If alien civilisations exist then there must be a way
to classify them. A hypothetical scale based on the correlation between the
kind of civilisation and its energy availability combined with commensurate
population growth was created by a Russian astrophysicist called Nikolai
Kardashev in 1964. This scale is known as the Kardashev Scale. This is anchored
on the logic that a society of intelligent beings develop more and more
sophisticated technology their energy needs will increase along with population
growth. They will have at their disposal various types of energy to use and
this will not be from their home world but drawn from the stars and even the
universe.
The growth in demands for energy combined with
population growth as a civilisation grows is true. As mankind moved from the
Paleolithic Age, when we were still hunter-gatherers , into the Neolithic Age,
when farming began, and into the Industrial Revolution there has a been a great
need for coal, oil, gas, nuclear and hydroelectric power and now when we are in
the Digital Age , also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there has
been an ever growing need for energy. This need for energy reflects the
complexity of the civilisation that needs it. As we travel through the expanse
of space and time and our civilisation develops, there has been a
parallel exponential growth in population as economic growth expanded and
many newly independent countries joined in the race towards economic development.
When we were still hunter-gatherers back in the Palaeolitihic Age, our energy
needs would have been simple.We needed wood to make fire to cook our food, give
us light or illumination when its dark and perhaps to ward off dangerous
animals. Wood was easily at our disposal then and easily sourced. When we moved
into the Neolithic Age our farms and villages would have made use of wood,
animal dung and beeswax as energy which we easily had. As we moved into the
Copper and Bronze Ages and then into the Iron Age, our energy needs were still
met with charcoal, oil, bitumen and coal, but the demand for them would had
increased commensurate with population size. As the human population grew and
steam and coal and fuel powered machines appeared in the form of trains, ships
and eventually motorcars, our energy needs were met further by petrol and
electricity and eventually nuclear power.. The current age sees the increased
use of electricity for computers and their peripherals. Companies like IBM,
Google,Daimler,and government organisations make use of banks of servers to
store and distribute information. These devices consume vast amounts of
electrical power and are met. This need is high due the population increase and
economic development. This should hold true for an extraterrestrial
civilisation that may have grown in a similar way as we humans have. We can see
that as we progressed in our civilisations we had various kinds of energy at
our disposal. Karsdashev observed this in 1964, and from there developed
his scale.
The scale that Kardashev classifies extraterrestrial
civilisations are into three base classes. Type 1 , 2 and 3. Some astronomers
expanded on the scale with type 4 and 5, but these two classification
were abandoned as unrealisable as will be explained. The criteria for
classification was the energy consumption of each type of civilisation.
According to Kardashev, there are three types of civilisations: Type 1, Type 2
and Type 3. All three types have energy resources at their availability and consequent
disposal. Although some astronomers have extended the scale to
incorporate Type 4 and Type 5 it is thought that the energy needs of such
civilisations would be equivalent to all the energy in the universe and in all
universes and in all time-lines, that is at all stages of their development
into sophisticated and technologically advanced states of civilisation. The
Type 4 and Type 5 civilisations include not only their access to energy
resources but their knowledge to construct the kinds of civilisations they
exist in, that is the capability to develop advanced technology beyond what we
on Earth can realise at this time.
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| Nikolai Kardashev. |
To begin
with, what is the type of civilisation of Earth at the present? Ours is a type
0 civilisation. According to Dr Michio Kaku, an American theoretical physicist,
we are a type 0 civilisation because we still depend on fossil fuels such as
oil, gas and coal for much of our energy needs. We must also bear in my mind
that we also use, uranium (a mineral) hydroelectric power and in small measure
the so-called renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. These energy
sources are all drawn from the earth or like solar power drawn from Earthbound
solar panels. Dr Michio Kaku believes that for so long as we use fossil fuels
we will always be a type 1 civilisation in about 100 to 200 hundred years time.
He adds that the progress of science in the coming 100 years will determine
whether we will remain a type 0 civilisation or we will perish!
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| Dr Michio Kaku. |
A type 1 civilisation is one which is able
to harness the power of the sun. This civilization will harness energy from a
neighbouring star, transmit to their home world, store and satisfy its energy
needs in order to keep pace with its increasing population. This is not
possible for us on Earth at this time. We have yet to develop the technology to
collect energy from our sun nor from a neighbouring sun. In order for us to do
this, we will have to boost our current energy production by over 100,000 times
to reach this level of ability. This would also mean that we would need to
harness the entire energy output of the planet, that is to say, we must have
control over the natural forces of volcanoes, the wind, waves and earthquakes.
This is not really in our grasp but with advances in technology, we may arrive
at that plateau where we can do so, but in comparison to more advanced
civilisations, our feats will be small by comparison.
A type 2 civilisation
will not only harness the power of its own star but control it by using
gargantuan solar panel array called a Dyson Sphere.
 |
| An artisit's impression of a Dyson Sphere. |
A Dyson Sphere will cover
every centimetre of a star and in that way absorb every bit of solar energy
issued by it. That civilisation would then store and use the energy.
Alternatively, a type 2 civilisation may opt for nuclear fusion to obtain
energy. This according to Dr Michio Kaku could be in the form of an enormous
nuclear fusion reactor in orbit around a star where it will draw hydrogen for
the star and produce fusion energy which will then be transmitted back to their
planet for storage and use. Perhaps, we could see such society having several
reactors around many stars doing the same. This is a civilisation that will
have the capability to destroy with a massively powerful charged particle
weapon, perhaps surpassing lasers, that can vaporise a large celestial body
such as a comet or asteroid that could endanger its planet. It could also move
its homeworld out of the trajectory of a gigantic comet or asteroid or even
move another planet with the energy it has.
A type 3 civilisation
will have long surpassed any need for concerns about energy resulting in that
species becoming a "master race" who now can concentrate on
domination of the galaxy. This species can evolve into a specie that is part
biological and part robotic. If we talk about human beings evolving in this way
it will take a many many thousands of years to do so and we will call these
beings cyborgs. We do not what an extraterrestrial specie will such beings but
they too might evolve in this way. Cyborgs will have the gift of eternal life.
If this occurs constant self-replication will witness an enormous expansion of
population. This will then make it necessary for them to move large sections of
their population to other inhabitable planets or they could make those planets inhabitable.
They could then construct a large network of Dyson Spheres that are linked to
each other thereby creating a galactic wide civilisation that controls space.
They could collect the energy from their Dyson Spheres and relay it to their
homeworld. However, there could be drawbacks in such a network. The laws of
physics will constraint their efforts, especially the speed of light. The
potential of travelling to other planets and stars will need speeds in excess
of the speed of light, which according to Albert Einstein, cannot be
exceeded. The only they can work around the constraint of light speed is
in two theoretical concepts: warp drive (https://futurismnews.tumblr.com/post/62055261581/sci-fi-becomes-sci-fact-the-real-star-trek-as/amp /
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive )
and using wormholes (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-wormholes-real/).
However, as regards wormholes, there is some scepticism if they are possible to
use for travelling in space (https://phys.org/news/2018-12-scientists-dismiss-idea-wormholes.html).
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| An artist's conceptualization of a Type 3 Civilisation. |
A type 4
civilization was seen by Kardshev as being far too advanced for any
civilization to achieve. Nonetheless, there are many people who think that such
as civilisation could be achieved. They are opposed by a few who that such a
civilisation is realisable. A type 4 civilisation will be able to harness the
entire energy content of the universe. Such a civilization would be able to
travel the length and breadth of the universe. they could even possibly live
inside supermassive blackholes. Their energy requirements would be far in
excess of any technology that can be envisaged and use technologies completely
alien to the laws of physics. These would be very exotic technologies that we
cannot visualise let alone conceptualise.
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| A Type 4 Civilisation. |
A type 5 civilisation
might be the logical progression from the type 4 civilisation. The criteria for
this kind of civilisation is beyond imagination or conjecture. There cannot be
an adequate scientific explanation for it. The species of this civilization will
live like gods of mythology with the knowledge to manipulate the universe to their
advantage. It is simply beyond conceptualisation.
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