DescentBB

Could Dark Matter and the Fermi paradox both answer one another?

What if Dark Matter was nothing more than stars encased in Dyson spheres. And thus - perhaps proof of alien civilisations evolving from a Type 2 civilisation into a Type 3.
ie: they will keep harvesting more and more stars into their civilisation until they have claimed our entire galaxy.


It would not bode well for the ability to negate the effects of mass/gravity (or at least the ability to use it as an energy source) - as we can see the effects of the Mass of the dark matter on the surrounding matter (that's how we know it's there).
If it is proof of aliens then it means that they either can't - or can but just arn't - negate the effects of the mass/gravity of the stars they are hiding.

That would take a few extra trillion stars in each galaxy to account for that though...last I read, the amount of DM in an average galaxy is about the same as non-DM, and the DM sphere exists mostly outside the galaxy, or between several.

I'm more worried about the False Vacuum theory being true, in which case at any time the entire universe could be destroyed by expanding bubbles of true vacuum that would subsequently re-write the laws of physics of all space they pass through!

The best part is, you can never see it coming.

Did I miss something…did someone prove the existence of dark matter when I wasn’t looking?

In an indirect-indirect way, kinda.

Firewheel wrote:I'm more worried about the False Vacuum theory being true, in which case at any time the entire universe could be destroyed by expanding bubbles of true vacuum that would subsequently re-write the laws of physics of all space they pass through!

The best part is, you can never see it coming.

Isn't that the "Big Whoosh" theory, where two teams of scientists proved that the rate of the universe's expansion is increasing, as though growing anti-gravity forces are at work?

Maybe intelligent life is the thing that's rare, or all intelligent life blows itself up with hydrogen bombs! Maybe dark matter is just burned out galaxies, or our observation of the universe is totally wrong somehow.

Dayumn, never woulda figured you humans could detect us flyin' around.

Testiculese wrote:That would take a few extra trillion stars in each galaxy to account for that though...last I read, the amount of DM in an average galaxy is about the same as non-DM, and the DM sphere exists mostly outside the galaxy, or between several.

ooo, so you could say that - entire galaxies are missing?
Type 3 civilisation perhaps?

Could it possibly just be large masses of black holes orbiting eachother? Burnt out galaxies? Large chunks of typical matter, but with no fusion occuring? I think building a dyson sphere might take an entire star of energy and mass.

Roid, that's a nice theory but I see a huge flaw.

Suppose a civilisation was able to harness 100% of the energy emanating from a star, rendering it invisible. What do you think happens with the energy? My guess is that it has to be transported someplace else to be actually used. You can't just \"hide\" power or energy, if you harness it in place A you've got to release it in place B. Even if you do something useful with it someplace else, at this galactic scale it should be just as visible as the unshielded star it was harnessed from.

The cool thing about the universe is that you can't \"hide\" something -- everything leaves traces, even black holes that are supposed to be closest to invisible.

My 2 cents

What about the multiple universe theory? Maybe energy can transfer between them and thus appear to be \"lost' or 'disappearing' from our frame of reference.

Testiculese wrote:That would take a few extra trillion stars in each galaxy to account for that though...last I read, the amount of DM in an average galaxy is about the same as non-DM, and the DM sphere exists mostly outside the galaxy, or between several.

I think this is a great idea. Consider the age of the galaxy. 13.7 billion years? Life started the instant single celled orgranism could exist and it took a few billion years for them to get to us. If we keep going we'll have a Dyson sphere in less than 10 billion years. It makes sense that a lot of solar systems had a head start that has to be calculated in the billions. The real crazy thing about dark matter is that there's so very much of it and you can build a lot of Dyson spheres in 14 billion years.