I've looked over Nihei's discussion of the Megastructure and some Japanese fansites again and gotten a better idea of how it's made up. Nihei says that "the Megastructure stretches across the solar system, and is at least as wide as Jupiter's orbit." He also says that approximately all the mass in the Solar system was consumed to create the Megastructure. He doesn't say that the Megastructure is a Dyson sphere, but simply gives Dyson spheres as an example of a solar system-spanning structure.

So we know that the Megastructure was built mostly with the material in this solar system, and that it is not the same thing as a Dyson sphere. This suggests to me that the Megastructure is a weblike thing with one big chunk that most of the people and creatures inhabit. The center of the large part is probably the Jupiter-sized hole. The bits of megastructure that extend from the big chunk are probably arrays of solar panels and other energy-gathering devices that keep the whole thing powered.

As for how the Megastructure holds itself together, remember that its creators have gravity manipulation technology. There are probably gravitic furnaces like the one inside Toha Heavy Industries that maintain a constant level of gravity throughout the structure and keep it from collapsing on itself.

Now the Megastructure makes some sense. =D So it would be something like a Matrioshka Brain with chunks of habitable space?

I imagined that Megastructure encompased entire earth and maybe moon. But when i read last volume, i was amazed. I mean, Jupiter is faaar away...

Even creating a "ringworld" type structure in that orbit would be overkill. I dont even want to start thinking about Dyson sphere...


Anyway, great thread.

I think honestly the megastructure would not be impossible to build, and also has a reason to it's existence (meaning that there would actually be a drive to build it). I would believe seeing as how most life forms are human sized, and some doors, structures, all the stairs, and the like are in terms of scale built specifically for the human race I think that the megastructure was conceived to be a utopia for mankind. Obviously AI had been created to work for the humans, clearly ended in epic failure, but the builders continued to create habitats and facilities for humans, supplying power and the like to mostly nonexistent human population. So the drive exist, and on this level of scale and automation obviously economics would not be a matter. The actual mass needed for something like the megastructure isn't unrealistic once realizing the level of technology in the Blame! universe. You also have to remember that any material can be turned into it's base protons, neutrons, and electrons, and reconfigured to be whatever you wish it to be. The sun has a near limitless amount of mass as well. The only problem I can see with the megastructure is how gravity would work. The problem is that it's not "built" like a planet. It's just a bunch of rooms and empty space. Little confused as to how the gravity would be oriented without the use of gravity manipulation, as in is it still moving like our solar system? Is it rotating possibly causing the reverse effect of normal planetary gravity, with more worry being placed on the prevention of it tearing itself apart from the inside instead of collapsing? Or is it possible the megastructure is divided into sections (not circular or cubical, but rather structural almost like parts of a house, and the part seen in Blame! is in reality only an extremely small part) that each have their separate gravity orientations? It also raises the question of there possibly being more than one megastructure.

I read all of that and I am happy to say that I love you. I 'm glad someone finally pulled off something like this. Thanks and

May the Maths be with you.

Not sure this thread is alive, but..

Basically it quite easy(in theory) to get any quantity of matter if there is a suitable source of energy(black hole or quasar or maybe a giant star). All you need is to accelerate particles, protons for example, - and let them collide. This interaction will cause the birth of numerous new particles, etc.
By the means of nuclear transformation its possible to create heavy atoms from the light ones. The last step is to use chemistry and get any material you need).

The greatest problem of megastructure is stabilization of its gravity field. However, its obvious that creators of the City possesed the technology of g-control.

Eventually, with such enormous scientific potential all they had to have was a source of tremendous energy. The sun is not enough for such purposes, so they needed to find or construct one. They probably could collect dark matter or use space-warping technology for fast interstellar transmission..

But honestly i think they simply had The Facility(Net Sphere) that could manually differentiate the superposition of quantum states of the universe in particular area. If this physics hypothesis is right, such technology is literally the god-like one.

PS IMHO, the most impressive achievement of the post-human civilization is its insane nanotech(constantly used by safeguards and sometimes by other species). It allows them to convert practically any object into almost everything that is needed(regenerate or dissolve in particular).. Horrofic capability.