How advanced are we as a civilisation?

In 1964 soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev proposed a scale for measuring the technological advancement of an extraterrestrial civilisation.

Kardashev divided civilisations into three categories which reflected the amount of energy which they were able to use. Some researchers found this scale to be useful, particularly those who were involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence – or who were making efforts for modelling or predicting the future for human beings on earth. Others, more critical, dismissed Kardashev’s scale as science fiction and so far in the realm of speculation that it had no practical value.

Perhaps the greatest positive effect of grand ideas such as the Kardashev scale is not that it is an accurate description of what exists – but that it is a concept capable of producing debate. An open exchange of perspective and opinion is always beneficial to the advancement of science – and to our future. As we’ll find later in this article, there are some interesting questions of an environmentally significant nature which arise.

What types of civilisations are on the Kardashev scale?

Type I – a civilisation which can utilise all of the power available on a single planet

Type II – a civilisation which is able to harness all of the power from a single star

Type III – a civilisation that is able to harness all of the power of a single galaxy

Kardashev is working from the premise that ‘since civilizations always face problems that require continuously greater activity, it is likely that supercivilizations will undertake activities and construct structures on a very large scale.’

In 1984, Kardashev produced a paper entitled ‘On the inevitability and the possible structures of supercivilizations’ – which was presented at the Search for Extraterrestrial Life symposium that year. The ideas set forward imply that there is a natural and unavoidable direction to civilisations – that they always start in small areas and grow to occupy a much larger territory. As well, entrenched in Kardashev’s position is his assertion that the energy use of a growing civilisation will always rise.

Kardashev states that evidence of highly advanced extraterrestrial civilisations should be possible to be observed from earth. That the machines, objects and technologies deployed by these cvilisations would ‘…have a very large mass, a large energy potential and a high information volume.’ As well, that they would tend to exist for billions of years.

We might question these sorts of statements if they are put forward as a general rule for the evolution of civilisations. After all, we have no evidence to either absolutely support or dispute this point of view. Our history on this planet and especially our technological history seems far too short to insist on a general rule of this sort.

However, even if ALL civilisations don’t exhibit technological growth, some of them could.

How might we find evidence for a civilisation on the Kardashev scale? Read on to learn more....