What is the Kardashev Scale & Its Importance to Humankind: Kardashev Scale is an advanced measuring method developed to help a civilization calculate its level of advancement in technology based on its capability to harness and consume a certain amount of energy.
This scale relies heavily on estimating the technological advancement of any civilization based on energy. Nikolai Kardashev, the scientist that developed the model published the first article about it in 1964. In this first paper titled, “Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations,” Kardashev used human civilization as his first model.
What is the Kardashev Scale & Its Importance to Humankind
Kardashev describes a Type I civilization as a civilization that has advanced enough to access and use the entire energy available on its planet. This implies that a Type I civilization will have the ability to harness and store all energy sources it can find within its planet of birth.
Kardashev used the human civilization as an example to explain this type of civilization. If humans become a Type I civilization, they should be able to control and utilize all-natural disasters on Earth including volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and many others.
Imagine a future where humans terraform some unexplored region on Earth using the vibrations of earthquakes. If humans become a Type I civilization, the loss of lives and properties during any natural events will be a thing of the past.
Currently, humankind is at about 0.7 on the Kardashev Scale. Many futurists like Michio Kaku estimate that humankind will likely become a Type 1 civilization in the next 100 to 200 years.
A Type II civilization
A Type II civilization is an advanced space-faring civilization that can directly consume the entire energy of a Star. Any civilization that will be this powerful should be able to construct a Dyson sphere around its host star.
The Dyson sphere will trap all the solar output coming from a Star. The Type II civilization will then use this energy to power its advanced technologies that would enable them to travel to other star systems and possibly attempt intergalactic journeys.
Kardashev strongly believed that it would take humans around 3200 years to become a type II civilization. Before the next 3000 years, we should expect our kind to build advanced technologies that would move us closer to becoming a powerful civilization that can harness the entire energy of our star.
A Type III Civilization
Nikolai Kardashev believed that humans would likely become a type III civilization in the next 5,800 years to come. As a type III civilization, our kind will be able to harness all the energy emitted by our home galaxy and capture all energy generated by every celestial body within our home galaxy.
This implies that humankind will capture energies from every black hole, star, and other object within the Milky Way Galaxy as a type III civilization. Hence, our descendants will be thinking of intergalactic space flights to Andromeda galaxy and other neighboring galaxies.
They will develop fascinating technologies that will carry them around the universe at a tremendous speed. Even if they have not developed spacecraft that can travel at near speed of light at this point, they will clearly understand how to reduce their space travel time to other galactic worlds.
While Kardashev stopped his scale at Type III civilization, several scientific models have extended civilizations adding Type IV and V to harness more range of power levels. However, as humans advance technologically, we will improve our understanding of the Kardashev scale.
Why is the Kardashev Scale Important to Humans?
The human civilization is growing at a faster pace. However, despite our technological progress, we are still at 0.73 on the Kardashev scale. Hence, the Kardashev scale helps to tell how fast we are advancing technologically as a civilization.
Many futurists like Michio Kaku have already predicted that the human race will become a type 1 civilization in the next 100 to 200 years to come. However, we may build more fascinating technologies that will make us climb the ladder of becoming a type I civilization before 2100.
