>No, it has nothing to do with scale. The exact same thing would apply
>to a marble surrounded by a tennis ball. The key thing is the mass of
>the rest of the shell; you can't ignore it. If you could, what you are
>saying would be the case.

I'm not 100% convinced, but mostly b/c I'm not sure we really understand gravity enough. But I'll shut up about it.

What's the advantage to a dyson sphere then, though? Being able to trap all the energy put out by whatever star is great and all, but what does one do with it? New Avalon is a drop in the ocean of surface area inside the sphere, what's being done with the rest of it?

I agree it's hella cool, and would be intimidating as all hell to the 99.umpty-9% of people who don't know how it was created and look at it and go "They BUILT that thing?". And you certainly would never run out of space. But the more I think about it, the more I think the concept in general is beyond nuts.