The Most Advanced Civilization In The Universe
[Music] Earth and civilization, as we know it, has come a long way in the past 200,000 years and has experienced a multitude of changes. In that time, the human species has only existed for a mere 0.0015 percent of the immense 13.7 billion-year age of the universe. However, humanity has conquered some of the most daunting tasks in that time period. They've come from hunting and gathering in the fields of Africa to colonizing the entire planet in a time period that is relatively a blink of an eye on the cosmic level.
Some of the greatest minds to ever exist have helped push modern civilization forward and achieve goals that were once thought to be impossible. In just the past 150 years, we have gone from being stuck to the Earth's soil to landing on our closest cosmic neighbor, the Moon. Humanity's success is nothing short of spectacular, but on the universal scale, we may be rather insignificant. What would happen if we met an advanced alien species with technology more advanced than we could ever imagine?
In 1964, a Soviet astronomer by the name of Nikolai Kardashev introduced the hypothetical scale that can be used to measure a potential civilization's level of technological advancement based on the amount of energy this civilization can produce. This is known as the Kardashev scale. The scale has three traditional types but many extensions or modifications to the scale have been proposed since its creation. The scale is logarithmic, meaning as we go on, the amount of power the civilization has is much, much more substantial.
In 1964, Kardashev defined the three base levels of civilization based on the power available to them. Type 1, the smallest of the original types, is also called a planetary civilization. This is somewhat similar to our good old friend, Earth. Type 1 civilizations are capable of storing and using all of the energy which reaches this planet from its host star, which in our case is the Sun. This amount of energy would amount to an enormous 7 x 10^17 watts.
Notice how I said "most similar," though, as their modern civilization here on Earth is not quite exactly fitting that Type 1 civilization category. Yes, I know we pathetic humans can't even fit into the lowest level of advanced civilization. Rather than fitting into a Type 1 civilization, we humans land on one of the extended types of civilizations: Type 0.
You see, when this scale was proposed, the famous astronomer and physicist Carl Sagan produced a formula to define a certain hypothetical civilization to Kardashev rating. This is that formula: K represents a hypothetical civilization's Kardashev rating, while P represents the amount of power the civilization uses. A proposed Type 0 civilization will control approximately 1 megawatt, or 1 million watts, of power, which is minuscule compared to the amount of power we use on a daily basis.
In 2015 alone, the total world energy consumption was 17.35 terawatts, or this huge number. Plugging this number into P and cranking out the numbers, our Kardashev rating as a civilization will be approximately Type 0.72. Even as a civilization with seven billion humans on our planet, 12 of which ventured to the Moon with spacecraft, spent billions of miles into the abyss of interstellar space, and planned to colonize Mars in the near future, we still only score a measly 0.72 on the Kardashev scale.
According to Carl Sagan, humanity is going through a phase of technical adolescence, typical of a civilization about to integrate into the Type 1 Kardashev scale. Michio Kaku, another brilliant theoretical physicist, suggests that humans may attain Type 1 status in the next 100 to 200 years, Type 2 status in perhaps the next few thousand years, and Type 3 status in 100,000 to 1 million years.
This really goes to show the truly immense time scales it would take to advance to the next type of civilization. However, we are heading towards becoming a Type 1 civilization in the next couple of hundred years or so, and this is a huge step for humanity. As a Type 1 civilization, we would have complete control over our own planet. Perhaps we could influence the weather, change the geological makeup of our own planet, and much, much more.
However, even this amount of power is tiny compared to the next type of civilization, Type 2. Type 2 civilizations, also referred to as stellar civilizations, can control the total energy of its host star and transfer the energy throughout the entire solar system. One popular hypothesized device used to harness the entire energy output of a Type 2 civilization's star is called Dyson structures.
You may have seen these before, as they are rather popular in science fiction. The name was coined by Freeman Dyson, and it is essentially a system of orbiting solar power satellites. Basically, it’s an insanely massive hollow sphere built around a civilization's star to harvest all of the energy from it. I first made a great video on this idea, and you should definitely check it out — I’ll be sure to leave a link to it in the description.
But back on topic, another rather exotic idea to harness energy for a Type 2 civilization would be to feed a stellar mass, for example, a star, into a nearby black hole and collect the photons emitted by the accretion disk. Now, how a civilization could somehow deposit a star into a black hole is beyond me, but it is the means of energy.
Nonetheless, a Type 2 civilization would not only build these supermassive structures but would control and live within them. They would control every single planet in their solar system, mine the asteroids at their leisure, and essentially do whatever they want inside the solar neighborhood. The amount of power a civilization would harness is remarkable, but it's nothing when compared to a Type 3 civilization.
A Type 3 civilization, also referred to as a galactic civilization, can control the total energy of its entire host galaxy. The amount of power the civilization would have is truly frightening, and it's order in the realm of science fiction, but I'll cover it anyway. You see, this civilization would function extremely similar to the way a Type 2 civilization would. It would harness the power of stars, mine planets and asteroids and so on, but not only for one star but for billions of stars.
A civilization such as this would use planets and solar systems like Legos, building and deconstructing planets to build up their empire elsewhere in the galaxy. The galaxy would seemingly become their playground, and everything they do and use is merely a toy. Harnessing the energy of quasars would be like hitting the lottery for them.
The supermassive black hole at the center of their galaxy could be used as an energy source for a Type 3 civilization. Galactic real estate would become a reality, with planets, stars, or even complete solar systems being auctioned off by some supreme leader. Interestingly enough, this hypothetical galaxy may not even be noticeable. If such a civilization did exist, all of the energy from these stars would be felled and used for whatever the civilization may need.
This means all the starlight, gas, and elements in an entire galaxy would become like your kitchen pantry. If all of the matter in their entire galaxy was exploded for energy, an outside observer would view the galaxy to be completely invisible. It would appear as if there were a hole in the galaxy, or if they had colonized the entire galaxy, perhaps there would be nothing at all.
There is a place in space known as the Great Void, at nearly 330 million light-years in diameter. The Great Void is one of the largest known voids in the entire universe and is commonly referred to as a supervoid. This region of space is seemingly devoid of life and galaxies, as we know it.
A region of space with such a massive size as the Great Void should contain, scientists estimate, there should be at least 2,000 galaxies. But today, there are only 60 galaxies that have been discovered in the Great Void. This is a mere 3% of the amount of galaxies that should occupy an area this large. So, where would Type 3 civilizations be, completely dominating an entire region of space and milking a 330 million light-year wide region for resources?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and I’ll be sure to respond to them as quickly as I can. Thanks for watching.