This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Are you certain this article is inappropriate? Excessive Violence Sexual Content Political / Social
Email Address:
Article Id: WHEBN0000140271 Reproduction Date:
The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement, based on the amount of energy a civilization is able to utilize.[1] The scale has three designated categories called Type I, II, and III. A Type I civilization uses only resources available on its home planet, Type II harnesses all needed energy from its local star, and Type III of its galaxy.[2] The scale is only hypothetical, but it puts energy consumption in a cosmic perspective. It was first proposed in 1964 by the Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev. Various extensions of the scale have been proposed since, from a wider range of power levels (types 0, IV and V) to the use of metrics other than pure power.
In 1964, Kardashev defined three levels of civilizations, based on the order of magnitude of power available to them:
Type I
Type II
Type III
Michio Kaku suggested that humans may attain Type I status in 100–200* years, Type II status in a few thousand years, and Type III status in 100,000 to a million years.[4]
Carl Sagan suggested defining intermediate values (not considered in Kardashev's original scale) by interpolating and extrapolating the values given above for types I (1016 W), II (1026 W) and III (1036 W), which would produce the formula
where value K is a civilization's Kardashev rating and P is the power it uses, in watts. Using this extrapolation, a "Type 0" civilization, not defined by Kardashev, would control about 1 MW of power, and humanity's civilization type as of 1973 was about 0.7 (apparently using 10 terawatt (TW) as the value for 1970s humanity).[5]
In 2012, total world energy consumption was 553 exajoules (7020553000000000000♠553×1018 J=153,611 TWh),[6] equivalent to an average power consumption of 17.54 TW (or 0.724 on Sagan's Kardashev scale).
In 2015, a study of galactic mid-infrared emissions came to the conclusion that "Kardashev Type-III civilizations are either very rare or do not exist in the local Universe".[7] On October 14, 2015, the realization of a strange pattern of light surrounding star KIC 8462852 has raised speculation that a Dyson Sphere (Type II civilization) may have been discovered.[8][9][10][11][12]
There are many historical examples of human civilization undergoing large-scale transitions, such as the Industrial Revolution. The transition between Kardashev scale levels could potentially represent similarly dramatic periods of social upheaval, since they entail surpassing the hard limits of the resources available in a civilization's existing territory. A common speculation[22] suggests that the transition from Type 0 to Type I might carry a strong risk of self-destruction since, in some scenarios, there would no longer be room for further expansion on the civilization's home planet, as in a Malthusian catastrophe. Excessive use of energy without adequate disposal of heat, for example, could plausibly make the planet of a civilization approaching Type I unsuitable to the biology of the dominant life-forms and their food sources. If Earth is an example, then sea temperatures in excess of 35 C would jeopardize marine life and make the cooling of mammals to temperatures suitable for their metabolism difficult if not impossible. Of course, these theoretical speculations may not become problems in reality thanks to evolution or the application of future engineering and technology. Also, by the time a civilization reaches Type I it may have colonized other planets or created O'Neill-type colonies, so that waste heat could be distributed throughout the solar system.
Many extensions and modifications to the Kardashev scale have been proposed.
According to this scale, human civilization is between III- and IV-minus.
It has been argued that, because we cannot understand advanced civilizations, we cannot predict their behavior. Thus, the Kardashev scale may not be relevant or useful for classifying extraterrestrial civilizations. This central argument is found in the book Evolving the Alien: The Science of Extraterrestrial Life.[27]
Science, Computer science, Transhumanism, Engineering, Internet
Wind power, Solar power, Sustainable development, Biomass, Global warming
Cryptography, Artificial intelligence, Software engineering, Science, Machine learning
Ancient Egypt, Science, Culture, Tamil Nadu, Korea
Astrobiology, Fermi paradox, Expose, Extraterrestrial life, ExoMars
International Space Station, Astronomical unit, Olaf Stapledon, Science fiction, Space habitat
Technology, Artificial intelligence, Computer science, Genetic engineering, Google