Advanced Civilizations and Mastery of Galactic Forms of Energy

Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York, wrote a fascinating article in COSMOS magazine comparing our current state of knowledge and "level" of civilization with what is possible in the universe.

In a seminal paper published in 1964 in the Journal of Soviet Astronomy, Russian astrophysicist Nicolai Kardashev theorised that advanced civilisations must thus be grouped according to three Types: I, II and III, signifying mastery of, respectively, planetary, stellar and galactic forms of energy usage. He calculated that the energy consumption of these three types of civilisations would be separated by a factor of about 10 billion.

Where are we right now? Not even type I (according to Carl Sagan, we're at 0.7!), but we're getting getting there! There are already evidence everywhere of an emerging Type I civilization.

It's a fascinating read: in the article, Michio speculates about von Neumann probes visiting Earth, the perils of encountering Type III civilization, harnessing the energy equivalent to that of a blackhole, and more!

Link - via Gizmodo

The colored woodcut above is by Austrian artist Heikenwaelder Hugo, titled Universum (1998). It is inspired by the black and white Flammarian Woodcut (c. 1888).


Fascinating, as Spock would say...

Sorry, but the Heikenwaelder version seems to be a poor, colorized version of the original, and doesn't seem to illuminate the scientific article or the subject in any way.

The concept is compelling though, and makes sense. We can't do any more than the power we possess affords. That works as an existential tenet or a modus operandi. Food for thought, not just on the planetary, etc. level but on the personal level - as a way to live your life.

Get more power!!!
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I find it puzzling that authors like Kaku can easily assume that civilizations can and will master energy in every larger quantities (i.e. planetary, solar system, galactic levels) yet can't imagine that the physics of the universe as we understood them since the early 20th century just might not be the whole picture, and therefore they may indeed be a way around the speed of light limit.

There certainly is an almost endless precedence on "laws of nature" we just knew were an absolute only to have them turn into myth and alchemy as science progressed over time.
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*Carl Saga_n_

also 'harnessing the energy equivalent to that of a blackhole' is'nt really saying anything because as far as i've read - they can conceivably be any size and therefore contain even the smallest amount of info/energy.
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I also wonder whether it is possible for any civilization to achieve the more advanced levels before annihilating themselves from existence. Possible, but quite improbable.

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