From Dummies to… Type I Civilisation

Do you think we are an advanced civilisation? Think again! Because science say….There is still a long-way to go! Let’s take the courage to face ourselves and where our Levels are – truly and scientifically measured. Next, we think about what we can do – as creatives, and not only – to push our boundaries. Because the future work – analysed in our spyglass series of stories “Futurist Workoscope” – might be for people that help…reach the Stars. Let’s think together!

The Bad News: we are dummies 🙁

Gone are those days when we were hunting animals in the forests, torture innocents or live in one place.
Humanity has become an advanced civilisation – we can communicate at a distance, fly, explore Space.
But are we that civilized?
Science says that we are a Zero-something type of civilization. Not even at level 1. Yeap, you read that well.

But, we have reached a turning point, scientists say. Michio Kaku considers that the next few hundreds of years will determine our faith -you can read more here – shortly put, if we remain the zero-something-dummies we are now or we will advance and make our ways into the stars!

So, what is it with this big fuss of types of civilizations?
And how many levels are there?
If we want to brainstorm how to advance, we have to be on the same page and know where we are.

Kardashev’s Scale of Civilisation

The types of civilisations were first developed by Soviet astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev in 1964.
He was looking for signs of life out of our system – some smart and nice aliens – and he was thinking how they might be. As such, he came up with the scale of civilization – a method of measuring a civilization’s level of technological advancement based on the amount of energy it is able to use.
Later, the Kardashev Scale was further studied and developed.
Shortly, the civilisation I, II, III master planetary, stellar, and respectively, galactic forms of energy.

A Type I civilization utilizes all the energy of the sunlight that falls on that planet – meaning: humanity has control over all natural forces, including volcanoes, the weather, and even earthquakes, being able to build cities on our oceans. When might this happen?
Physicist Freeman Dyson of the Institute for Advanced Study estimates that, within 200 years or so. Of course, if we don’t go totally mad and make a nuclear war or some bio-tech-smart-weapons, or totally make our planet to burn.
But, in principle, Type I civilization is a truly planetary one with a planetary culture, communication system, economy, etc- so shortly, we understand each other perfectly.

A Type II civilization utilizes all the energy its sun produces – meaning: they are likely immortal and nothing known to science can destroy their culture. Meteor or asteroid collisions can be avoided using rocketry. In case of planetary threats, they can even leave their home in large space armadas, and can even move planets if possible. And we might reach this in 3200 years (Kardashev estimations)

A Type III civilization utilizes the energy of an entire galaxy – meaning: can communicate across the galaxy, and faster-than-light travel is possible. And we can obtain this in the next 5800+ year (Kardashev estimations)

And the Types IV and V of civilisation is controlling the power in the universe and multiverse respectively;
meaning: we can’t even imagine that!

Are there any Good News?

All these types of civilisations might exist out there – somewhere – in the universe, but probably we are too clumsy to talk to us.
And now, seriously, we don’t really teach our ancestor-monkeys to use phones or explain gravitation or quantum mechanics, right?
So, why do you think aliens would explain all the mysteries of the universe?
Type 0 is uncivilized, both technologically and socially. Just take a look into history books for all the horrid tales of massacres and genocide, much of it driven by superstition, ignorance and hatred (wars, pogroms, prosecutions, dictatorship, religious strife, etc) Yes, there was a time when we had it worse.
So, on our way toward 1, where are we more exactly? Science says: 0.7. And nothing is guaranteed that we will make it to 1, warn scientists.
End of the day, dinosaurs disappeared in a day, when a comet hit the planet, and… that was all, dinosaurs whipped out!
But, if you feel some consolation, and here comes the good news, physicists consider that of all the transitions, the most difficult is the transition from Type 0 > Type I!
It is hard, but we can do make it!

Question is: how do we make it?

After all this heavy reading, the conclusion might be….???????…….?????:
If we make it to level 1, the rest is “peace of cake”.
And we are on the path, but question is how can we accelerate the path? More exactly: How can artists and creatives enter the evolution-spiral toward a flourishing Type 1 civilisation?
Tough cookie to solve, but if you have some ideas, please drop us an email at techvangart@gmail.com.