What Is The Most Advanced Civilization In The Universe?
Imagine, for a moment, that some angry alien mobsters decided to invade our planet. They come with all sorts of gadgets and, most frighteningly, took our armed forces by surprise. Surely, we would try to defend ourselves, but who would win the battle? The answer is not a mystery. It all boils down to how civilized those guys are. The more civilized a planet is, the more powerful and independent it becomes.
In 1964, Russian astrophysicist, Nicolai Kardashev, came up with a unique scale for categorizing civilizations into different levels of advancement. The scale categorized civilizations based on the amount of energy available to them and how they are able to harness that energy to foster technological advancement. At the time, Nicolai’s scale contained information about planetary, galactic and stellar civilizations. Over the years, with the development in nanotechnology, biotechnology, and quantum physics, the scale has been upgraded, and now categorizes planets into 7 different civilizations.
It’s easy to imagine that earth is the most advanced civilization since it’s the most inhabitable planet, but this isn’t the case. As at now, our planet is no way near peak civilization. Below is a list of the 7 different civilizations.
I. Type Zero
This is the least advanced civilization. In this type of civilization, energy is harnessed from raw materials such as dead plants and animals. Zero civilization doesn’t use all the planetary energy available to it.
II. Type One
This civilization is able to make use of all the energy that reaches the planet, hence it is also known as planetary civilization. Planetary civilization is a little bit above our civilization, but Michio Kaku, a physicist and futurist, thinks that we would reach planetary civilization in 100-200 years.
III. Type Two
This is an interplanetary civilization. After the planet must have exhausted the energy available to it (as in type one), it then reaches out to other planets for energy. Gaining energy from other planets is a tough process, but a structure known as the Dyson Sphere would be built and used to accomplish this purpose.
IV. Type Three
If we continue compounding our energy usage, we would attain the status of type three civilization in around 100,000 – 1,000,000 years. This civilization is known as the galactic culture and no type of natural disaster is capable of destroying it.
V. Type Four
Type Four civilization is also known as universal culture. While the galactic culture can harness the energy from the entire galaxy, universal culture is able to efficiently use energy from the whole universe. Now that’s awesome, don’t you think so?
VI. Type Five
This civilization is popularly known as multi-verse civilization. Apart from harnessing the energy of the whole universe, type five civilization would use energy from black holes, create new black holes and even change the laws of nature.
VII. Type Six
This is the most advanced civilization in the universe. It would probably take us billions upon billions of years to get here. Kardashev didn’t think it was necessary to mention this civilization because our minds won’t be able to even grab a glimpse of the kind of technological advancement available in this civilization.
So, there you have it. The 7 civilizations in the universe. We haven’t reached the second civilization and we are already this advanced. There is no telling what our world would be like when we enter the next stage.
