By Marcos Moya '23
The Kardashev Scale was first developed by Soviet and Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev in 1964. This scale ranks civilizations based on the amount of energy they contain; the amount of energy society utilizes can be a strong indicator of their technological advancement.
As technology continues to advance, the Kardashev Civilization scale begins to seem less hypothetical and more of a possibility. On the Kardashev scale, civilizations are ranked based on the sophistication of their energy use. Initially, experts in this field questioned whether humans would ever achieve a Type I civilization on the Kardashev scale. Now, their discussions have moved beyond this question to considering the sources of energy that will enable humans to advance into the higher stages on the Kardashev Scale.
In a Type I Civilization, humans would have to control all-natural forces, including tapping the energy resources of volcanoes, earthquakes, weather, and any other forces producing energy on earth. A Type I Civilization can store and utilize all energy available on its planet. The exact amount of energy required to achieve such a civilization is still debated, but most agree that it would be around 10^16 watts of power. Many believe a Type I Civilization could be met with the successful construction of the Dyson Sphere (a hypothetical megastructure that surrounds a star and captures a large percentage if not all its energy output).
A Civilization Type II would be able to utilize and control the energy of its entire planetary system. To achieve such a civilization, around 10^26 watts of power would be required. In such a society, one would imagine that humans would have the capability to move their planet or any other planet across space, making humans resilient to the
periodic natural extinctions known on earth.
The last civilization in the Kardashev scale was the Type III Civilization which can possess the energy of its entire galaxy. Kardashev predicted that approximately 10^36 watts would be required to achieve this level. If society does reach a Type III Civilization, they could develop colonies of robots capable of self-replication.
Such robots would be able to spread across the galaxy, collecting energy from other solar systems and transferring it to Earth. Carlos Sagan (1934-1996), an American astronomer, used the metrics of watts of energy to produce a formula used to rank civilizations in the Kardashev scale. The formula is K=(log(P)-6)/10, where K represents the Civilization type, and P represents the amount of energy a civilization possesses measured in watts.
The amount of time it may take to achieve the various civilizations on the Kardashev scale is widely argued upon, creating great ambiguity. Still, the rate at which humanity continues to technologically advance will give us better insight.
Results and Discussion: Currently, the human civilization is ranked a Type 0, but we are closer to approaching Type I. Upon becoming a Type 1 civilization, humanity will be able to utilize all of Earth’s energy, becoming far more advanced than imagined today. As we look at how we may get there, we consider the current energy types that are used: fossil fuels, wind/wave, tidal, geothermal, nuclear, and solar. Although this seems like a lot of potential energy, it has been shown that the only energy types feasible to achieve higher ranks on the scale are nuclear and solar energies.
It has been shown that if humans can master atomic fusion, there could be enough energy to power a Type I civilization for the next 10,000 years. Nuclear fusion, as the name suggests, is the process of fusing light atoms. In these fusion reactions, the two light atomic nuclei merge to become a heavier nucleus. This causes them to release a large amount of energy from the binding energy due to the strong nuclear force. The article “Kardashev Scale,” published by World Heritage Encyclopedia conducted a study analyzing that a Type I Civilization would require a ratio of about 2 kg of matter to energy per second. The study discovered that "an equivalent energy release could theoretically be achieved by fusing approximately 280 kg of hydrogen into helium per second, a rate roughly equivalent to 8.9×109 kg/year. A cubic km of water contains about 1011 kg of hydrogen, and the Earth's oceans contain about 1.3×10^9 cubic km of water, meaning that humans on Earth could sustain this rate of consumption over geological time scales." The results made it clear that today's Earth has the resources necessary to achieve a Type I Civilization while maintaining steady energy output if we mastered nuclear fusion. Another highly feasible possibility is to take advantage of the nearly 430 quintillion Joules of solar energy that earth receives every hour. For context, that is enough energy in a single hour to power humanity’s entire energy consumption for a year!
However, even with the most advanced solar panel, currently only 50 percent of solar energy is obtained and turned into usable energy. At the moment, there is no known way to use all the solar energy Earth absorbs without covering Earth's surface with solar energy converting structures - also not feasible.
Although these energy forms are not fossil fuels, heat will be released regardless of the energy type because of the first law of thermodynamics and the energy needed to power a Type I Civilization. Thus, overheating our planet would cause detrimental effects. Looking forward, it is imperative to investigate the challenges we’ll face to becoming a Type I Civilization.
The way in which humanity will advance, moving up the Kardashev scale is far beyond where it is in the present day. However, as our march towards technological advancement and sophisticated societies continues to increase, we may find that our path to a Type I Civilization may be a lot shorter than initially thought! There are many unknowns: Will we advance exponentially or remain stagnant? Will there ever be a cap to the amount of energy we can possess? Only time will tell.
References
Creighton, J. (2014, July 19). The Kardashev Scale – Type I, II, III, IV & V Civilization. Futurism; Futurism. https://futurism.com/the-kardashev-scale-type-i-ii-iii-iv-v-civilization
The Kardashev Scale With Michio Kaku: Can We Become a Type 1 Civilization? (n.d.). Www.youtube.com. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxwPfPWrOCA
Nuclear Fusion - ANS. (2018). ANS. http://nuclearconnect.org/know-nuclear/science/nuclear-fusion
Kardashev Scale – Maximus Veritas. (n.d.). Retrieved February 27, 2022, from http://www.maximusveritas.com/?page_id=979
Harrington, R. (2015, September 29). This incredible fact should get you psyched about solar power. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-the-potential-of-solar-power-2015-9
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