Dyson sphere, swarms, globe, ring: any nonfiction recommendations?

[Alex]

I'm interested in learning more about any of the many variations on the Dyson sphere.

Any recs?

[Ian]

I would keep away from the solid sphere because this would not be gravitationally stable. As I understand it, Freeman Dyson actually proposed a number of separate orbiting satellites around the star. The problem then is to stop them colliding. Sorry, but I don't know of any answers to this problem other than to have them moderately well spaced in a common orbit.

[Matthew]

Alex wrote: "I'm interested in learning more about any of the many variations on the Dyson sphere.

Any recs?"

And you want non-fiction references? Here are a few I can recommend:

Dyson Sphere FAQ and some studies on where they might be found:

http://www.aleph.se/Nada/dysonFAQ.html
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.04376.pdf
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1505.05131.pdf

George Dvorsky (good futuist writer at IO9):

http://www.sentientdevelopments.com/2...

From the master himself:

http://www.islandone.org/LEOBiblio/SE...

[Matthew]

But first, the artwork!

[Alex]

thanks, Matthew and Ian!

I did start reading the Dyson sphere FAQ and did learn that Dyson's idea was more of an orbiting shell of individual satellites. I'll check out the other links.