Types of Civilisation in The Universe
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| Three schematic representations: Earth, Solar System and Milky Way; Energy consumption estimated in three types of civilizations defined by Kardashev Scale |
The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement based on the
amount of energy they are able to use. The measure was proposed by
Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev in 1964. The scale has three designated
categories:
Type I civilization, also called a
planetary civilization—can use and store all of the energy available on its planet &
also able to terraform solar system’s planet.
Type II civilization, also called a
stellar civilization—can use and control energy at scale of its planetary
system.
Type
III civilization, also called a galactic civilization—can control energy at the
scale of its entire host galaxy
Usage of Power
In 1964, Kardashev defined three levels of civilizations, based on the order of
magnitude of power available to them:
Type I
Technological
level of a civilization that is "close to the level presently attained on
Earth, with energy consumption at ≈4×1019 erg/sec" (4×1012 watts).[1]
Currently, the civilization of Type I is usually defined as one that can
harness all the energy that falls on a planet from its parent star (for
Earth–Sun system, this value is close to 1.74×1017 watts), which is about four
orders of magnitude higher than the amount presently attained on Earth, with
energy consumption at ≈2×1013 watts. The astronomer Guillermo A. Lemarchand
stated this as a level near contemporary terrestrial civilization with an
energy capability equivalent to the solar insolation on Earth, between 1016 and
1017 watts.
Type
II
A civilization capable of harnessing the energy radiated by its own star—for
example, the stage of successful construction of a Dyson sphere—with energy
consumption at ≈4×1033 erg/sec.Lemarchand stated this as a civilization capable
of using and channeling the entire radiation output of its star. The energy use
would then be comparable to the luminosity of the Sun, about 4×1033 erg/sec
(4×1026 watts).
Type
III
A
civilization in possession of energy at the scale of its own galaxy, with
energy consumption at ≈4×1044 erg/sec.Lemarchand stated this as a civilization
with access to the power comparable to the luminosity of the entire Milky Way
galaxy, about 4×1044 erg/sec (4×1037 watts).
Kardashev
believed that a Type 4 civilization was impossible, so he did not go past Type
3. However, new types (0, IV, V, VI) have been proposed.
Current status of human civilization-
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| Average Power Consumption |
View
Point of Famous Astrophysicist Carl
Sagan-
According to the Astrophysicist Carl Sagan, humanity is currently going
through a phase of technical adolescence, "typical of a civilization about
to integrate the type I Kardashev scale."
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| Carl Sagan |
He
suggested defining intermediate values (not considered in Kardashev's original
scale) by interpolating and extrapolating the values given above for types I
(1016 W), II (1026 W) and III (1036 W), which would produce the formula:
where
value K is a civilization's Kardashev rating and P is the power it uses, in
watts. Using this extrapolation, a "Type 0" civilization, not defined
by Kardashev, would control about 1 MW of power, and humanity's civilization
type as of 1973 was about 0.7 (apparently using 10 terawatts (TW) as the value
for 1970s humanity).
In
2018, the total world energy consumption was 13864.9 Mtoe (161,249
TWh),equivalent to an average power consumption of 18.40 TW or 0.73 on Sagan's
interpolated Kardashev scale.
View Point of Physicist & futurist Michio Kaku-
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| Michio Kaku |
According to the physicist and futurist Michio Kaku, at the current time, humanity has not yet reached Type 1 civilization
status. He suggested that, if humans increase
their energy consumption at an average rate of 3 percent each year, they may
attain Type I status in 100–200 years, Type II status in a few thousand years,
and Type III status in 100,000 to a million years.
Dyson sphere- It is a hypothetical megastructure that completely encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its power output.
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| Dyson sphere |
A video on types of civilisation in the universe
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