta posted...

The concept was originally pitched as a parody of the SETI program. It was never meant to be taken seriously.

thanks!

Uta posted...

I see you're still watching Angela Collier.

To anyone wondering about the feasibility of actually building a Dyson Sphere. Step 1 is...Harvest Jupiter and / or Mercury for resources.

Which uh. Yeah we don't have the tech to mine Earth of all its resources so like. The fuck do you mean harvesting an entire extra planet???

Step 2 btw is "The rest of the fucking owl" we do not have even a working concept of how to build a megastructure as sophisticated as a Dyson Sphere would be. Like, can we even build a solar panel in space capable of transmitting the energy back to earth?

She's got a knack for explaining exactly why certain things piss me off so much

Does he think the sun is a fire burning in the firmament?

I think what really gets under my skin is that this is his justification for how to deal with the fact that AI's energy requirements are currently raping the planet.

We'll just destroy the entire solar system using magic, that's the solution. He is a serious person.

Still waiting on that hyper loop first.

Rika_Furude posted...

humans will be extinct long before we leave earth let alone before we are capable of building a Dyson sphere

but at least let me believe theres some aliens out there who are hyper-advanced and built one :(

I think if I remember right would be a star that blinks, that also has less matter for something its size.

Let's use the solar for example. We know most of mass out there we can see. The 8 planet . Dwarf-planets, asteroid belt, KO. Around another star we know by size amd its surrounding region of space how much mass should be there. So if looking at a star to detect a eye on sphere it would blink. And Blink often. #2 It would be stripped of planets except the livable one. That would only last for awhile. In our solar system we have Jupiter as the anchor. It keeps all planets in a reasonable orbit. Take it away and things go haywire. So practically on a single planet and dyson sphere is low probability now what you could do is build on the outside of the Dyson sphere. Like the outside skin of a apple or orange. You wouldn't have to transfer energy really at all.

pinky0926 posted...

The original "paper" about dyson spheres was a literal joke written by a physicist poking fun at how dumb ideas keep getting funded. It was a single page, had about 4 paragraphs of arguments and literally no maths or physics. it simply proposed that like, surely in 3000 years we'll be advanced enough to deconstruct jupiter and use the materials to build a megastructure around the sun. Freeman Dyson said that it was funny that his dumbest joke idea was what he became famous for.

They included dyson spheres in an episode of star trek and even there it was considered too outlandish to be real.

Jupiter is a natural shield against many objects that would otherwise be a risk to earth . So not smart to remove it

Zikten posted...

Jupiter is a natural shield against many objects that would otherwise be a risk to earth . So not smart to remove it

If we get to the point where billionaire techbros are blocking out the sun to power fucking ChatGPT, I welcome the meteors.

Nota214 posted...

Still waiting on that hyper loop first.

Didn't they build a tunnel for Tesla taxis instead?

ai123 posted...

Didn't they build a tunnel for Tesla taxis instead?

The tunnel and the hyperloop are different things. The hyperloop had a few different test sites that never developed into anything.