Navigate Select ESC Close

Why Advanced Aliens Probably Don’t Build Dyson Spheres

2026-07-08 Science & Technology
39.2k
4.0k
822
Anton Petrov
Anton Petrov
1.6m subscribers

Unlock all features

FREE: Get instant access to 10 AI summaries, chats, or transcripts per day.

Description

Support this channel on Patreon to help me make this a full time job: https://www.patreon.com/whatdamath (Unreleased videos, extra footage, DMs, no ads) Alternatively, PayPal donations can be sent here: http://paypal.me/whatdamath Get a Wonderful Person Tee: https://teespring.com/stores/whatdamath More cool designs are on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3QFIrFX Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about an interesting study on the Fermi paradox, type II civilizations and...bitcoin? Links: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.23026 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.03249 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2604.17516 #fermiparadox #bitcoin #science 0:00 How we measure alien civilizations 2:00 Kardashev scale conundrum 3:25 New model using bitcoin and artificial intelligence 4:08 Why bitcoin? The Karnac unit 5:50 Energy required to change a unit of information - Landauer limit 8:00 New definition for Type 2 civilization 8:45 AI demand is changing energy consumption 10:20 Energy limit speculations 11:40 The great filter hypothesis 12:30 The crossroads for humanity - conclusions Enjoy and please subscribe Bitcoin/Ethereum to spare? Donate them here to help this channel grow! bc1qnkl3nk0zt7w0xzrgur9pnkcduj7a3xxllcn7d4 or ETH: 0x60f088B10b03115405d313f964BeA93eF0Bd3DbF The hardware used to record these videos: New Camera: https://amzn.to/4pCVINS CPU: https://amzn.to/4qXIaxC Video Card: https://amzn.to/2M1W26C Motherboard: https://amzn.to/2JYGiQQ RAM: https://amzn.to/2Mwy2t4 PSU: https://amzn.to/2LZcrIH Case: https://amzn.to/2MwJZz4 Microphone: https://amzn.to/2t5jTv0 Mixer: https://amzn.to/2JOL0oF Recording and Editing: https://amzn.to/2LX6uvU Some of the above are affiliate links, meaning I would get a (very small) percentage of the price paid. Thank you to all Patreon supporters of this channel Special thanks also goes to all the wonderful supporters of the channel through YouTube Memberships Credit: Mark Garlick www.markgarlick.com Archibald Tuttle CC BY SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere#/media/File:Dyson_Swarm_realistic_representation_cropped.jpg Licenses used: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ and relevant Creative Commons licenses

Top Comments (10)

@KrisCadwell-u3m 2026-07-07

The closed captions called it the Kardashian scale. No joke.

940 105 replies
@OhhWelll 2026-07-08

So a civilization that is highly efficient, needing only a relatively small amount of energy to run their civilization with much less waste is more advanced and higher on the scale than a civilization that captures a ridiculous amount of energy but uses it inefficiently. Great video Anton!

711 88 replies
@PhngluiMglwnafh 2026-07-09

Gosh, the way you calmly communicate how screwed we are is both admirable and unsettling

365 57 replies
@StudiesInFlux 2026-07-09

I find these speculative papers reflect the biases during times in which they were written in a similar way to fiction. During the cold war after WWII and during the petrodollar era, people were wondering about high powered weaponry and the idea of continuously getting more power. When the particle accelerators became more mainstream, there was the ideas of some catastrophically failed physics experiment as a great filter. Now during this information age when moving and processing data is driving a lot of the economy, the papers are speculating about a civilisation that values data processing over everything else. Thanks for sharing

267 18 replies
@euchiron 2026-07-08

I like this transition from brute force and quantity of energy to nuance and efficiency of information management.

164 8 replies
@senatuspopulusqueromanus2082 2026-07-09

Why they don't build the spheres? Because if you can build one you don't need one.

48 15 replies
@earthknight60 2026-07-09

The issue o energy efficiency making a civilization effectively invisible is something Frank Drake talked about back in the early '90s in the classes he taught at UCSC.

44 2 replies
@jecelassumpcaojr890 2026-07-08

Note that the Landauer limit is how little energy you can use for erasing a bit, but with reversible computing you can avoid that and obtain results with even less energy (think regenerative breaking but for computers)

43 2 replies
@exchable 2026-07-09

I like the paraphrased idea: "Any sufficiently advanced civilization is indistinguishable from nature."

30 2 replies
@landwand 2026-07-09

We don't need a Dyson's sphere or AI if Anton gives himself a Future Haircut as 12:40. Oh, silvery Future-wear is not optional.

1

Unlock the Data Inside
Turn Videos into Knowledge

  • Get FREE 10/day: transcripts, summaries, chats
  • Chat with videos, export text & PDF
  • $1 free API credit for RAG, chatbots & research

Free forever plan • All features unlocked

App screenshot