Energy is the foundation and core of the development of science and technology. If there is no continuous supply of energy, science and technology will not be able to keep moving forward, thus stagnating. Human beings entered the age of science and technology to the present, and the applied energy has always been fossil energy. In the past 200 years, although human science and technology have been advancing rapidly, the nature of energy has not changed. It is still in the circle of fossil energy. Spin around.
In the past 200 years, mankind has continuously updated and upgraded fossil energy, and has continuously developed and expanded its potential. However, after all, fossil energy is only a low-level energy. Even if its potential is exploited to the extreme, the quality of energy cannot truly break through.
Energy is the key to the promotion of a civilization’s level. In the 1960s, Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev envisioned the level of cosmic civilization and divided civilizations into four based on the power of civilization to control energy. Level, and later scientists expanded it to level seven.
According to the classification of Kardashev’s energy level, the current scientific and technological strength of human beings can only be regarded as a 0.7 level civilization at most, not even a small first level civilization. To upgrade to a first-class civilization, breakthroughs in energy technology are needed to replace fossil energy with more powerful new energy sources.
The next generation of energy that can replace fossil energy is nuclear fusion. Controllable nuclear fusion technology has been researched and explored by scientists as early as 50 years ago. At present, considerable achievements have been made. It is more and more close to realizing controllable nuclear fusion. It’s near. Although man-made nuclear fusion technology is very powerful and energy makes us a first-class civilization, with the continuous development of human civilization, the need for energy in the future will also increase.
Man-made controllable nuclear fusion technology requires a lot of fuel. Although this fuel is mainly hydrogen, which is more common in the universe, it is at the rate of human consumption of energy. When we become a second-class civilization, the energy obtained by ordinary nuclear fusion will not be able to meet the needs of human development. What should I do at this time? Then we need to use the huge energy source that exists naturally in the universe.
The most common celestial body in the universe is a star, which is also a huge energy source. The center of the star is a huge nuclear fusion reactor, which does not fuse hydrogen into other elements while releasing huge energy. If we can make full use of the sun’s nuclear fusion energy, then mankind will not need to worry about energy for a long time in the future.
But how to make full use of the sun’s energy? Scientists put forward the concept of a Dyson ball. The so-called Dyson Sphere is actually a huge solar energy absorption device surrounding the sun. If we can wrap the sun with a Dyson ball, most of the sun’s radiant energy can be absorbed by us to meet the needs of human technological development.
If the sun is wrapped in a Dyson ball, then the earth will not get enough sunlight and temperature. What should humans do? At this time, scientists thought of allowing humans to collectively migrate to the Dyson sphere. With the huge size of the Dyson sphere, it can fully meet the needs of human living.
Dyson Ball is undoubtedly a great idea. If it can be realized, the development speed of human civilization will be greatly accelerated, and it will be upgraded to advanced civilization more quickly. Of course, it is not easy to build a huge Dyson sphere structure. It not only requires technology but also a lot of resources.
Of course, you can’t be fat in one breath, and scientists didn’t think about building a complete Dyson ball at once. Instead, they built a simple Dyson ball step by step, and let some people live on it. Some people think that this simple Dyson ball can be realized within the next 100 years. Is this really the case?
100 years is a very short time for a civilization, but for a technological civilization, it is no longer a short time. We must know that it has only been around 200 years since human beings have entered the era of science and technology, and every 100 years of science and technology will have a qualitative breakthrough. The technology of 100 years ago is completely incomparable with the current technology. This is the power of technology.
If the speed of human science and technology development has been maintained, then the technology in 100 years will be much stronger than it is now. The artificial intelligence that we are just starting now will be basically achievable in 100 years. The era of true intelligence is not far from us. In the next 100 years, artificial intelligence will usher in a period of rapid development. It will enter thousands of households and become the standard for everyone like today’s mobile phones.
Controllable nuclear fusion technology is also expected to be realized within 100 years. With nuclear fusion technology and artificial intelligence, mankind will be upgraded to a first-class civilization. And this goal is very likely to be achieved within a hundred years. If human beings become a first-class civilization, they will truly be able to break away from the earth, cross the solar system, and exploit the resources of the entire solar system.
The essence of the Dyson ball is not complicated, it is equivalent to a more advanced and huge solar energy absorption device. This device is not a complete module, but is assembled from a large number of small modules, each of which is a solar energy absorption device. As long as we have the technology to build such small modules and can replicate them in batches, then the construction plan of the Dyson Ball can be implemented.
The first-level civilization should be able to master the construction technology of the Dyson ball. By building a large number of small solar energy absorption devices, and then completing the assembly on the sun’s orbit, a simple Dyson ball can be realized. Dyson Ball’s technology is not difficult for a first-class civilization. As long as we have controllable nuclear fusion technology coupled with the assistance of artificial intelligence, we can build an automatic replication production line, manufacture a large number of modules, and then complete the assembly. Up.
The main reason why the Dyson sphere is difficult to realize is the material. We all know that the sun is the core of the solar system, and its mass accounts for 99.86% of the entire solar system. It can be said that the total mass of the eight planets in the solar system and other asteroids is only about three thousandths of that of the sun. What a huge gap.
Even if it is to build a simple Dyson sphere around the sun, the required materials are not enough for the solar system. Even if we dismantle all the eight planets, the resources obtained cannot simply circle the sun. To achieve this goal, we must focus on resources outside the solar system. Only by transporting the resources of other galaxies outside the solar system to the solar system can we hope to build a simple Dyson sphere.
But does the first-level civilization have such strength? Obviously not. Although the human beings of the first-class civilization have mastered the technology of controllable nuclear fusion, they can cross the solar system and get out of the solar system. However, it will still take a long time to reach the surrounding galaxies, not to mention transporting a large amount of resources back to the solar system, it is even more unlikely.
Only when humans have mastered the technology of space jumping and can carry out primary superluminal flight, can they hope to transport the resources of the outer galaxy to the solar system quickly. To achieve this, at least a second-level civilization is needed. Humans have the hope of becoming a first-level civilization within a hundred years, but it may take longer to become a second-level civilization, which may be thousands of years or tens of thousands of years. Even longer.
It can be seen that mankind has no hope of building a simple Dyson ball in the next 100 years. Of course, absorbing and using the sun’s energy is the only way for mankind in the future. Although we cannot build a simple Dyson sphere within a hundred years, once the controllable nuclear fusion technology is realized, the construction of a large solar energy absorption device will also be implemented. The scientist’s plan is to dismantle Mercury and use the above resources to build a large solar energy installation in the solar orbit to meet the energy needs of human beings after becoming a first-class civilization.