Civilzation End Game: Blackhole Farming

I occasionally consider the end-game of highly advanced space-faring civilizations. Certainly Dyson spheres are a highly likely outcome of a civilization that can get to space cheaply and efficiently. A Dyson sphere can be done many ways, but the most commonly cited way is to re-purpose space debris and most of the planetary mass of a solar system into a super-massive array of self-sufficient habitats that are so numerous as to black out the sun entirely. Of course this would support unimaginable orders of magnitude more life than what we know of today on Earth. Well, Dyson spheres only last as long as a sun, but black holes both contain more energy and last much longer than a burning star.

The black hole at the center of the Milky Way, which was confirmed many years ago, is said to have the mass of roughly 4,000 suns and therefore 4,000 times more theoretic maximum life support. Black holes are suspected of having the ability to stay intact for over 100 trillion years according to a video series I have linked to in part below. This is much more than 1,000 times the age of the universe. The most interesting thing about such a cold and "dead" universe is that it the colder it is, the more efficiency it enables because most technology ultimately rests on heat differentials. So at that 100 trillion year mark, it may be where life begins to get into a good groove.

The catch to black holes is that the energy emitted by them can actually be tiny in many cases, and to my knowledge Hawking Radiation has not yet been proven, meaning we are not sure we can actually get any energy at all out of them.

Other people have apparently spent most of their spare time in contemplation of these structures, and I'm very impressed by a series of videos by someone with great knowledge of this topic who has recently released a video demonstrating that black holes can be used to tap a source of energy as follows:

It is more logical that advancements in quantum physics would allow for celestial forming rather than harnessing localized celestial bodies.

In example developing a sustainable nuclear fission reaction that last for 1000 years which is mobile rather than dyson"ing" a sun and being attatched locally to a body which cannot be controlled nor relocated due to natural events.

Nuclear fission or any clean high density energy output mechanism would circumvent any need for a local terrestrial home.

In other words home would become the mothership. Ofcourse you'd have to address the sustainability of life for long periods on the ship between earth like celestial bodies for restocking purposes.

It is just not feasable to harness energy from our super massive neighbors and remain unsubject to naturally occuring disasters for thousands of years.

originally posted by: wayforward
The black hole at the center of the Milky Way, which was confirmed many years ago, is said to have the mass of roughly 4,000 suns and therefore 4,000 times more theoretic maximum life support.

4000 or 4 million?

The catch to black holes is that the energy emitted by them can actually be tiny in many cases, and to my knowledge Hawking Radiation has not yet been proven, meaning we are not sure we can actually get any energy at all out of them.

Other people have apparently spent most of their spare time in contemplation of these structures, and I'm very impressed by a series of videos by someone with great knowledge of this topic who has recently released a video demonstrating that black holes can be used to tap a source of energy as follows:

The guy is no dummy but it's ironic that he apologized for possibly mispronouncing an effect when he mispronounces so many words, I can't tell if it's a bizarre accent, or if he's partially deaf or what but it's a little annoying. Anyway you're right about Hawking radiation being difficult to harvest even if it exists, especially from a 4 million solar mass black hole like Sagittarius A* the one in the milky way, so the maker of the video suggests another idea of harvesting the angular momentum, which may be more feasible but I'm left disappointed because he doesn't give any details of exactly how that might be done.

For example the angular momentum of the Earth-moon system can be harvested through tidal generators where tides flowing in and out can turn generators so that's a concrete idea we have some idea how to engineer, but I'm still unclear on exactly how you'd get useful energy from the angular momentum of a black hole. I'm not saying it can't be dome, I'm just disappointed he didn't explain it because I'm left not knowing any more now than before I watched the video.

Also we have more important priorities which he alludes to like surviving the next billion years when the earth will become uninhabitable without intervention. In that part he gives more concrete explanations of some potential solutions but his idea of chopping the Earth up into small habitats using artificial gravity instead of regular gravity probably isn't the kind of habitat I'd want to live in. Making a big shield is a better idea which he also mentions.

And before that we need to survive the next ice age which will probably kill most humans on earth via famine, and before that the global warming which might kill a much smaller number of humans. So let's prioritize and worry about the more immediate disasters we face and let our descendants worry about what they are going to do trillions of years from now, because we won't even have any descendants if we don't solve the more immediate problems, not that the next billion years is that immediate but the earth becoming uninhabitable is a biggie.

a reply to: wayforward

Dyson spheres are a highly likely outcome of a civilization that can get to space cheaply and efficiently

Ever thought that a Dyson sphere could also create white holes , meaning a civilization able to build an entire solar system out of nothing?

I would like to think that civilizations able to create such a massive apparatus, have already the knowledge to build black holes themselves and using those for space travel..