Levels of Civilization

A civilization is like a society of beings having a common belief and thinking. Having complex structures and functions which help them to r...

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A civilization is like a society of beings having a common belief and thinking. Having complex structures and functions which help them to run the society hold it together. According to us, we are in the modern era of civilization. But humans had early and ancient civilization also which are discovered or yet to be discovered.

By level of civilization, you must be thinking of levels based on time as a parameter. But level of civilization doesn't mean ancient or modern civilization, rather it belongs to the consumption of energy.

Kardashev scale

The levels of civilization is measured in Kardashev scale. It was introduced by a Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Semyonovich Kardashev in 1964. It is used to measure the technological advancement on the basis of energy consumption. Initially he proposed 3 levels of civilizations which is now extended to 7 levels.

The various levels of civilizations are:

1. Type 0 or K0
2. Type I
3. Type II
4. Type III
5. Type IV
6. Type V or Omega level
7. Type VI or K6

Type 0 civilization

It is the one which is not even able to harness all the energy of its home planet. They can't sustain themselves outside their home planet. They are confined to their planet.

This is further sub-divided into many sub categories:

• 0.1 - Human evolution
• 0.2 - First Homo sapiens
• 0.6+ - Kingdoms and dominance
• 0.75 - Current humans
• 0.8 - Humans and cyborgs

Due to natural disasters , planet impact hazards and societal collapses, these civilizations are at a extreme risk of extinction which is about 99.9%. And it's believed that those who don't keep up with these dangers, eventually end up triggering their own extinction.

Energy details:

Energy usage is approximately 10^6 W to 10^16 W. They usually extract their energy and raw materials from crude organic based sources. They are involved in their own problems like fighting over religion and dominance among themselves. They have social issues like Air pollution and colonization. The 21st century earth is considered as a Type 0  civilization.

Type I civilization

It is also called planetary civilization. This type of civilization is considered as capable of harnessing and storing all the energy falling on its planet from its parent star. In our case, this energy is equivalent to 1.74 x 10^17 Joules per second which is far more than we are currently utilizing (about an order of 4 times more). So we can safely conclude that we are not even falling in Type I category. Type I would be able to control all the energies present on their home planet, these include controlling volcanos and even earthquakes to some extent.

Energy details:

These civilizations are considered to be hugely dependent on sources of energies like fusion power and renewable energy.

• Renewable sources - use of renewable energy may not be the best option as to utilize all the energy falling over the planet, one either need to cover the whole planet with artificial building or huge constructions in the space to utilize solar energy.
• Fusion energy - This may be a better option for fulfilling the energy needs of a Type I civilization. According to this, 2 kg of matter needs to be converted to energy each second which seems too difficult but not impossible for the near future.
• Anti-matter collision - This probably is the best option for energy fulfillment. When antimatter collide with matter, they produce energy which is almost 100 times more efficient then the most efficient fusions. But we just don't know where or how to find antimatter. We just create antimatter using energy and collide them back to get energy which yields 0 net energy. This process is not useful today but could be in the near future.

Type II civilization

It is also called stellar civilization. This type of civilization is considered as capable of harnessing and storing all the energy of its own planetary system. That means all the energy radiated from its parent star will be utilized by this civilization. In our case, our sun radiates 3.9 x 10^26 Joules per second. To utilize it, use of Dyson spheres could be an idea. This was only a thought experiment proposed by Freeman Dyson that could answer the energy needs of a type 2 civilization.

Energy details:

Although this civilization can use the energy ways of type 1, just extending it to several planets. They can use some other hypothetical ideas like: 

• Dyson spheres - This concept is very famous and was proposed by Freeman Dyson. In this and other similar megastructure concepts, the idea was to make a sphere like structure that would cover and utilize almost all of the energy radiated by the star. Also this could be extended to several layers orbiting the stars. In this way, almost all of its energy would be utilized.
• Star collecting - In this process, they may use proper equipment and tools to remove and store some part of a star in a controlled manner and use it further for different purposes. It can be used a high concentration of energy.
• Black-hole and antimatter - Uses of black hole and antimatter can also be the methods for fulfilling energy requirements of type 2 civilization.

Type III civilization

It is also called a galactic civilization. They are capable of storing and manipulating all the energy of its host galaxy. They would be controlling all the stars, black holes, and other astronomical bodies in the galaxy. Like in our milky way, a type 4 civilization would be able to harness all the energy of our galaxy that is almost 4 x 10^44 joules per second.

Energy details:

They would be using the energy ways of type 2 civilizations, just extending it to all the possible stars of their own or even other galaxies. They would be using some other hypothetical ideas as well:

• White holes - As there are black holes, it was proposed that there should be white holes as well. Just opposite of black holes, emitting matter out of singularity instead of sucking it in. Although the theory was just rejected as it was found that they are too unstable to exist but if it proves right and is found in the future, then they can use it as a energy source. Creating energy out of nowhere.
• Supermassive blackholes - It is believed that every galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center which binds the whole galaxy together. Type 3 civilization will be able to get to those supermassive black holes of their galaxy or even the other galaxies to harness its energy.
• Other methods - There would definitely be other ways of fulfilling energy needs which is out of our imaginations.

Kardashev only proposed Type 1 , 2 and 3. All other extended types were proposed later. As we go higher and higher, their reach and their energy methods goes beyond our imagination.

Here are the proposed civilization types: 

Type IV civilization

It is also called a universal civilization. They would be able to store and manipulate all the energy of its host universe. We have yet not discovered the extent of our universe, till now we have only discovered upto what is called observable universe. So this type of civilizations are already out of the reach of our technology.

Energy details:

They would be capable of detecting and using dark energy, that would satisfy their humongous requirement of energy. They would also be able to manipulate the basic fiber of space time and would be capable of teleportation and time-travel.

Type V civilization

It is also called a Type Omega or a multi-universal civilization. They would be able to store and manipulate all the energy of their own and other multiple universes. They would be able to escape their universe of origin and explore the multiverse.

Energy details:

The energy methods are not possible for us to imagine now. They would be using the technology which we can't even imagine now. Not just destroying, they would also be able to create and run their own custom universes. They would have mastered physics of all the universes at a time in order to create universes. After fully controlling time, they will become the 4 dimension beings and will be manipulating time according to their use. It may also be possible that we are the creation of such a civilization.

Type VI civilization

They will be just like gods. They would be controlling all the energy sources of the megaverse (collection of infinite multiverses) and be able to create and destroy several universes at a time. They would be omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, a god in real sense. They will be able to do everything we could ever imagine and beyond. They would be knowing and controlling every aspect of everything ever to exist. They would be simultaneously present at infinite places millions of galaxies apart.

Energy details: 

They are beyond our scope of imagination. It may be possible that all our universe, multiverse and even megaverse is created by a type 6 civilization. So, it is not possible for us to scale their energy details.

Kardashev originally proposed only 3 types of civilizations. He said that beyond type 3, it is impossible. And it also makes sense, we ourselves are still stuck in type 0 civilization. So we can't know the energy methods which would be possible in the future. But we know that in the world of science, nothing is impossible. So these were the levels of civilizations based on their technological advancements. We as a human are expecting to become type 1 civilization as soon as possible.