The Three Stages of Civilization | What will happen if humans reach different stages of civilization?

Human civilization, known to exist only on Earth till now, is getting modified day by day. We have progressed the most since the last 500 years. And this progress is directly related to how much energy we use. Every life cycle on this Earth is depended to this energy. And as we all know, humans are clearly dependent on the sun for energy, either directly or indirectly.

430 quintillion Joules (it's 18 zeroes after 430) of energy hits earth every hour. And humans are able to use this much energy in total one year. This means that most of the sun's energy that strikes Earth gets wasted. Similarly, there are a lot of resources hidden inside this Earth which we are not able to utilize. This shows that human civilization is still lacking so much. Based on this concept, Nikolai Kardashev in 1964, put out a scale known as Kardashev scale.

Kardashev Scale

This scale is basically a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement based on their capability of using a particular amount of energy. This scale is divided into three stages/types, but further extended till seven. Increase in its levels shows the increase in capability of a civilization to use energy. Now if we talk about humans, we still have not reached the Type I civilization. According to the formula used to calculate the stage of civilization based upon the energy used by them, humans still haven't reached the first stage of civilization. We are on type 0. But we are only 30% away from reaching type I civilization. But on what basis are these stages classified? So let's talk about those stages of civilization which looks imaginary from outside but are actually possible.

Type I Civilization

Type I civilization, also called the planetary civilization, is the one in which a particular race is able to use all the resources and energy available on their planet. For example, if humans can use all of the sun's energy which is able to reach on Earth, then we will reach the first type. According to some physicists and futurists, humans may take about 100-200 years to reach planetary civilization. This would result in increase in power of humans by which we will be able to travel to different planets in our solar system very easily. We will have full control on our planet Earth. We will be able to control seasons, gravity and even able to produce different types of lands on our own.

Type II Civilization

This is the most interesting type of civilization. The type II civilization, also known as stellar civilization, is capable of using all the energy of its parent star and planetary system. In case of humans, if we reach the second stage of civilization, then we will be able to make every planet habitable in our solar system. We will be able to control their orbits and use all of the sun's energy. As we know, most of the sun's energy gets wasted in the deep space. But in this case, we will be able to use all of its energy spreading in every direction. In fact, the proof of existence of this type of civilization is also there.

On 14 October 2015, a team of astronomers got surprised when they saw a star, around 1470 light years away from us, blinking in Cygnus constellation. This star was given the name of Tabby's Star. The significant thing about this star was, the brightness of it was noticed to fall by around 22%. And if we try to find out, a big planet or celestial object can also not cause this much effect in a planet's brightness. Now the question is, how come a star's brightness can decrease this much in a short span of time. Now, many theories were given for this. But the one mostly believed is that this star is surrounded by a hypothetical gigantic structure also named as Dyson's Sphere.

This structure is known to be made by extraterrestrial creatures who have already reached the stellar civilization. But the most interesting part is, humans are supposed to reach this level of civilization in the next 1000-2000 years.

Type III Civilization

Now discussing about the third stage, this type of civilization may have control on the galactic level. That's why they are also known as galactic civilization. This type of civilization will be so much advanced in technology that it will have the capability to harness all the energy of its galaxy. This includes all the stars and planetary system present in the galaxy. In a study held in 2015, astronomers concluded that the existence of this type of civilization is extremely rare in our local universe. But if they exist, galaxies will be just like a simple house for them and planets like stones. They will be capable to move different stars from their place, absorb all the energies of supernovas, merging one or more star systems and stars and even destroy and make new from them. It does not end here only. We can't even imagine what else can happen if we reach this level of civilization. It is estimated that humans may take about a million years to reach this level, if we will be able to maintain our race till then.

Additional Civilizations on the basis of this scale

The scale given by Nikolai Kardashev finishes here only. However, based on this concept, some more stages were introduced too which are known as type 4, 5, 6 and 7 civilization. The existence of these civilizations is considered to be impossible.

Type 4-

This type of civilization may have power over the whole universe. It will be a super-galactic civilization. With capability to travel all across the universe, they may also be able to attain immortality.

Type 5-

This type of civilization will be able to extract energy from multiple universes (which we also call parallel universe or multiverse). From the above given stages, this will be the only civilization which can travel between different universes.

Type 6-

This civilization is purely the God Level Civilization. That's because this civilization will have control over space-time and will be able to form different universes on it's own.

Type 7-

What's more than the type 6 civilization? There is nothing left after considering the previous stage. And this is the reason, we can not even imagine this type of civilization. That's the end of human imagination. Anyways, what do you think about this civilization? Do comment down and let us know.

Thanks for Reading.

                -Parth Mittal