The Kal'Dari Problem (aka 'We have a Dyson Swarm, what the hell do we do now?')

[Erithemaeus]

(This is set in a relatively hard sci-fi universe )

Spoiler: The Kal'Dari

Meet the Kal'Dari, once lizard analogues that have conquered their harsh world, and have established a relatively stable inter-planetary polity that has lasted for centuries. The Kal'Darian Accords ensure that any enterprising colonies all throughout the system would be given independence once they have achieved self-sufficiency, a policy that has ensured that there has been relative peace throughout Kal'Dari space. While most sovereign states or nations bicker under one another, they are nonetheless loosely-united under the banner of their species.

Which brings us to now, in the closing stages of the most ambitious project that they have attempted so far. Through diplomatic wrangling, connections, favors, and even outright gunboat diplomacy, the entire Kal'Dari have dedicated most of the last century into wringing out the last intra-solar resources that they could tap into. Once, it had been nothing more than a vanity project, something to do while they waited for the colony ships to reach their destinations and confirm if the centuries-long trip had been worth it.

Now, it was something more.

We would call it a Dyson Swarm, a large amount of satellites orbiting in close proximity around a star in order to provide virtually unlimited power for all intra-solar needs. The Kal'Dari call it 'The Great Waste', nothing more than an overblown art-piece made by madmen of previous generations, but carried on nonetheless through sheer cultural inertia. It's not to say that there are no upsides to the construction of such a megastructure, no. The Kal'Dari have finally tapped into the energies of their home star, promising great change in the coming years...

... And therein lies the problem.

You see, the Kal'Dari system has been heavily developed ever since they first took to the stars. Vast swathes of their homeworld has now been converted into thriving city-arcologies, connected through hyperloops and just on the verge of turning into a full-blow ecumenopolis. Swarms of space-born stations supply the Kal'Dari with gene-engineered foodstuffs, ensuring a vast supply of food that would never run out so long as the shipments make their due. Refineries have been built over the lone gas giant in the system, siphoning useful isotopes to power the beating heart of the Kal'Dari industry. Kal'Dari in the low trillions make their home outside their homeworld, never going past their habitats and stations, while others more are responsible for the continued flow of goods and people throughout Kal'Dari space, keeping the system connected through their tireless efforts.

The completion of 'The Great Waste' was enough to change most of it. Arrays of mirrors from the Dyson Swarm could focus the power coming from the sun in bursts, beaming enough power to keep industries running for billions of years. Vast orbital forges could melt raw material and smelt them into useful alloys by focusing an ungodly amount of sunlight onto them, melting through even the toughest ores given enough time. As a whole, Kal'Dari society is changing, and most are unsure as to whether or not the changes would be better, or worse.

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TLDR, what are some of the various story-telling possibilities that you guys could think of about a civilization finally making the transition to Type-II on the Kardashev Scale?

 

[WallFlower]

"We completed our great mission. Now we need some kind of new goal." "How about we tear the great waste down and build a better one, so that we can show our ancestors how to do it better"

EDIT: Forgot some words.

 

[Avernus]

Offhand:

A story about using that energy to power interstellar spacecraft. Using the abundance of power to sending either small near-c probes, or whole space habitats as (much) faster colony ships.

A debate: Antimatter, or no antimatter? Using the Waste to create antimatter on an industrial scale would give them an extremely compact energy storage method. It also gives them an extremely fail-deadly energy storage method.

An attempt by a faction to seize the "Waste" as a weapon to assert power over the whole system, or to prevent a faction from doing so. As a weapon such a thing could melt anything short of a spacecraft hiding behind a planet, making it a potent threat. On the other hand they'd know that, so there'd be defenses and precautions; it wouldn't be as simple as somebody strolling into the control center and declaring themselves God King of the Kalderi. Good potential for intrigue and maneuvering, there.

 

[Erithemaeus]

"We completed our great mission. Now we need some kind of new goal." "How about we tear the great waste down and build a better one, so that we can show our ancestors how to do it better"

EDIT: Forgot some words.

Click to shrink...

The flex is real. I don't think they'd be willing to expend the capital needed to tear the Waste down and build another one with blackjack and hookers, though.

For all intents and purposes, the Waste works as advertised all those years ago, so the Kal'Dari might as well get some use out of it instead of just... Letting it sit there. Taxpayers would throw a hissy fit, no doubt.

A story about using that energy to power interstellar spacecraft. Using the abundance of power to sending either small near-c probes, or whole space habitats as (much) faster colony ships.

Click to shrink...

There's already prototypes that rely on the Waste beaming power to ships of different kinds and tonnages, but they're mostly finicky for now. It'll take some time before the refinements are made and the wealthier Kal'Dari buy one of those things to show their wealth.

On the other hand, the Kal'Dari charted their neighboring systems, and they're all... Bad. All protoplanetary disks and relatively small pockets of nebula, and the home system is basically one of the few stars in their local group to have a head start at stellar formation.

Still, said stars are Gen IV stars, so lotsa resources after a billion or so years. There's a fleet of colony ships that got sent out towards the nearest (hopefully) habitable world, but it's 17 ly away, and those ships could 'only' do a burn at around 0.1c. Which means a travel time of almost two centuries, and the Waste was still completed before they arrived to the system.

As in, they got sent out during the time where the Waste was being built, and there's still some time left before they actually arrive at the system even after the Dyson Swarm had already been built.

No beaming probes to high-c fractions yet though, since those are still being developed and tested

A debate: Antimatter, or no antimatter? Using the Waste to create antimatter on an industrial scale would give them an extremely compact energy storage method. It also gives them an extremely fail-deadly energy storage method.

Click to shrink...

The Kal'Dari have an antimatter storage, but it's close to the Kuiper Belt, staffed with military ships from all states who signed the Kal'Dari Accords, and it only houses a few milligrams of the stuff that's mostly used for research.

No antimatter usage for them anytime soon, since the Kal'Dari think that it's too 'volatile' to be of any use aside from WMDs. Still, there's some people that proposed to use the Waste as a power source for an antimatter production facility, but it's just a proposal. And most likely to be laughed out of the conference hall

An attempt by a faction to seize the "Waste" as a weapon to assert power over the whole system, or to prevent a faction from doing so. As a weapon such a thing could melt anything short of a spacecraft hiding behind a planet, making it a potent threat. On the other hand they'd know that, so there'd be defenses and precautions; it wouldn't be as simple as somebody strolling into the control center and declaring themselves God King of the Kalderi. Good potential for intrigue and maneuvering, there.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, thinking along the lines of politics there as well. The Waste is protected by a series of military fleets from all the Accord signatories during the time that the Waste was proposed, and it's controlled by a few space stations. All Kal'Dari who work there are vetted, and a majority vote amongst the signatories must be achieved before they even think about using the Waste for anything.

That, and any unexpected intrusions are handled by shoving some of the mirrors into the sun. Makes it less likely for some factions to actually abuse it.

And those that are insane enough to actually try and sabotage the Waste has their Accord rights denied from everywhere in the system, which means that they'll get hunted down by a fuck ton of states, as well as their collaborators.

 

[WallFlower]

Are the Kal'Dari a unified state? Do they all want to be a unified state? Or would some prefer autonomy?
On the other hand maybe some will want a unified Kal'Dari nation, just not ruled by those other Kal'Dari.

 

[The Sandman]

Focus it on one side of the star to make a Shkadov thruster and slowly move their home system somewhere else?

Allow for laser propulsion so that probes and future colony ships aimed at the nearest stars only need enough fuel to decelerate rather than also needing to accelerate out of the home system?

Do starlifting and nuclear transmutation to provide any elements that are still rare even after tapping the entirety of their home system's non-stellar resources?

 

[Erithemaeus]

Are the Kal'Dari a unified state? Do they all want to be a unified state? Or would some prefer autonomy?
On the other hand maybe some will want a unified Kal'Dari nation, just not ruled by those other Kal'Dari.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, there's a lot of spectrum between Kal'Dari nations. Some prefer a unified state, and some try to preserve their independence as much as possible. The system is basically a hodge-podge of various nations trying to advance their own agendas, just on a... well, larger scale. Some use lobbying to get what they want, others just use force, and others hire 'privateers' to raid other nations and destabilize them for further infiltration/occupation.

The Kal'Dari Accords are just a set of guidelines for life as an interplanetary civilization -- rules of engagement, established diplomatic, trade, and military zones, alongside the specifications of how to declare independence from a splinter nation. While its implementation can get... uh, 'wonky' in some parts of the system, it's still overseen by the mostly-unified government from Ilsoma, the Kal'Darian homeworld.

Kal'Dari who break the Accords are rendered persona non grata, and are basically hunted down by all nations that exist within the system the first chance that they get.

Some individuals with a death wish tried to 'change' the terms of the Accords by parking a fleet over at Ilsoma, only for them to get blown up by everyone else. With no potential terraforming candidates in the system and service as the capital to the Kal'Dari civilization, no one is dumb enough to try and nuke their homeworld and live with it.

Focus it on one side of the star to make a Shkadov thruster and slowly move their home system somewhere else?

Click to shrink...

Kind of hard to do since the system is mostly occupied by Kal'Dari in the low trillions. That, and building a Caplan Thruster (from Kurzgesagt's video here) would mean the construction of another megastructure, and considering that the Kal'Dari name their local Dyson Swarm as 'the Great Waste', they're not too keen on doing so anytime soon.

Besides, their local neighborhood is mostly calm, since they're newly-formed Gen IV stars currently at the stage of protoplanetary disks. No reason to build stellar engines as of yet, since their astronomers say that local space is mostly-ok.

Allow for laser propulsion so that probes and future colony ships aimed at the nearest stars only need enough fuel to decelerate rather than also needing to accelerate out of the home system?

Click to shrink...

These are currently being done as prototypes. Nothing more than proof-of-concept, and it'd still take time before the technology is incorporated in Kal'Dari shipbuilding, and even then it's going to be with some fierce opposition from some of the more influential Kal'Dari states who are responsible for the extraction and refinement of fusion material from the sole gas giant in the system.

Do starlifting and nuclear transmutation to provide any elements that are still rare even after tapping the entirety of their home system's non-stellar resources?

Click to shrink...

Starlifting is not going to be done as of yet (Kal'Dari don't like megastructures as of yet -- see their reaction to the construction of 'the Great Waste'), and even as of now, most of the Kal'Dari system is still untapped, despite lots of Kal'Dari living off-world.

In fact, here's a rough summary of the Kal'Dari system, ordered from the primary towards the outermost reaches of its space:

List of Celestial Bodies in the Kal'Dari system:

1. Kal'Dari - Local Star of the system, K-type red giant, Gen III star. Metal-rich, gobbled up a lot of its inner solar system until it's the size that it currently is. Going to poof into a white dwarf in 1.7 billion years.
   
   
2. Bries - Once a relatively small gas giant, had its atmosphere sucked off by Kal'Dari when it turned beeg sometime in the distant past. Now a metal-rich barren world and tidally-locked with the primary, with a lot of orbital mining operations done on its surface for raw materials and extraction in refineries. Currently has an orbital ring around the terminator to act as a shipyard, refining facilities, and controls for the robotic mining drones that do the actual work down below. Its vast metallic deposits were used for the construction of 'the Great Waste'.
   
   
3. Asteroid Belt I (Di'serrie Belt) - An asteroid belt consisting of metal-poor rocks. Some have been stabilized and used as living space, but aside from light industry, are uninteresting for any sort of industrial operations. Good for the living space that any enterprising Kal'Dari might use, but otherwise useless.
   
   
4. Ilsoma - The Kal'Dari homeworld. Crownworld of the civilization's achievements. The species evolved on this planet around three hundred thousand years ago from small, lizard-analogues, and all but systemically-hunted their predator species to extinction once they have established themselves as a primitive civilization. Conditions to harbor life as the Kal'Dari know it only occurred after the primary expanded into its current red giant state, which could mean that the species' origins could be traced to a lucky break of panspermia. Was otherwise a world with relatively few oceans, and not as tectonically-active as Earth. Has a surface gravity of 0.7 g.
   
   Has two moons, Ki'sari and Ki'suda, the latter unstable and had been predicted to burn up in Ilsoma's atmosphere through the course of 1.3 million years, but had been towed away into a more stable position to serve as the first space elevator of Kal'Dari make and design. The planet is currently an ecumenopolis, with vast arcology complexes built on land and even floating over the oceans. Ki'sari was the first extraplanetary body to be colonized by the Kal'Dari, and is currently a vast nation in its own right, the governmental duties of Ilsoma moved to the moon.
   
   
5. Asteroid Belt II (Di'frestra Belt) - Another asteroid belt, mostly consisting of water-ice objects caught between the primary and the lone gas giant. Main source of offworld water purification facilities and mining operations, but is slowly being depleted due to its relatively close proximity towards the primary star. Located at the tail end of the system's Goldilock's zone, vast farming stations have been constructed in this area to provide gene-modded foodstuffs to Kal'Dari all throughout the system, and to compensate for Ilsoma's reduced space for farming during its conversion into an ecumenopolis. All sovereign stations have gathered under one lobbying banner known as the 'Genshou Combine'.
   
   
6. Elada - The lone gas giant in the Kal'Dari system, filled to the brim with gathering platforms and refineries that scoop up the gases of its atmosphere and refine it for useful materials. Has seven moons, three of which are currently inhabited and serve as sovereign colonies -- the rest are either too volcanic, too close to Elada, or has orbits that take it through the gas giant's relatively small rings. Populations here outright loathe 'The Great Waste' for potentially putting them out of a job for gathering and refining spacecraft fuel, and is currently a highly-destabilized region in Kal'Dari space.
   
   
7. Asteroid Belt III (Di'urna Belt) - A metal-rich asteroid belt, offering as a secondary (and much safer) spot for mining conglomerates and stations than Bries. Is currently theorized to be a planet that had been tidally-ripped apart by Elada and the superearth after its orbit, and most Kal'Dari simulations seem to prove this theory correct. With the Great Waste complete, mining operations are slowly being shifted towards this area, given its relative safety from the system primary. There have also been talks of moving Bries' orbital ring to this area, but it was highly-protested by other states in the Kal'Dari system.
   
   
8. Oshiara - A superearth with a surface gravity of 3.7 g, tectonically-active, and would be written off if it were not for its methane atmosphere. It is currently filled with harvesters and refineries that harvest the organic materials from the planet's atmosphere to turn it into useful organic materials. There are no surface colonies on this planet, but has one moon, Ki'ares, which hosts a sizable Kal'Dari populace -- a mostly civilian population that maintains the flow of organic materials from Oshiara towards the rest of the Kal'Dari system.
   
   
9. Kaeton - A small dwarf planet located far enough from Oshiara to be classified as a separate body, but is otherwise orbiting a recognizable barycenter with the superearth. Utterly unremarkable save for the fact that it connects the Kal'Dari civilization through its swarm of communications satellites and ground-based laser communications. Is currently host to a coordination center for the Kal'Dari colonization effort, and is keeping in contact with the colony ships currently en-route to a potentially habitable world located 17 ly away. Delay between communications is... large.
   
   
10. Asteroid Belt IV (Di'purna Belt) - An asteroid belt that is far enough away from the nearest colonies that it is commonly known as the 'Frontier'. Metal-poor, water-poor, and its asteroids mostly consisting of dust packed together, it is useless to all those who have a vested interest in exploiting the Kal'Dari system... save for those who were willing to make the ungodly trip towards this place for some reason or another. Some call it a conspiracy theorist's wet dream, but the truth is that this belt is mostly staffed with research centers and telescopes that peer out into the cosmos. Its location means that only yearly supply runs are made, and that any potential colony hoping to establish itself as an independent state would be stifled due to its sheer distance from the rest of the Kal'Dari system.
    
    Contains antimatter research facilities, particle accelerators too unwieldy to be built inside a gravity well, and weapons testing centers. Its sheer distance also insulates the rest of Kal'Dari space from any repurcussions should there be an unfortunate 'accident' in the area.
    
    
11. Kuiper Belt - A loose collection of interstellar bodies located farther away from the Di'purna Belt, mostly consisting of ice-water rock. Nothing too interesting, aside from some unmanned probes and outposts still beeping around from earlier Kal'Darian attempts of peering through the Kuiper Belt for any useful material.

Click to shrink...

 

[WallFlower]

There is the possibility that there will be a brain and capital drain in some colonies as the folks who can afford it will wish to be near the best infrastructure that can be used to network with people.
But since this is a multi-planetary society I expect a lot of cultural drift to occur between the colonies. and some of this will be halted by language barriers.

It is possible however that some groups will begin anti-intelectualt factions, because they feel that the Ilsomanian elite doesn't represent their interests. "What those Ilsomanians call the great waste gave us jobs to do, but this place has really gone down hill now that it is done, and it's their fault."

 

[We Just Write]

Z: One thing to note: if you can build a dyson swarm you can build a starlifting array, nuclear transmutation setup, and clanking replicators. With those techs there's no such thing as a "bad" star system. Use your massive energy budget to yeet several gigatons of automated construction equipment at whatever stars you please, extract massive amounts of the target star's mass for transmutation into suitable building materials, clank out a few trillion O'Neill cylinders, and you've got yourselves a new home for several quintillion people.

 

[Erithemaeus]

Z: One thing to note: if you can build a dyson swarm you can build a starlifting array, nuclear transmutation setup, and clanking replicators. With those techs there's no such thing as a "bad" star system. Use your massive energy budget to yeet several gigatons of automated construction equipment at whatever stars you please, extract massive amounts of the target star's mass for transmutation into suitable building materials, clank out a few trillion O'Neill cylinders, and you've got yourselves a new home for several quintillion people.

Click to shrink...

That's true, but the main problem that I'm seeing is that the completion of the Dyson Swarm is nothing more than a vanity project to them, something done on a whim by previous leaders of the various Kal'Dari states. Public opinion is that Kal'Dari civilization at the moment is stable.

As of the moment, the Kal'Dari are a thriving interplanetary civilization, with no other incentive to bother building outlandish megastructures willy-nilly. They still have lots of space and resources in-system to build millions of O'Neill cylinders, and it's safe to say that they aren't going to be running out of resources anytime soon.

It's possible that they may do such a thing further along, but changing the public perception of interplanetary populations take centuries, even if there is a concentrated campaign to get an ordinary Kal'Dari interested in such projects.

What's most plausible for me is that they'll explore the limits of their fully-operational Dyson Swarm before they entertain the idea of building more megastructures. It'll probably take decades, but it's still a long time that short-term effects of trying to build more megastructures would be rebuffed. It's why the Kal'Dari call the Dyson Swarm 'the Great Waste'. The amount of additional space habitats that they could've built with the raw materials used in the construction would probably outmatch what they could build in half a decade.

So, short term? I'd say it's gonna take around... 150-250 years before public perception shifts enough that they would be willing to do their toes into another megastructures installation. Maybe even more, since construction ships, crews, raw materials, refineries, and housing would need a steady, uninterrupted flow from the Kal'Dari states to another star system of their choice. Sure, their engines and construction methods would mean an increase in speed of these interstellar cargo-hauling operations, but even then we're probably talking about speeds less than < 0.4c.

Still going to take a long time, and even then priorities may shift in Kal'Dari space in the meantime.

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

You see, the Kal'Dari system has been heavily developed ever since they first took to the stars. Vast swathes of their homeworld has now been converted into thriving city-arcologies, connected through hyperloops and just on the verge of turning into a full-blow ecumenopolis. Swarms of space-born stations supply the Kal'Dari with gene-engineered foodstuffs, ensuring a vast supply of food that would never run out so long as the shipments make their due. Refineries have been built over the lone gas giant in the system, siphoning useful isotopes to power the beating heart of the Kal'Dari industry. Kal'Dari in the low trillions make their home outside their homeworld, never going past their habitats and stations, while others more are responsible for the continued flow of goods and people throughout Kal'Dari space, keeping the system connected through their tireless efforts.

The completion of 'The Great Waste' was enough to change most of it. Arrays of mirrors from the Dyson Swarm could focus the power coming from the sun in bursts, beaming enough power to keep industries running for billions of years. Vast orbital forges could melt raw material and smelt them into useful alloys by focusing an ungodly amount of sunlight onto them, melting through even the toughest ores given enough time. As a whole, Kal'Dari society is changing, and most are unsure as to whether or not the changes would be better, or worse.

TLDR, what are some of the various story-telling possibilities that you guys could think of about a civilization finally making the transition to Type-II on the Kardashev Scale?

Click to shrink...

Billions of years are nothing. Stars are wasteful and don't last very long.

They should harness the power to turn the energy of the star into artificial black holes, and use them to dismantle the star to turn as much of it's mass as possible into artificial black holes.

The black holes are vastly more energy efficient and are much better for interstellar travel.

They can use them to reach big natural black holes, and then there create outrageously energy efficient matroshka brains that they use to have their civilization survive a google years.

 

[Count]

Billions of years are nothing. Stars are wasteful and don't last very long.

They should harness the power to turn the energy of the star into artificial black holes, and use them to dismantle the star to turn as much of it's mass as possible into artificial black holes.

The black holes are vastly more energy efficient and are much better for interstellar travel.

They can use them to reach big natural black holes, and then there create outrageously energy efficient matroshka brains that they use to have their civilization survive a google years.

Click to shrink...

I mean, we've just been told quite explicitly that the Kal'Dari are sick of the perceived waste of resources on megaprojects, and I don't think the Matrioshka brains would be very popular, considering it's effectively killing your consciousness and uploading a copy and the sort of thing that would take millions of years to put into effect, while the Kal'Dari are already sick and tired of the unspecified but less than a hundred thousand years they have spent working on the Great Waste.

 

[Erithemaeus]

I mean, we've just been told quite explicitly that the Kal'Dari are sick of the perceived waste of resources on megaprojects, and I don't think the Matrioshka brains would be very popular, considering it's effectively killing your consciousness and uploading a copy and the sort of thing that would take millions of years to put into effect, while the Kal'Dari are already sick and tired of the unspecified but less than a hundred thousand years they have spent working on the Great Waste.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, they see it as useless since they were already a thriving interplanetary civilization with enough industry to effectively stay that way for quite a long amount of time. They haven't even exploited most of their system just yet, and their initial forays into extrasolar colonies are only just bearing fruit. The creation of the Great Waste was just that -- a flex. They don't need the excess power. They don't need the various other benefits that a Dyson Swarm would give to a burgeoning civ.

For all intents and purposes, the Kal'Dari Problem (title drop, eyyy) is a military, scientific, economical, societal and cultural look at an interplanetary civ that had just been bumped up to a Type II on the Kardashev Scale. Economies are gonna be rendered bankrupt overnight, there's gonna be huge societal changes, and even large-scale conflicts held back by the Accords. What I'm asking you guys is to provide various avenues to explore once this massive jump in power production is completed, since while they have a Dyson Swarm in their pocket, they don't really need it.

 

[We Just Write]

T: If there's sensors on the swarm elements you can use it as a stupidly huge synthetic aperture telescope for astronomy, I guess?

 

[Erithemaeus]

T: If there's sensors on the swarm elements you can use it as a stupidly huge synthetic aperture telescope for astronomy, I guess?

Click to shrink...

Sure? But most plausible depictions of Dyson Swarms just put them as kilometer-wide foils (basically mirrors w/ maneuvering thrusters), so not exactly a good way to convert them into mirrors. It'll prolly just beam a portion of sunlight directly into the telescope receiver, which means delicate components get burned out due to the heat

That said, it's prolly certain that some deep space telescopes are located right around the orbits of Kaeton or the Di'purna Belt. Far enough away from the star that its light wouldn't get in the way of observations, and close to interstellar space that it could detect more objects laying outside the solar system.

 

[We Just Write]

T: That's... not what synthetic aperture means? Basically it's when you take a whole lot of different pictures of the same thing from different angles and then do MATH to make them into one much better picture. The dyson swarm presumably needs sensors on the various elements for station keeping and not crashing into itself in addition to beaming power where it's actually wanted, so it should already have the equipment for this.

Aperture synthesis - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Erithemaeus]

Aha, looks like I was talking about something else.

Yeah, I guess the Kal'Dari could appropriate part of the swarm to use as a telescope. Still worse than just building a purpose-built telescope than just jurry-rigging one from the swarm's sensors, but I guess it could work.

Nonetheless, here's what the Kal'Dari found upon taking a look around their local interstellar neighbors.

On the other hand, the Kal'Dari charted their neighboring systems, and they're all... Bad. All protoplanetary disks and relatively small pockets of nebula, and the home system is basically one of the few stars in their local group to have a head start at stellar formation.

Still, said stars are Gen IV stars, so lotsa resources after a billion or so years.

Click to shrink...

 

[Cloak&Dagger]

I mean, we've just been told quite explicitly that the Kal'Dari are sick of the perceived waste of resources on megaprojects, and I don't think the Matrioshka brains would be very popular, considering it's effectively killing your consciousness and uploading a copy and the sort of thing that would take millions of years to put into effect, while the Kal'Dari are already sick and tired of the unspecified but less than a hundred thousand years they have spent working on the Great Waste.

Click to shrink...

I mean, yes, they are dumb, but even so artificial blackholes are excellent power plants, so if they didn't already have mass production of them, they will now, so they will have easy interstellar travel between that and directed light from the star.

 

[Lankhmar]

Biggest overnight change is what the industrial capacity goes to and what capacity had been dedicated to it. You now have billions of staff, supply chains and factories for gigatons sitting idle.

And things cant sit idle for long given the costs. A megastructure, war or mass unemployment...

 

[RoseEmbolism]

You use it to construct a Nicoll-Dyson laser, and then vaporize any potentially life-bearing planets in the galaxy, and then any neighboring ones. After all, if you've built one, that means someone else can as well. Better get them before they get you.