2012 got me no Hugo nomination in 2013

[james_davis_nicoll]

But you know what it did get me? From Rapture of the Nerds:

It’s called a Nicoll-Dyson beam—a laser weapon powered by a star—and just one of them is capable of evaporating an Earth-sized planet a thousand light-years away in half an hour flat.

So there's that. (it takes a week to evaporate an Earth-sized world with the combined power of a Sun-like star, boo hiss, but to make up for it the range is more like one million light-years)

Comments

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

Building a Nicoll-Dyson laser is quite possible, if one has the necessary technology level.

James doesn't have to describe that. He only has to describe the laser, and some applications for it.

The fact that, due to matters of scale, it's not possible right now, or for the foreseeable future, is not likely to matter to the USPTO, which typically has a grant-first-ask-questions-only-during-lawsuits policy.

[gohover.livejournal.com]

The nature of a Dyson Swarm means that you can a few components now, and add more later. What is the bare minimum needed to create the smallest weakest Nicoll-Dyson laser imaginable?

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

Two, I'd suppose. You can't really demonstrate the whole 'phased array' thing with only one unit.