&gt; <i>wouldn&#x27;t it make sense for such a culture to live near a black hole?</i><p>Technically the black hole doesn&#x27;t offer anything beyond what a sun of comparable output would offer.<p>&gt; <i>and other species might avoid the neighborhood in general given that it&#x27;s not a safe or nice place to be</i><p>True, but the reasons for avoiding close contact with it are also the reasons why building a habitat there is potentially risky. All things being equal, a Mercury-like planet would make a better base for a civilization having those goals: it offers a lot of solar energy, affords some protection from detection by being too close to the star to resolve it as a non-natural heat source, and as opposed to the black hole it&#x27;s also in a stable environment.