Alpha Centauri
Usually seen somewhere in the Southern skies
Member # 338
posted
After reading the thread about big lifeforms, I wondered about the size of something completely different: the Borg "cities", as seen in "Unimatrix Zero" and errr... (wasn't it "Dark Frontier", or "Collective"? I can't seem to remember.)
So, how big do you think they are? My lucky guess, without taking screen comparisons, I'd say about 1000 km.
Alpha Centauri
Usually seen somewhere in the Southern skies
Member # 338
posted
Yeah, sounds OK to me. And don't forget the Dyson Sphere from "Relics"... I can't rememember if the size was mentioned, but the original theory of Freeman Dyson speaks in terms of MILLIONS of kilometers diameter. I figure out that the Borg are probably capable of building Dyson Spheres.
posted
An AU is 93exp6 miles or ~150exp6 km. I think that the Dyson Sphere was built primarily for energy gathering as I couldn't imagine the population required to justify such a surface area, plus the nightmare task of trying to maintain all the life-support stuff.
If the Dyson Sphere was designed to gather energy, then you'd have as small a radius as possible in order to reduce the amount of material needed, as the energy harvested is independent of the radius if you're covering the whole lot.
The main factor would then probably be the amount of punishment the material could take from the star, radiation, particles, etc. The radiation pressure could be a problem in the long-term. (Radiation pressure is,IIRC, due to the electric component of the radiation causing an electric field and thus a current, in metals especially. This current has an associated magnetic field which interacts with the magnetic component of the EM wave. The effect is of the radiation "pushing" the material.) Although the radiation pressure is small, if applied over a long time period it could cause tension forces that could tear apart material. However, I don't think the radius affects this, either.
------------------ "I'll try being nicer if you'll try being smarter."
posted
I remember that ep now. Wow it feels like forever. I ddin't know much about the Trekverse at the time, but from what I can remember, that was a huge sphere (did cover a star afterall) so the Borg "cities" would really be larger than most planets right?
Registered: Jan 2000
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------------------ "...[They've] been so completely dumbed down by the media, by tabloid scumbags, by the Christian "right", by politicians in general, the school, parents who are dumber than their parents were, who are dumber than their parents were, and all of whom think that they can bring up a child just because they got down in bed and had a little sex...well, frankly, here is an audience that knows more and more about less and less as the years go by...We are talking about a constituency...that knows nothing. This is pandemic; terrifyingly, paralyzingly pandemic. They know absolutely nothing." - Harlan Ellison, on the Media Consumer of today.
I have no view of how big a borg city could be. I guess, if they want more and more space, they just add structures, it could prolly take up half a planet-size of floating complexes. But it's very easy to underestimate the size of a planet. If we could see through the ground to the other side we would be pretty impressed.
------------------ Here lies a toppled god, His fall was not a small one. We did but build his pedestal, A narrow and a tall one.
-Tleilaxu Epigram
[This message has been edited by Nimrod (edited January 15, 2001).]
posted
Call me dense (and many do!), but what exactly are we talking about? The Borg complex from "Dark Frontier", the Dyson sphere, or some other structure, real or imaginary?
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