The Strange Things My Brain Thinks

Re: The Strange Things My Brain Thinks

feeds@yuku.com (anonymouse21) — Thu, 08 May 2008 09:49:31 GMT

Ah gosh, you guys have now lost me...

Re: The Strange Things My Brain Thinks

feeds@yuku.com (Ablean Buckslinger) — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:30:59 GMT

The Dyson Sphere has almost certainly cropped up in the Sanctum before. I think it was at the back of my mind when my brain ticked over the idea of the metal galaxy.

Re: The Strange Things My Brain Thinks

feeds@yuku.com (Lord DragonFang) — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:30:41 GMT

A passing remark was indeed made on this page here (thank you search function.)
Less grand than a Dyson Sphere but still cool would be a ringworld of the Larry Niven kind.

Re: The Strange Things My Brain Thinks

feeds@yuku.com (Wolfgang Kaiser) — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:33:20 GMT

Moving out of the realm of massive implausibility for a minute (I know, I'm as loath to do it as anyone else), there is actually a small-scale concept that's fairly similar to this in current sci-fi - called a Dyson Sphere, it would encase a star system instead of a whole galaxy, for feasibility reasons, and could theoretically provide power to the system as well as protecting it. If one was concerned about the...

Re: The Strange Things My Brain Thinks

feeds@yuku.com (Ablean Buckslinger) — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:55:21 GMT

But the prisons would have to be made of paper or rock or something. No metal - it's all being used to build the wall.

Re: The Strange Things My Brain Thinks

feeds@yuku.com (anonymouse21) — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:56:15 GMT

Or they'd been stocking up on metal, perhaps taxing people with it?
"I'm sorry! I couldn't create so much metal this year because I'm not a blacksmith and it's taking over all our planet!"
"It'll be gone the sooner we have more of it. Off to prison you go for not paying your taxes." and it could happen!

Re: The Strange Things My Brain Thinks

feeds@yuku.com (anacharis) — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:45:37 GMT

maybe they turned pirate for a couple hundred million years beforehand, you know, plundered other galaxies for their resources?

Re: The Strange Things My Brain Thinks

feeds@yuku.com (Ablean Buckslinger) — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:42:43 GMT

Yeah! See, perfectly plausible. Haha.

Re: The Strange Things My Brain Thinks

feeds@yuku.com (Wolfgang Kaiser) — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:41:31 GMT

Maybe it was. Tiny, and with a ton of really big planets really close together, all made of pure iron.

Re: The Strange Things My Brain Thinks

feeds@yuku.com (Ablean Buckslinger) — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:39:36 GMT

Oh yeah, I completely know that. It was just for the sake of science fiction. C'est la vie. Maybe it was a tiny galaxy.

Re: The Strange Things My Brain Thinks

feeds@yuku.com (Wolfgang Kaiser) — Wed, 07 May 2008 11:48:12 GMT

Here comes some gross math to ruin your vision. I sincerely apologize in advance.

The average galaxy is about 100,000 light-years in diameter, and roughly 2000 light-years thick. I don't know enough geometry to calculate the surface area of the whole galaxy, but it would take 2.73 x 10^35 square miles of metal just to cover one horizontal slice. That's more metal than could conceivably exist in a single galaxy, given the amount of empty space you'd get...

The Strange Things My Brain Thinks

feeds@yuku.com (Ablean Buckslinger) — Tue, 06 May 2008 23:27:11 GMT

While randomising alien names, the website generated the Antimatter Magicians Of The Metal Galaxy and my brain suddenly properly kicked into gear and had a conversation much like this with itself...

Q: Metal Galaxy?
A: Yup.
Q: How does that work then?
A: Basically, this galaxy got attacked quite a lot so every race within it communicated and decided to build a massive metal wall surrounding the entire galaxy.
Q: Wow, that's a pretty...