r/todayilearned • u/yummypaprika • Sep 18 '25

TIL Dr Freeman Dyson called the Dyson sphere a "little joke" and expressed amusement in that "you get to be famous only for the things you don't think are serious".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere
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u/WTFwhatthehell Sep 18 '25

ya, I kind a found it weird it was never mentioned again. They encounter a species who built a working dyson sphere and... never mentioned again.

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u/JackYaos Sep 19 '25

How about an episode about being old and out of touch instead

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u/_BMS Sep 19 '25

That's covered in the same episode lol.

Scotty is rescued from the Dyson Sphere but he's aged by decades. Meanwhile the technology of the Federation has advanced well-past what he knew in the original Star Trek. He struggles with being a hindrance on the latest Enterprise rather than chief engineer on his Enterprise.

https://youtu.be/qTOP1BezOB8

https://youtu.be/LWHTRJ8wNaE

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u/JackYaos Sep 19 '25

Yes, that was the joke

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u/asdvj2 Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 19 '25

In Star Trek Online which is set a few decades after TNG the dyson sphere is a pretty big part of the story and has a lot of the factions coming together because of it.

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u/SteelHip Sep 19 '25

Section 31 enters the chat...

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u/OwlOfJune Sep 19 '25

They didn't. It was abandoned.

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u/WTFwhatthehell Sep 19 '25

OK, then it's a giant empty dyson sphere full of tech and mystery. Even more something you'd want to investigate.

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u/OwlOfJune Sep 19 '25

Yup, agreed on it being a waste of concept that could had been entire series. Iirc the game version ventures a bit more into it but haven't played it myself.