Editing Dyson sphere (section)

==Fictional examples==
A precursor to the concept of Dyson spheres was featured in the 1937 novel ''[[Star Maker]]'' by [[Olaf Stapledon]],<ref name="Stableford" /> in which he described "every solar system... surrounded by a gauze of light-traps, which focused the escaping solar energy for intelligent use";<ref>{{cite web |last1=Tate |first1=Karl |date=14 January 2014 |title=Dyson Spheres: How Advanced Alien Civilizations Would Conquer the Galaxy |url=https://www.space.com/24276-dyson-spheres-how-advanced-alien-civilizations-would-conquer-the-galaxy-infographic.html |access-date=January 14, 2014 |website=[[Space.com]]}}</ref> Dyson got his inspiration from this book and suggested that "Stapledon sphere" would be a more apt name for the concept.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2022 |title=Dyson, Freeman J |encyclopedia=[[The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction]] |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/dyson_freeman_j |access-date=2024-03-20 |edition=4th |author1-last=Sudbery|author1-first=Tony |author2-last=Langford |author2-first=David |author2-link=David Langford |editor1-last=Clute |editor1-first=John |editor1-link=John Clute |editor2-last=Langford |editor2-first=David |editor2-link=David Langford |editor3-last=Sleight |editor3-first=Graham |editor3-link=Graham Sleight}}</ref> Fictional Dyson spheres are typically solid structures forming a continuous shell around the star in question, although Dyson himself considered that prospect to be mechanically implausible.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> They are sometimes used as the type of plot device known as a [[Big Dumb Object]].<ref name=":3" />

Dyson spheres appear as a background element in many works of fiction, including the 1964 novel ''[[The Wanderer (Leiber novel)|The Wanderer]]'' by [[Fritz Leiber]] where [[Extraterrestrial life|aliens]] enclose multiple stars in this way.<ref name="Stableford" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last= |first= |url= |title=The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: The Definitive Illustrated Guide |date=1997 |publisher=Carlton |isbn=978-1-85868-385-0 |editor-last=Pringle |editor-first=David |editor-link=David Pringle |pages=50 |language=en |chapter=Space Habitats |author-link= |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/ultimateencyclop0000unse_a8c7/page/50/mode/2up}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Stableford |first=Brian |url=https://archive.org/details/sciencefictionwr0000unse |title=Science Fiction Writers: Critical Studies of the Major Authors from the Early Nineteenth Century to the Present Day |date=1999 |publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons]] |isbn=0-684-80593-6 |editor-last=Bleiler |editor-first=Richard |editor-link=Richard Bleiler |edition=2nd |location=New York |page=441 |chapter=Fritz Leiber |oclc=40460120 |author-link=Brian Stableford}}</ref> Dyson spheres are depicted in the 1975–1983 book series ''[[Saga of Cuckoo]]'' by [[Frederik Pohl]] and [[Jack Williamson]], and one functions as the [[Setting (narrative)|setting]] of [[Bob Shaw]]'s 1975 novel ''[[Orbitsville]]'' and its sequels.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> In the 1992 episode "[[Relics (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|Relics]]" of the TV show ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'',<ref>{{cite web |last=Hadhazy |first=Adam |date=October 30, 2020 |title=Could We Build a Dyson Sphere? |url=https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a11098/dyson-sphere/ |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310182228/https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a11098/dyson-sphere/ |archivedate=March 10, 2021 |access-date=March 20, 2024 |website=[[Popular Mechanics]]}}</ref> the {{USS|Enterprise|NCC-1701-D|6}} finds itself trapped in an abandoned Dyson Sphere;<ref>{{Cite web |last=Howell |first=Elizabeth |date=March 12, 2020 |title='Dyson sphere' legacy: Freeman Dyson's wild alien megastructure idea will live forever |url=https://www.space.com/freeman-dyson-sphere-sci-fi-seti-legacy.html |access-date=March 20, 2024 |website=[[Space.com]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author1-link=Larry Nemecek |last1=Nemecek |first1=Larry |title=Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion |edition=3rd |publisher=[[Pocket Books]] |year=2003 |pages=218–220}}</ref> in a 2011 interview, Dyson said that he enjoyed the episode, although he considered the sphere depicted to be "nonsense".<ref>{{cite web |last=Wright |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Wright (journalist) |date=2011 |title=MeaningofLife.tv |url=http://meaningoflife.tv/transcript.php?speaker=dyson |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110820213611/http://meaningoflife.tv/transcript.php?speaker=dyson |archive-date=20 August 2011 |access-date=20 March 2024 |website=slate.com |publisher=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |quote=Wright: Did they actually use the phrase 'Dyson sphere' on ''Star Trek''?<br>Freeman Dyson: Oh yes.<br>Wright: Did they really?<br>Freeman Dyson: One of my daughters sent me a tape of that program afterwards and so I watched it. Oh yes, it's very clearly labeled and actually it was sort of fun to watch it, but it's all nonsense. But it's quite a good piece of cinema. [punctuation supplied for unedited transcript] }}</ref>
[[Michael Jan Friedman]] who wrote the novelization observed that in the TV episode itself the Dyson sphere was effectively a [[MacGuffin]], with "just nothing about it" in the story, and decided to flesh out the plot element in his novelization.<ref name="Ayers2006">{{cite book|title=Voyages of Imagination: The Star Trek Fiction Companion|author1-first=Jeff|author1-last=Ayers|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=2006|isbn=9781416525486}}</ref>{{rp|ix}}

Other science-fiction story examples include [[Tony Rothman]]'s ''The World Is Round'', [[S. P. Somtow|Somtow Sucharitkul]]'s Inquestor series, [[Timothy Zahn]]'s ''Spinneret'', [[James White (author)|James White]]'s ''Federation World'', [[Stephen Baxter (author)|Stephen Baxter]]'s ''[[The Time Ships]]'', and [[Peter F. Hamilton]]'s ''Pandora's Star''.<ref name="Stableford"/>{{rp|133}} Variations on the Dyson Sphere concept include a single circular band in [[Larry Niven]]'s 1970 novel ''[[Ringworld]]'',<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book|last=Nicholls|first=Peter|title=[[The Science in Science Fiction]]|date=1983|publisher=Knopf|isbn=0-394-53010-1|editor-last=Nicholls|editor-first=Peter|editor-link=Peter Nicholls (writer)|location=New York|pages=44–45|chapter=Far-future energy|oclc=8689657|author-link=Peter Nicholls (writer)|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/scienceinscience00nich/page/44/mode/2up}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Mann|first=George |title=The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Science Fiction|date=2001|publisher=Carroll & Graf Publishers|isbn=978-0-7867-0887-1|location=New York|pages=477|chapter=Dyson Sphere|author-link=George Mann (writer)|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/mammothencyclope00mann/page/477/mode/2up}}</ref> a half sphere in the 2012 novel ''[[Bowl of Heaven]]'' by [[Gregory Benford]] and Niven,<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> and nested spheres{{snd}}also known as a [[Matrioshka brain]]{{snd}}in [[Colin Kapp]]'s 1980s [[Cageworld series|''Cageworld'' series]] and [[Brian Stableford]]'s 1979–1990 [[Brian Stableford#Asgard|''Asgard'' trilogy]].<ref name="Stableford" /><ref name=":2" />

Stableford himself observed that Dyson spheres are usually MacGuffins or largely deep in the backgrounds of stories, giving as examples [[Fritz Leiber]]'s ''The Wanderer'' and [[Linda Nagata]]'s ''Deception Well'', whereas stories involving space exploration tend to employ the variants like Niven's Ringworld.<ref name="Stableford" />{{rp|133}}He gives two reasons for this: firstly that Dyson spheres are simply too big to address, which Friedman also alluded to when pointing out that the reason his novelization of "Relics" did not go further into the sphere was that it was only four hundred pages and he had just shy of four weeks to write it; and secondly that, especially for hard science-fiction, Dyson spheres have certain engineering problems that complicate stories.<ref name="Stableford"/>{{rp|133}}<ref name="Ayers2006"/>{{rp|ix}} In particular, since gravitational attraction is in equilibrium inside such a sphere (per the [[shell theorem]]), other means such as rotating the sphere have to be employed in order to keep things attached to the interior surface, which then leads to the problem of a gravity gradient that goes to zero at the rotational poles.<ref name="Stableford"/>{{rp|133}} Authors address this with various modifications of the idea such as the aforementioned Cageworld nesting, [[Dan Alderson]]'s double sphere idea, and Niven's reduced Ringworld (discussed in "[[Bigger Than Worlds]]").<ref name="Stableford"/>{{rp|133}}