It's a tiny fraction of what's required for a proper Dyson sphere. And we know civilizations can afford those because we can no longer see their stars.
For anyone who's hung up on saving nickle, we could do a low budget Worldring² or even thriftier Shadow Squares®.
²Nivenlarry ®Larry NivenThat's a giant claim you just made like it's fact.
You are correct. That is absolutely a thing I did.
Also correct. Even past that, we haven't been mass-cataloging stars long enough for a Dyson sphere to be constructed and remove a star from our view.
One man's poison is the same man's alcohol and mankind revolves around that.
Dyson Spheres would be really obvious, emitting infrared radiation unlike normal stars.
It looks promising; I'll check it out. Appreciate the recommendation.
The infrared star stands out because it is different than normal stars.
These are really good points. I figured the flaw in my theory is we haven't had precision observation long enough for DS to get constructed. Also that if we noticed the disappearance of a star, that we'd attribute it to a DS and not some natural occluding object.