how large can the Empire build it?

[Boeing 757]

The IBC (or another founding member of the Confederacy) possessed mining operations across billions of systems as per AOTC: ICS. As the IBC was nationalized along with the majority of the Separatist powers, those operations would logically be placed under the mantle of Imperial control.

While it is quite possible that some of the more 'heavy industry' CIS members have billions of worlds as well. It is in fact, the Mining Guild. The Mining Guild survives the clone wars (and into the time of the New Republic, at least) and does not fall into the jurisdiction of the Galactic Empire.

LANDO: So you see, since we're a small operation, we don't fall into the...uh...jurisdiction of the Empire.
LEIA: So you're part of the mining guild then?

Respectively, I think you're recalling the Commerce Guild rather than this Mining Guild (they both involve mining, so I can see why). I've also just found this on SW.com:

http://www.starwars.com/databank/organization/cis/

The huge commerce entities that made up the Confederacy became the spoils of war, as the newfound Empire nationalized and absorbed them into its growing war machine.

That's also in conjunction with what Wookiepedia has to say on the subject.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Commerce_Guild

[NecronLord]

The speeder was designed for scouts exploring the wastelands of worlds lacking complex native life. Zam acquired hers on one of the billions of anonymous, young, high metallicity planets dominated by the resource-hungry Mining Guild in the galaxy's spiral arms. Her use of it in downtrodden urban enviroments would dismay its designers.

As you've bothered to look at the Commerce Guild on Wooki, you could also bother to look at the Mining Guild page which re-states the billions of worlds claim.

The Commerce Guild may control billions of worlds, too, I suppose, but that's not the quote. It may even be correct to call the Mining Guild a commerce guild, as it's also used in Attack of the Clones and on the databank as a more general term, but it's not the seperatist power. Nor, as far as we know, did it join the CIS.

Does the Mining Guild exist completely autonomously or does it have to pay a tribute to the Empire, like the Corporate Sector?

According to Wookiepedia, they're 'allied with' the Empire, but they don't seem to source that claim. They presumably sell materials to the Empire, though, on the other hand, I suppose the film could be interpreted as loosely impling that being in the Mining Guild is a protection against the Empire taking your stuff, for whatever reason

LEIA: So you're part of the mining guild then?
LANDO: No, not actually. Our operation is small enough not to be noticed...which is advantageous for everybody since our customers are anxious to avoid attracting attention to themselves.
HAN: Aren't you afraid the Empire's going to find out about this little operation and shut you down?
LANDO: That's always been a danger looming like a shadow over everything we've built here. But things have developed that will insure security. I've just made a deal that will

[BountyHunterSAx]

Maybe it's just me, but when I read that quote I hear the opposite, Lando saying that it's "Better for everyone" that the mining guild DOESN'T know about their small scale operation.

Implying that the mining guild knowing would result in meddling, and higher profile for their discreet clients.

-AHMAD

[NecronLord]

Being able to protect their interests from the Galactic Empire is not mutually exclusive with being meddlesome.

[Boeing 757]

The speeder was designed for scouts exploring the wastelands of worlds lacking complex native life. Zam acquired hers on one of the billions of anonymous, young, high metallicity planets dominated by the resource-hungry Mining Guild in the galaxy's spiral arms. Her use of it in downtrodden urban enviroments would dismay its designers.

As you've bothered to look at the Commerce Guild on Wooki, you could also bother to look at the Mining Guild page which re-states the billions of worlds claim.

The Commerce Guild may control billions of worlds, too, I suppose, but that's not the quote. It may even be correct to call the Mining Guild a commerce guild, as it's also used in Attack of the Clones and on the databank as a more general term, but it's not the seperatist power. Nor, as far as we know, did it join the CIS.

Very well then, since the AOTC ICS mentions the Mining Guild specifically, then I was the one who made the error of remembering it as a Confederacy power. The brain makes inane things happen over quite some time....

Anyhow, my original intention was to demonstrate that the SW galaxy should be able to fully exploit the potential of their galaxy--the Mining Guild being in under Imperial control matters not in the end--except for whom might get compensated or coerced by the Emperor.

[NecronLord]

Anyhow, my original intention was to demonstrate that the SW galaxy should be able to fully exploit the potential of their galaxy--

Not entirely, but then, it's rather beside the point. The scale is sufficient to do so. Indeed, if you consult Dyson's concepts, World Devastators could form a dyson sphere quite handily. Because it doesn't have to be a solid structure, just a swarm that englobes a star.

[fusion]

Kinda off topic: Wasn't Coursant supposed to be a ring world when first contrived?

[Ryan Thunder]

Good grief. A ringworld as built up as Coruscant?

I don't even want to know how many people that would be...

[FTeik]

Alright, so we all agree, that the empire could build a Dyson-sphere if it desired to do so.

IIRC, the population of the GFFA numbers 100 quintillion people, so how many Dyson-spheres (lets assume the solid variant) would be needed to shelter them all? Might reduce the empires problems with crowd-control.

[Darth Wong]

To be honest, the Empire has actually moved beyond having any use for ringworlds. Think about it: a ringworld or (especially) a Dyson sphere is a gigantic resource sink, and for what purpose? To utilize the power output of a star. To create a habitable environment which can sustain large numbers of people.

But the Empire has reached the point where it can construct worldships, which have an artificially maintained miniature sun and which can move about the galaxy on their own power. That's better than a Dyson sphere, and nowhere near as expensive.

The Dyson sphere is one of those "cool ... but why?" concepts. Same goes for ringworlds, really: if you can colonize millions of planets and move between them in as little time as it takes us to fly to Florida, why construct ringworlds? To concentrate your population into as few places as possible?

[Michael Garrity]

Fteik:

I worked it out, and found that the population figure that you mention (100 quintillion) can be contained in one Dyson sphere at a density of 920 beings per square mile.

Mike Garrity

[Darth Wong]

Fteik:

I worked it out, and found that the population figure that you mention (100 quintillion) can be contained in one Dyson sphere at a density of 920 beings per square mile.

Mike Garrity

And at the population density of Manhattan (~70000 people per square mile), we could fit the entire population of Earth into a single city roughly 300 miles square. Again, the question becomes: why? The idea of building a Dyson Sphere seems utterly pointless if you have high-speed interstellar travel capability.

[Batman]

Who was it that said 'if you can actually build a Dyson Sphere, you no longer need it'?

[FTeik]

Possible purposes of a Dyson-Sphere in the GFFA:

- A Sith-Lord might find a Dyson-Sphere useful as a huge battery. A supersized version of Byss.

- If you are on an ecological trip the possibility to shelter huge numbers of people without contaminating the eco-systems of millions of worlds is also very tempting.

- Because you can. The old pharaos got their pyramids, the emperor gets a Dyson-Sphere.

- To show the industrial might of the empire, because some people still don't understand what the construction of the DS means.