The Dyson Sphere Explained
A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a star and captures most or all of its power output. The first known mention of the concept of a star enclosed by a sphere was in an early Indo-European religious creation myth which described the prenatal sun as being enclosed (imprisoned) by rock. The first contemporary description of the structure was by Olaf Stapledon in his science fiction novel Star Maker (1937), in which he described "worlds constructed of a series of concentric spheres" and a similar galactic-scale natural formation of a "rocky sphere that had once been a galaxy." The concept was later popularized by Freeman Dyson in his 1960 paper "Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation". Dyson speculated that such structures would be the logical consequence of the escalating energy needs of a technological civilization and would be a necessity for its long-term survival. He proposed that searching for such structures could lead to the detection of advanced, intelligent extraterrestrial life. Different types of Dyson spheres and their energy-harvesting ability would correspond to levels of technological advancement on the Kardashev scale. Since then, other variant designs involving building an artificial structure or series of structures to encompass a star have been proposed in exploratory engineering or described in science fiction under the name "Dyson sphere". These later proposals have not been limited to solar-power stations, with many involving habitation or industrial elements. Most fictional depictions describe a solid shell of matter enclosing a star, which is considered the least plausible variant of the idea. In May 2013, at the Starship Century Symposium in San Diego, Dyson repeated his comments that he wished the concept had not been named after him.