A giant sphere built around a star to collect its energy is not just a fantasy. If such spheres exist around white dwarfs, they will emit heat in infrared light, and modern telescopes can find them.
🎯 If you built a Dyson sphere around the Sun at the distance of Earth's orbit, its surface would have room temperature — about 300 K.
🎬 Giant spheres around stars have appeared many times in science fiction, for example, in the series 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' (episode 'Relics').