Where does the energy for upgrading human civilization come from? Do we need to build a Dyson sphere?

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First, let’s understand what a Dyson sphere is.

The Dyson Sphere Theory was created by Freeman Dyson, an American physicist and mathematician who was once an assistant to Einstein. He believes that energy is the most important catalyst in the development of any cosmic civilization. When technological civilization develops to a certain stage, it is no longer possible to achieve civilization advancement by simply relying on the energy of the mother planet. At this time, only by maximizing the energy of stars can the civilization level be further improved.

Simply put, it is to build a huge spherical shell to wrap the star that civilization depends on, collect all or most of the star's radiation energy, and not let it be wasted in space, so as to obtain the energy needed for civilization upgrade. Later, people called this sphere that wraps the sun the Dyson sphere.

This theory echoes the theory of three-level cosmic civilization proposed by former Soviet scientist Kardashev. He divided cosmic civilization into three levels, and the symbol for measuring the level of these civilizations is the energy that the civilization can control and consume: the total energy that a level-one civilization can control and utilize must reach the total energy radiated by the star to the parent planet; the total energy that a level-two civilization can control and utilize must reach the total energy radiated by the parent star; the total energy that a level-three civilization can control and utilize must reach the total radiation energy of its own parent galaxy.

From this, we can see that the three-level civilization theory is a dynamic indicator for the total amount of energy controlled and utilized by civilizations of different levels, and different star systems have different requirements. When applied to human civilization on Earth, the ability to control and utilize energy at different levels of civilization corresponds to the solar radiation energy and the Milky Way radiation energy.

The total energy of solar radiation is about 4*10^26 J/s (4 times 10 to the 26th power joules/second); these energies are continuously radiated into space, and the energy that the earth can receive is only one 2.2 billionth of it, which is about 1.8*10^17 J/s; the total radiation energy of the Milky Way is about 100 billion times that of the sun, which is 4*10^37 J/s.

Therefore, for humans to reach the first level of cosmic civilization, they must be able to control and utilize the total energy equivalent to that of the sun's radiation reaching the earth. To reach the second level of civilization, they must be able to control and utilize the total energy equivalent to that of the sun's radiation. To reach the third level of civilization, they must be able to control and utilize the total radiation energy equivalent to that of the entire Milky Way galaxy.

What are the energy sources for the current state of human civilization and its upgrading?

According to scientists' calculations, based on the total amount of energy that humans can currently control and utilize, the total amount of energy currently used by humans is about 2*10^13 J/s, and the civilization level has only reached level 0.73. To reach the first level of civilization, it is necessary to increase consumption by thousands of times on the existing basis. However, geochemical energy has shown signs of exhaustion. How can we obtain the huge energy required to achieve the first level of civilization? Scientists generally believe that the only way is to master controlled nuclear fusion.

The fuel for controlled nuclear fusion is deuterium and tritium, isotopes of hydrogen. These elements are widely present on the earth. Every liter of deuterium in seawater can produce the energy of about 300 liters of gasoline through nuclear fusion. It seems that once controlled nuclear fusion is successfully put into commercial use, energy will seem inexhaustible.

In fact, this is a great underestimation of the energy required for civilization upgrade. Even if controlled nuclear fusion is successfully developed, it can only reach the energy required for upgrading to level one civilization. Scientists estimate that it will take about 200 years for humans to upgrade to level one civilization, and the energy consumption will reach thousands of times the current level.

To upgrade from a Level 1 civilization to a Level 2 civilization, the energy demand must increase by at least 10 billion times from the current level, and 2.2 billion times from the Level 1 civilization. This terrifying amount of energy may be completely beyond the imagination of many people. Where will such a huge amount of energy come from at that time? Not only can it not be found on Earth, even if all the planets in the solar system are burned as coal balls, or converted into nuclear fusion fuel, it will not be able to reach one tenth of the required energy.

Because all the celestial bodies in the entire solar system, except the sun, including the eight planets and several dwarf planets, hundreds of satellites, and all small celestial bodies, debris and dust, together account for only 0.14% of the mass of the entire solar system. The mass of one sun accounts for 99.86% of the total mass of the solar system.

Therefore, only by capturing solar energy can humans meet the needs of upgrading to the second-level civilization. The total solar radiation energy is just the sign that humans have reached the second-level civilization level. The best way scientists have come up with to capture all the solar energy is the Dyson sphere.

Of course, the Dyson sphere is not just a sealed shell. Many scientists have made various assumptions about the form of the Dyson sphere, such as Dyson bubble, Dyson cloud, etc. I have already explained these in detail in my past articles or Q&A, so I will not elaborate on them here.

Regardless of the type of Dyson sphere, it is located near the Earth's orbit, that is, with the Sun as the core, to build a spherical enclosure with a radius of about 150 to 200 million kilometers to block the sunlight, so that the area of ​​solar radiation obtained reaches or approaches 2.2 billion times that of the Earth, and then is converted into usable energy through nuclear fusion through the facilities on the Dyson sphere shell. This is equivalent to obtaining all or most of the radiation energy from the Sun, which can meet the upgrade needs of the second-level civilization.

Some scientists estimate that it will take another 5,000 years for humans to achieve Level 2 civilization. In other words, the construction of the Dyson sphere must be completed within 5,000 years before humans can obtain the energy needed to upgrade to Level 2 civilization. Some friends may ask, why does it take so much energy to upgrade human civilization?

Some of these questions are still hard for us to understand, just like the ancients could not understand our current energy consumption. According to relevant data analysis and statistics, modern energy consumption is 2,300 times that of early agricultural societies. I dare not say that this statistic is very accurate, but at least it can show that the energy demand of each civilization is completely different in magnitude.

So, what kind of society will the second-level civilization be?

According to the Kardashev civilization level concept, once we reach the first level of civilization, we will no longer be afraid of any threats from the mother planet. As a human civilization, we will not be afraid of any disasters from the earth, including any climate and geological disasters. Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis will all be a piece of cake.

And the energy consumption will be thousands of times higher than the current level, which will be mainly used to respond to and control the climate, geological activities, large-scale space activities, industrial activities such as artificial intelligence, constantly updated and upgraded global transportation systems, complete communication network systems, research and popularization of human health and longevity, research on consciousness uploading and transfer, etc.

The activities of the first-level human civilization will be spread throughout the solar system, and colonize other planets or satellites in the solar system, so that the human eggs will be stored in the baskets of several planets to prevent the extinction of the species when an unpredictable natural disaster comes. The energy to achieve this level of civilization mainly depends on controlled nuclear fusion and solar energy technology.

When reaching the second level of civilization, humans will no longer be afraid of any disasters from the solar system, including solar eruptions, asteroid impacts and other natural disasters that are currently irresistible. The energy will be mainly used for the needs of human beings to upgrade to a more modern society, including human health and longevity and the upgrade of the form of existence, such as existing in a conscious way, etc., as well as for resisting various huge natural disasters and interstellar travel needs.

The activity range of this level of civilization will reach the star systems around the solar system, that is, fly out of the solar system and colonize the outer star systems. As for the solar system, due to the construction of the Dyson sphere, all the planets and even the dust have been decomposed, and the solar system is empty, with only one sun and a huge spherical shell. In addition to exploring and colonizing outside the solar system, all the remaining humans live in space cities built on the Dyson sphere, leading a new life that we cannot understand today.

The energy to achieve this level of civilization is solar energy. This energy is no longer the energy obtained by the solar energy collection and conversion device as we understand it today, but directly converts solar radiation into nuclear fusion energy through the device on the Dyson sphere. Spacecraft use this energy to fly to distant stars, and people living on the Dyson sphere also rely on this energy to complete manufacturing and consumption.

Now, let me answer your question:

Building a Dyson sphere requires a huge amount of energy, materials, and engineering technology. Therefore, when a civilization really has this kind of power, the energy of a star may only be a fraction of the energy that this civilization needs or can control. So... is the Dyson sphere still needed?

In fact, this understanding is wrong, or at least inaccurate, because it underestimates the energy of the sun. Because humans cannot obtain energy greater than the energy of the sun within the solar system, no matter how difficult it is to build a Dyson sphere or any other project, it is impossible to consume more energy than the energy of the sun, that is, 4*10^26J/s.

This is the energy radiated by the sun in one second. According to statistics, the total global electricity consumption in 2021 is 28.466 trillion degrees. The energy radiated by the sun in one second is equivalent to the current electricity consumption of mankind for 3903 years, equivalent to the explosive power of 9.6 trillion tons of TNT, which is the power of about 7.36 trillion Hiroshima atomic bombs exploding at the same time. The huge radiation energy of the sun is 20 trillion times the total energy utilization of mankind at this stage.

Therefore, the questioner's worry is groundless and unnecessary. The Dyson Sphere Theory and the Civilization Hierarchy Theory were both established in the 1960s and have been widely recognized by the scientific community. Since then, astronomers have basically adopted these theories in their search for extraterrestrial civilizations. For example, they use huge astronomical telescopes to scan the sky to see if there are any stars that are suspected to be Dyson spheres. Unfortunately, no definite evidence of the existence of such stars has been found so far.

However, both the Dyson Sphere Theory and the Civilization Hierarchy Theory are logical inferences drawn by scientists based on observations and scientific accumulation, that is, scientific conjectures. It is still unpredictable whether cosmic civilization will really develop and upgrade in this way, whether future research on cosmic civilization will continue to follow this line of thought, or whether new theories will emerge.

Therefore, whether you believe in the Dyson sphere or not, and whether the Dyson sphere can be successfully built, is entirely up to each person's own opinion. There is no need to be too entangled. What do you think about this issue? Welcome to discuss and comment.

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