What If Humanity Was a Kardashev Civilization Complete List With EVERY Level Unveiled XL

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The human race has advanced significantly in  the last two centuries since the Industrial   Revolution, so much so that modern society  would be unrecognizable to a time traveler   from the past. But as intelligent and wise as  we may like to believe we are, in actuality,   this couldn’t be further from the truth. We  might be millions of years away from even   registering on a galactic scale, if we ever  do at all - but does it have to be this way?    This is Unveiled, and today we’re  answering the extraordinary question:   What if Humanity Was a Kardashev Civlization?   Do you need the big questions answered? Are  you constantly curious? Then why not subscribe   to Unveiled for more clips like this one? And  ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!   It was the Soviet Astronomer Nikolai Kardashev  who devised the Kardashev Scale; a way to measure   a civilization’s degree of advancement.  The scale breaks down that advancement   by contemplating how much of the universe any  given group can harness for energy - with the   technology at its disposal improving as the  amount of energy increases. To become Type I,  

a civilization has to be able to harvest all  of the available resources and energy from   its home planet - so, in our case, from Earth.  But the human race isn’t yet able to do this,   with the cosmologist Carl Sagan once placing us  at around zero-point-seven on the Kardashev Scale.   Because we’ve never encountered  any form of extraterrestrial life,   we don’t know whether any civilizations have  ever reached Type I either… but it at least   gives us something to aim for! Logically, as  we strive to make changes for the better, we   should continue to climb through the levels… with  physicist Freeman Dyson projecting that humanity   could attain a Type I status in two centuries’  time; while Kardashev himself estimated that we   could reach Type II - harnessing the full energy  of the solar system - in just over 3,000 years.   But we do still have a long way to go before  enjoying the full potential of just our planet. 


  According to futurist Michio Kaku, right now we  only harness one million-billionth of our sun’s   total energy output. To reach Type I we don’t  need to capture all of the sun’s power (save   that for Type II), but we do need to make use  of every bit of solar energy that’s available to   our planet - meaning a dramatic increase on that  measly million-billionth! A Type I civilization   has no need for fossil fuels, because they’re  a limited and unsustainable resource. Instead,   it’s all about making best use of our world’s  ongoing natural processes - the sunlight,   the winds and the tides, for  example. Were we to reach Type I,   then paying for our energy should  also become a thing of the past,   as every human being would now have the facilities  and knowledge to generate energy harmoniously from   the world around them. Energy would now exist more  like oxygen; a vital and life-giving constant.   But energy use and access would only be one way  in which a Type I human race would be united   and equal. Some interpreters of the Kardashev  Scale envision that we’d also have a universal   language - or at least a means of communication  - and a universal currency. Today we have some  

languages much more widely spoken than others,  but it’s the internet which many see as our   biggest stride forwards. It provides instant  links across the global population and even,   with the so far arguably dubious advent of  cryptocurrencies, seems to be ushering in   an alternative to traditional money  - one that’s spendable everywhere.   
More impressively still, a Type I group  is also able to control the weather. Today,   so much of what we can and can’t do is dictated  to us by whatever the skies have in store… but,   ascend to Type I and we’d be able to perfectly  forecast the weather for weeks and months ahead;   mostly because we’d be setting it. With a perfect  understanding of how our planet functions,   we’d have the technology to change and  alter weather patterns in any location,   if they didn’t suit. Say a coastline  needed sunshine to attract tourists;   we’d be able to disperse the clouds. But, if  any region found itself threatened with drought,  

we could seed those clouds so that the rains fell  exactly where they were needed. Clearly, advances   like these would not only improve our general  levels of comfort, but could also save lives!   The climate is one of our chief concerns  today, with fears that we could be in   the midst of a “climate crisis” where  global warming gets out of hand. But,   in a Type I world we’d have full control over our  destiny. We’d have enough knowledge and capability  

to regulate the Earth’s atmosphere back to a  carbon neutral - or even carbon negative - state,   where rising temperatures are reversed, and the  greenhouse effect is limited to just where we   need it to be. We wouldn’t be concerned about  things like melting ice caps and rising sea   levels, because they’d all be manageable  through our own environmentally friendly   technologies. In this way, we could even avoid  the occurrence of entire ice ages in the future,   if doing so was deemed to be a  positive step for the planet.   It’d be more than just climate change and  weather patterns, though. We’d also have full  

control of the planet’s other natural processes,  including earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis.   Fundamentally, a Type I civilization should be  able to predict with pinpoint accuracy when events   like these will happen, and also ensure that they  inflict minimum damage and place nobody in danger.   But it should also be able to take the next step,  by actually using something like an earthquake,   for example, for its own gain - by capturing the  power of tectonic movements and redistributing   it for the benefit of its people. If Earth were  Type I, we could even be able to safely escape   a scheduled asteroid strike, barring human error.  Humanity itself would never have been more secure,   being able to dodge most of what could once have  destroyed life. We would still be vulnerable to  

natural disasters from even further afield  - like the supernova of a nearby star or an   approaching black hole - but as far as “local”  disasters go, we’d have mastered them all!   Finally, having adapted to everything it  could throw at us, as Type I we could also   be capable of living on more of our planet  than ever before - perhaps even with entire   cities safely built atop of oceans, at  no detriment to the natural world. And,   seeing as we’d also be living more efficiently,  it’d not only be the space available to us that   would increase… As our technologies, medicines  and general lifestyles all continue to improve,   the average life expectancy of  a human being should also rise.   Today, we can already see some instances  where humanity is working its way up the   Kardashev Scale. For one, our planned missions  to Mars and our revived interest in revisiting   the moon. If we can learn how to control  and utilize the atmospheric conditions   of somewhere else in the solar system, then we  could soon be viewing our own planet from a new,   more effective and “more Type I” perspective.  We’re also already witnessing advances in   ocean living - with conceptual projects like the  Shimizu Corporation’s “Ocean Spiral” promising to   one day build underwater settlements powered  primarily by resources found in the seabed!   
Michio Kaku has said that we are “the generations  that will determine whether we make the transition   from Type 0 to Type I”… but he also warns that we  could “destroy ourselves because of our arrogance   and weapons” before then. When it comes to making  our first significant move up the Kardashev Scale,  

we could now be at a crunch point in human  history - on the brink of possible catastrophe,   yes… but also of harnessing the full  energy potential of planet Earth to   accelerate our technology, better our  knowledge and maximise our lives.    If humanity was a Type II civilization, it  would be taking all of the energy the sun   produces - more than 38,000 septillion  watts per second - and using it all for   its own needs. Quite how a civilization would go  about doing this is a mystery to modern science,   but there are some ideas - the most  famous of which being the Dyson Sphere. A Dyson Sphere is a structure that somehow  encircles the sun and absorbs all of the   energy released by it. That energy is then  somehow stored with maximum efficiency,   before being transferred elsewhere for use,  again with maximum efficiency. At this stage,   humanity will most likely have spread out all  across the solar system, so splitting the untold   solar power between Earth, Mars, the Asteroid  Belt, the moons of Jupiter and everywhere else   would be a massive undertaking. The Dyson Sphere  itself, however, might also be fully habitable. At  

the time of its completion, it would most likely  be the most massive structure humanity had ever   built until that point, and easily big enough  for some humans (like the technicians trained   to run it) to live actually on or in it. If  that were the case, then anyone listing the   Dyson Sphere as their primary address would  have a unique, extremely close, and perhaps   quite unsettling view of the sun. A Dyson Sphere  shouldn’t represent a health risk to a Type II   civilization, though. By the time humanity becomes  advanced enough to build something like this,   we should’ve worked out and sidestepped all the  dangers involved… which means we’d have shielded   ourselves from the otherwise intense radiation,  and might even be able to look at the sun up   close without damaging our eyes - maybe through  some solar-grade windows or specialist goggles.

But, why would we ever want or need such a  high level of control or such an incredible   amount of energy? In some variations of the  Dyson Sphere idea, it might be that this   immense piece of machinery could actually  serve to lengthen the lifetime of the sun,   buying Earth and the solar system specifically  more time before our star goes red giant. For   Freeman Dyson, though, the mind behind the  Sphere, it’s more simply a natural progression   for any space-faring civilization. Any alien  society that continues to advance and settle   on other planets would need to consume  greater and greater amounts of energy,   until its home star becomes the only source  in its planetary system which offers enough.  The opportunities available to a civilization at  this stage, though, would be incredible to today’s   mind. Not only would we have spread out across  the solar system, but we’d have likely mastered   all of its many environments, too. Getting to  and living on Mars would be easy; exploring the  

subsurface oceans believed to exist on places  like Europa and Enceladus would be a breeze;   we’d be able to build working colonies on any  solar system body we wanted to. Our spaceships   at this point would be so much more improved  as well, utilizing possible technologies such   as Laser Ion engines or nuclear fusion itself, to  give us infinitely faster access from Mercury to   maybe even the Oort Cloud. And, not only would  we have all of that, but it would also be much   more difficult to kill us off. The destruction  of humanity would be a lot harder to achieve. 

In fact, if we were a Type II civilization,  there’d be very little currently known to   (or suspected by) science that could wipe us  out. Asteroid impacts which we’re now unable   to prevent, for example, would be easy to handle…  at Type II we could disintegrate an oncoming rock,   or potentially even move the Earth  - or whichever planet we’re on at   the time - out of its path. In general, though,  for anything to threaten the whole of humanity,   it would now have to threaten the whole of  the solar system… so one asteroid heading   for one planet wouldn’t spell the doom  it does now. In a worst-case scenario,   humans would just evacuate that  planet before the impact happened. We wouldn’t be invincible, though. There would  still be some doomsday eventualities - like the  

appearance of a black hole nearby or universe-wide  vacuum decay - which we’d still have no hope of   outrunning. Plus, war would remain a viable  threat, either between ourselves or against   some other space-faring civilization. It’s thought  a Type II society would still operate governments,   to manage things like trade, communication or  conflicts between the various planets, moons   and asteroids in a star system. There could still  be competition and rivalry between these worlds,  

despite them all being united by the Dyson  Sphere tasked to power them. And there’d still   be a potentially dangerous “next frontier” to  aim for and work towards; interstellar travel. According to the Kardashev Scale, the next  move for a Type II civilization would be to   expand into other star systems, in a bid to  reach Type III. In our case, this would mean   heading for Alpha Centauri, a three-star  system that’s 4.3 lightyears away from us,  

and colonising it in the same way as, by then, we  would’ve already done with the solar system. And,   from Alpha Centauri it’d be onto the  next star system, as humanity spreads   out across the galaxy, seemingly becoming  more and more indestructible as it does so.   
With the fabled Type Three band set firmly  in our sights, however, we’d need cultural   and scientific revolution one hundred times  over. And the issue of energy - locating it,   storing it and transmitting it - would be at  the heart of our efforts. We’d have to build   systems that harvest the output of entire  stars which, at the very least would require   some form of reliable interstellar travel  or, arguably more simply, some kind of web   of interstellar connections. As our ability  to reach further into the stars increases,   though, so do our chances of being challenged  - meaning we’d need to also be prepared to   hide or protect ourselves from the possibility of  other advanced groups who can do the same thing.

  Of course, all of these things are much easier  said than done, and actually achieving them would   require us to overcome all sorts of barriers  and possibly rethink the seemingly immovable   facts about the fabric of the universe… the laws  of thermodynamics, the laws of stable matter,   and the implicit laws of planetary evolution  could all slow our progress in ways we can   hardly begin to anticipate. But, as our  expanding pool of technological knowledge   has helped us in the past, we’d still  need to find answers to these problems.   Perhaps our own biological shortcomings would be  the first things we’d overcome - in the hope that   a race that lives forever will improve forever.  We’d employ new technologies to survive most   natural, currently inevitable causes of death.  Sickness and the ill effects of old age would   surely be things of the past in an existence  where we have the ability to capture and use   the energy of entire stars at our leisure.  With our own biology essentially updated,   our population would rapidly increase day  by day as we also master self-replication   techniques. But, the problems of overpopulation  would have long gone, seeing as we’d no longer  

be confined to just Earth. In fact, we may  have moved off of Earth completely. And so,   as we expand into the universe fuelled by  the energy potential of an entire galaxy,   we’d reach the limit of what Kardashev  originally thought was possible.   But such inconceivable developments could never  unfold without dramatic societal change, as well.   To overcome political barriers and create a truly  united community, we’d need to establish seamless,   unshakeable social cohesion throughout our species  - allowing us to progress toward our increasing   goals. Even achieving intergalactic energy  capture would require us all working together,  

rather than trying to battle and beat each other  to key discoveries, inventions or pieces of   legislation. For some, those same qualities are  needed to graduate beyond even Type One - with   our planet currently feeling the effects of  war, division and overconsumption. If we can’t   band together for our own world, then could we  ever truly expect to tame galaxies? Ultimately,   our ascendance to Kardashev’s Level Three could  require us to rewrite what it means to be human;   to readjust our natural instincts, to work  as one thriving, fluid, intelligent mass.   Perhaps we’d slowly, organically evolve over  hundreds of thousands of years, or perhaps we’d   gradually mechanize ourselves to keep up. Yes,  we’re talking cyborgs. At least part-robotic   recreations of real-world people could give  us a limitless means for storing information   in the form of memories. The internet would be  integrated into our very thoughts - constantly  

added to by every other Type Three being -  equipping us with instant knowledge on any   subject. There are obvious downsides, including  the prospect that our shared super-computer   could get hacked by a higher power, and the  probability that our individual personalities   would disappear as soon as our minds are networked  together to turn us into blockchain humans. But,   such a shift would see us soar up Kardashev’s  Scale - granting everyone access to everyone   else’s thoughts, memories and ideas, to  further improve our status as a civilization. 
   With such radical changes shaping us into almost  unrecognisable beings from what we are today,   there’d be little incentive or need  to conventionally “work” as a Type   Three human. Most tasks would be automated with  little-to-no human intervention required. Instead,  

we’d be at liberty to continue exploring  other galaxies - now that we’d mastered   our own - exposing our collective consciousness  to what the wider universe has to offer. We’d   no longer be limited by the planet we were  born on (because we could travel anywhere);   the wealth we were - or weren’t -  born into (because we’d all be equal);   or the confines of even life expectancy  (having sidestepped aging and sickness,   too). And so, with so much time on our hands,  we’d almost inevitably busy ourselves trying to   reach Kardashev levels Four and Five - to wield  universal power over everything in existence.   This seemingly insatiable quest to complete  Kardashev’s Scale does throw up a few existential   questions… In this new world, what makes our lives  worth living? How would we spend our extra time,   effort and intellect? Would our primal needs  for things like food, water, shelter and family   still drive us in the same way? The average  human’s role in a civilization that has claimed   dominion over an entire galaxy would clearly be  completely different to what we experience today. 

  But then comes Type Four, where we would  be doing all those things and more. A Type   Four civilization can not only harness  all of the power of its home galaxy,   but of the entire universe.  In terms of energy potential,   we’re in the big, big leagues now! But  how much energy is in the universe?  Actually, many physicists would argue that the  total energy in the universe equals out to, well,   zero. This is due to the presence of positive  and negative energy throughout the cosmos,   and the predicted balance between the two. No  one knows the amount of positive energy there is,  

but it’s theorised that there is  enough negative energy to match   it. None of that would really matter  to a Type Four civilization though,   as it would be able to identify and use to  its advantage allenergy in every form - that’s   including the so far ultra-mysterious dark energy.  We’re basically talking unlimited power here. Were humanity to reach this level then our  civilization will’ve spread out across the   entire universe, collecting, recycling and  repurposing all of the energy from every   single planet and star in every single star system  in every single galaxy as efficiently as possible.   We would have a complete map of the universe  (although, probably an ultra-futuristic map   digitally stored in our collective minds, rather  than the 2D paper maps of today) and we would know   the location of every star and planet (and be able  to travel to and from them with ease). Galaxies,   in this world, would be viewed more like how  we see towns, cities and countries today;   different, yes… but, easy to visit. We’d also  have as clear as possible an understanding of  

what other life exists in the universe, and  where. The SETI search for extraterrestrial   intelligence would no doubt still run in  the background, but we will have essentially   completed it. For a Type Four society, all  aliens are known, and nothing is unknown. A Type Four civilization would have many  different forms of technology at its disposal,   too. Most of them, for us as we are (at around  0.7 on the Kardashev Scale), are impossible to   predict… but some form of faster than light travel  would, by this stage, be a given. Which means it   would take us next to no time to travel through  space. But, it could possibly go further than   that, with Type Four Humanity able to manipulate  spacetime to its will, and access time travel. The  

logistics of time travel are famously difficult  to comprehend, to the point that some believe   it might not ever be possible purely because of  the numerous paradoxes and dangers it entails.   If it is to ever be possible, though, then a  Type Four civilization would probably have it. Teleportation is a different, slightly more  feasible matter, however. It already exists   in the quantum world, so it doesn’t feel  like too big a stretch that a far-future   society (one with a whole universe’s worth  of energy) should have developed it for use   in the macro world - with whole human beings,  whole animals, whole skyscrapers getting zapped   from one place to another. In fact, the advent  of teleportation might even prove to be what   pushes Type Three humanity into Type Four…  because it would be the thing which allows   humans to visit other planets or galaxies  - to travel the universe - in an instant.  

Before teleportation, we will have relied on  traditional, physical travel… after teleportation,   even the most advanced of spaceships might not  be needed, and the entire cosmos opens up to us. Taking vacation in the Andromeda galaxy might be  a common occurrence for a Type Four being based   in the solar system, in the Milky Way. But,  really, there’s nothing to say that any Type   Four humans would still live in this particular  region of space. Say, in the future, we really do   get to Type Four, by that time the solar system  could’ve changed completely… and it might only   be remembered as a kind of homeland, rather  than anywhere we actually lived anymore. And,  

as we stretched further and further away, we might  have made homes on more than just the billions and   billions of planets out there… A civilization this  advanced might even be living inside (or close to)   stellar, supermassive or ultramassive black holes.  We’d almost certainly be living in extremely close   proximity to stars, at least, on the Dyson  Spheres and Swarms that would encircle them.   Type Four humanity will’ve mastered the universe  and everything in it, even the things - like   black holes - which are totally mysterious  to us today… so nothing would be off limits. Although many of these potential feats feel  like they belong firmly in the realm of science   fiction, there are some who believe that type four  civilizations could already exist… with evidence   supposedly found in the giant voids in space  that we already know about, like the CMB cold   spot. This cold spot is more than three billion  light-years across and can’t be easily explained  

away by modern theories on the universe, but there  are various suggestions that it could be evidence   of parallel universes… which are then seen as  proof that another advanced civilization is on   the outside looking in and affecting our universe  in some way. If such a civilization really were to   exist, then it will’ve actually gone beyond Type  Four and into Type Five on the Kardashev Scale…   meaning even an all-knowing Type Four humanity  would have some limits placed upon it. But,   nevertheless, there would still be nothing left  to discover in our universe, and nothing left to   explore... so, if this was our limit, perhaps  we as a species could die quite happily.  But would we actually need to? Probably not. In  fact, there are a number of different ways that   a Type Four civilization could become basically  immortal. For one, its sheer prevalence in the   universe would better its chances of never dying  out. Short of a universe wide disaster - like  

vacuum decay - extinction events just wouldn’t  be as terminal to a Type Four species as a whole.   Meanwhile, a Type Four human might well be  individually immortal, too. It’s thought   highly likely that, by this stage, technology  will have reached a point where we’d be either   partly or fully cyborg, with our minds implanted  into synthetic bodies to prevent aging. And even   if we still had organic bodies, they will’ve been  enhanced to the point of invincibility. It would  

be a good thing, then, that we’d have the whole  universe at our disposal, because before long we   would definitely need the space! Overall, Type  Four humankind would be an all-powerful master   species, living all across the universe as we know  it, harnessing all of its energy, living close to   forever, and probably manipulating the very laws  of spacetime itself to suit any purpose we like.   Living a Type V existence would mean  harnessing all the energy possible   in the Multiverse - which first and  foremost means we’d be at a time when   the multiverse “many worlds” theory was not  just a confirmed reality, but one that we’d   have mastered. We’d be able to travel anywhere  and everywhere, most likely via wormholes,   not only within our own universe, but  to any point in any possible universe.   In this way, it’s conceivable to think that  such a civilization would’ve reached the acme   of their technological prowess; the pinnacle at  which everything that can exist does exist. The  

energy output for such a scenario is impossible  to predict - or even to fathom. However, it has   been estimated that a Type IV civilization would  have an output of 10 Quattuordecillion (that’s 10   to the power of 45) watts of power. So, given that  Type IV would achieve this with just one universe,   we’d multiply that figure by the number  of universes that feature in our Type V   multiverse… and that’s the incredible, almost  unquantifiable estimate we’re dealing with. For  

all intents and purposes, we’d have  unlimited energy and boundless potential.   What would that mean for our  general state of mind? Well,   a Type V civilization would have a complete  understanding of every theory in existence;   will have mastered every form of mathematics;  will have perfected medicine, biology, astronomy,   physics, and every other branch of science; and  will have written all there is to write. As with   our access to energy, our access to knowledge  would be almost incomprehensible. Even highly   skilled roles like research scientists  and theoretical physicists would now be   occupations of the past, as there’d be no more  research needed in any field. Objective truth   would be known throughout humanity and the  so-called “theory of everything” will’ve been   identified. Humanity would be masters over the  laws of nature, able to manipulate them as they   please. We’d also know of and will’ve catalogued  every life form ever to exist in any universe,  

past, present, or future. There’d be  nothing that we wouldn’t understand!   Religion, theology and even more general  spirituality may well have died out at this point,   too - or at least the broader inclination to  “have faith” in anything will have passed.   We’d now be able to prove or disprove  the existence of a God quite easily by   travelling to its dimension, if there is  one. We wouldn’t require faith because we   genuinely would know… although this part  does depend on your interpretation. Some  

would argue that God is inaccessible to  humans no matter how advanced we become,   so even under Type V circumstances  we’d still fall short of supreme power.   There’d be no doubting our powers everywhere else,  though. By the time humanity had even reached a   Type II level, we’d basically be invulnerable to  destruction from nature. We could still obliterate   ourselves by war, but natural disasters would  no longer be a threat. Storms, earthquakes and   volcanoes would all be manageable; even asteroids  would be little more than a passing nuisance,   thanks to our development of various techniques  for sidestepping them - including literally   moving planets out of their path. Which means  that by the time we transcend to Type V status,  

the colossal dangers we encounter today - what  some might call “acts of God” - would be only   a very distant memory. Even better,  though; for a Type V civilization,   even war would be a thing of the past, with fair  and universal cohesion sweeping across existence.   Part of the reason for no war could well be  that the fundamental nature of our existence   will’ve changed, as well. According to some  projections, a Type V civilization could actually   wind up being a non-physical phenomenon.  Say, in our genuinely infinite wisdom,  

we uncover (or build) a non-physical dimension  where something akin to consciousness can reside…   in the interests of ultimate efficiency we could  inhabit that (instead of this tangible world) to   achieve an even higher level of existence. In so  doing, we’d have effectively conquered ageing,   all disease and even death - turning ourselves  into adaptable, indestructible streams of data   while still, in order not to sacrifice happiness,  finding a way to remain content in our new selves.   Anyone born into this age wouldn’t have to  fear death and could justifiably expect to   live forever. We’d have long-surpassed even the  need for AI prosthetics or artificial organs,   as even ultra-advanced robotics that now seem  impossible will’ve become clunky, outdated and   unreliable. Even if someone did somehow die, we’d  probably be able to recreate them again; or they’d   be able to manipulate the multiverse into erasing  their death or reversing it. For a Type V being,  

what we’d today consider “superpowers”  would be simple, blink-of-the-eye tasks!   Which highlights a philosophical question at  the heart of this heady sci-fi trip… because if   humanity was a Type V civilization, then could it  really still consider itself as “humanity” at all?   How “human” could it ever really be? We’d have the  ability to shape the world around us; to switch   between universal plains; to live for as long  as we’d like; and perhaps even to construct for   ourselves a paradisal “afterlife”, if such a place  was needed or wanted in a Type V time. The entire   Multiverse would now be our playground and we  would exist more like the Gods we envision today.   
Finally, and perhaps crucially, with a complete  understanding of all dimensions across multiple   universes, we’d also almost inevitably be able  to time travel. We could harness our power to   visit every moment in history, leaving no mystery  unsolved and no historical inaccuracy unchecked,   collating for ourselves a complete and definitive  record of our existence. In this way, we’d at   least be able to revisit the various “lower  levels” of our evolution - even all the way   back to the days of “humanity” as we understand it  now. So, though we will’ve likely changed beyond  

all recognition, every Type V human would be  able to instantly reconnect with the past.   The first thing to note, here, is that we’ve long  since left conventional physics at the door. This   isn’t something you’ll find in any textbook  anytime soon, and that’s because a Type Six   being would effectively live outside of reality.  And, remember, this isn’t just outside of reality   as we currently know it, either; it’s outside of  a reality that we’d by this point know was far,   far greater than just our single universe. At Type  Six, even the all-knowing, all-seeing Type Fives   would be totally beneath your gaze and fully at  your mercy. This is the topmost level of life,  

the final boss of existence, the ultimate  enforcer of all things. Thinking about it   in terms of how we view the world today… many  would recognise a Type Six entity as a god. So, what if humanity reached this point? Well,  one thing’s for sure, humanity wouldn’t be all   that human anymore. Considering, again, that we  currently rank at 0.7 on the Kardashev Scale,   our species has an unfathomable amount to do  and go through between now and then. Right now,   we’re struggling to make best use of just one  planet, in one star system, in one galaxy, in   one universe. But, to achieve Type Six, we’ll have  had to have ironed out every single inefficiency  

about ourselves now, and from this point forward  through Types One, Two, Three, Four and Five.  Take language as a specific example… a Type Six  society might not even have one. Or, at least,   they wouldn’t be communicating in a way that’s at  all recognisable to us. At one time in its past,   when it was at a lower Kardashev level, such a  civilization might’ve amalgamated all previous   languages into a universal language. It might  then have converted that spoken language into a   digital one, negating the need for anything like  conversation - and avoiding the possibility of   miscommunication and confusion. This digitalized  language might then have been optimized into  

something like thought transference, so that not  even body language was needed anymore. And then   thought transference could lead into the creation  of a shared (or hive) mind. And finally, as the   Type Six civilization breaks beyond the usual  bindings of even time and space and reality, that   hive mind becomes more like a memory chip, ready  to be accessed when (or if) its ever needed.  With all of that knowledge and wisdom and power,  something as humble as language could fall by   the wayside. In fact, social connections of  any kind might’ve long since disappeared,   endlessly replaced by the next  more efficient thing. Ultimately,  

it could even be the case that a Type  Six civilization wouldn’t even consist   of individual beings, at all… it would be  just one, all-encompassing collective mass,   with that memory chip of existence in its hands  (or whatever its equivalent of hands was). Let’s not forget that to a Type Six being, Earth  (and everything it entails) would represent just   one spot of ink on a stack of spotted papers; one  speck of dust in a city of dusty houses… so far   would a Type Six’s horizon stretch that it could  look for an infinite number of lifetimes and never   even notice this particular green-and-blue mass  which has played host to all of human history,   all of evolutionary history, up until now.  Even if such a being could, incredibly,   be traced all the way back to us, then, the  average twenty-first century human would   be so spectacularly far removed  from the average Type Six mind. Today, we amuse ourselves by trying to work  out problems like how the universe started,   or how we could colonize other worlds, or  whether time travel is doable… but these   would be blink-and-miss-them bits of everyday  information at the level of Type Six. All of our   big questions will have been answered… and  all of the answers would be basic, common,   unimportant knowledge. Not only that, though,  but as Type Six would operate outside of reality,  

there would be no further questions above  them. Nothing would be not known to them,   and that would be a literal, incontestable fact. The much-used video game comparison is  a problematic one if we apply it here,   because neither Types Five nor Six automatically  infer some kind of simulation… but it does provide   a real-world, Type-less-than-one way of looking  at it. Type Five is the game character that’s   maxed out on attributes, and has been hacked  and patched and glitched to such an incredible   level of perfection that it’s really pointless  for them even to be there. The game is done,   and they’ve completed it so magnificently  that their very existence is a marvel in   itself. They know the game is a game, and they  know why and how… so, well done to them. But,   regardless, Type Six is the one with their hands  on the controls. A Type Six civilization might  

look at a Type Five with something like pride  or satisfaction (if emotions like this even   exist at this point) but they can turn away  at any point. Turn their attention elsewhere.   Or even turn off the console. Type Fives know  it all, and they know how to shape and bend it   all to their every want and desire. But Type  Sixes know how to end it all in an instant. This power for potential destruction could be  seen as the ultimate signifier of the highest   civilization that there ever could be. It’s maybe  a bleak way to look at things, but anything which  

could erase everything else automatically sits  at the top of any proposed civilization league   table - which is, sort of, what the Kardashev  Scale is. There is a slightly brighter flipside,   though, because a Type Six being would also be the  ultimate creator. We’re not talking the creator of   just worlds or galaxies or even universes,  here, but the creator of whole, unending,   to anyone else totally unpredictable multiverses.  And, let’s be honest, that is some serious power!   How would (or could) Type Seven differ  from Type Six? Well, there are two main,   major upgrades that it’s theorised to make.  The first is that we’re now dealing with   what’s usually known as the omniverse.  The omniverse is totally and completely  

everything. It’s also infinite. Any structure or  concept or idea or dimension you can think of,   or any other civilization Type after you could  think of, the omniverse contains. It’s unmatched,   unparalleled and unsurpassable. While Type Six  exists outside of the reality of a relatively   simple multiverse - which is certainly impressive  - an omniversal being collects even the content   of their superior minds and condenses all of  that knowledge and information into one final,   all-encompassing data point  - a Type Seven existence. There is a paradox in play, though, because  of the infinite, all-powerful position we’ve   now taken. By now, the energy usage criteria  we’ve applied to each and every level before  

this dissolves into, well, nothingness.  We’re so far beyond the question of energy   potential at this stage. Now, it’s all  about information and understanding,   and a Type Seven has it all within itself. Which  means, because there is nothing else beyond it,   a Type Seven essentially creates itself. It’s  a fluid, constant entity. There is nothing else  

higher up that can have dominion over it. And  that’s what sets up the second major upgrade;   that a Type Seven civilization wouldn’t  really be a civilization at all.  Rather than being an all-powerful collective,  a Type Seven would (by most estimations) need   to be singular. A Type Six society might  have a number of beings connected via a   hive mind - with a universal language and  thought transference - but even that would   be too inefficient for a Seven. There’d  be too many opportunities for something   to be imperfect. And perfection is  the name of the game at this level. So, we most likely get one individual thing  or essence, not through choice or design,   but through nature. Although it, in itself,  would also account for the concept of nature,  

so really, we - way back down here at just  level 0.7 - are extremely limited in how we can   describe it. Even contemplating the conditions  of its reality is currently beyond us. Again,   we’d probably call it a God. But,  actually, it would also, itself,   be the reason why we even had the  concept of Gods to fall back onto.  Not only would it, like a Type Six  civilization, have all the answers to all the   questions imaginable, but it wouldn’t even need to  formulate the questions in the first place. To it,   the required information would just be.  Here, there and everywhere. In the past,  

the future, the present. Its consciousness  is everything. Across every single variation   of every single timeline imaginable, in a  never-ending number of multiversal dimensions.   Nothing would be unknown or unexpected.  For the Type Seven, it would just be. So, where does humanity come into the picture?  Well, on the literally never-ending landscape   of a Level Seven perspective, we really, truly  would be infinitesimally small. One species,   on one planet, in a single galaxy, in a  single universe, on one arm of one multiverse,   inside one vision of one reality. The layers  go on and on. If Type Seven really does exist,   then it almost certainly gives our existence  very little thought indeed. But it does of  

course know that we exist, all the same.  Because it knows everything, always. And, finally, could humanity ever become this  itself? What if we climbed far enough to reach   the very top of this absurdly theoretical tree,  first planted by Kardashev in the 1960s? Well,   such an ascension would confirm various  mind-boggling ideas. For one, it would without   doubt establish us as the most advanced species  ever to exist. We would also have stopped even   caring about the Kardashev Scale, though, because  we will have long-since realised that the scale   only exists as a tiny, ancient piece of our own  inevitable journey to total, all-consuming power. But if that all sounds just a little too crazy…  if this all feels just a touch too impossible…   maybe that’s because it probably is. Even if  the ethereal Type Seven really does exist,  

then it could be that no civilization - human  or otherwise - could ever hope to reach it.   That our being outside of it is confirmation  enough that we can never become it, ourselves.  If and when we master Earth, we will at least  be able to call ourselves Type One. And,   according to the lower estimates, that  could happen within just a few hundred   years’ time… If we were to then work out  how to spread across the solar system,   we could justifiably re-label ourselves  as Type Two… and perhaps humanity won’t   need to have changed itself too dramatically  between that particular future point and now. The path gets fairly unknowable from this moment  forward, however. By the time our species fulfils   the credentials to become just Type Three or  Four, as we’ve found in previous episodes,   it is already beginning to morph into something  that’s unrecognisable to us today. To get to Type  

Five, we not only have to have understood the true  nature of the universe, but we also need to have   uncovered actual proof of the multiverse. Not only  would we be a totally different prospect at this   point, but our reality would be, too. Then, for  Type Six, we have to see that reality… and step   outside of it. And, finally, for Type Seven,  we have to be that reality from the beginning.

We’re   now so far removed from our humble  beginnings, and all in the name   of progress. There’s no telling what  path humanity will take in the future,   but the route to the top of the Kardashev Scale  would transform it beyond all recognition.    And that’s what would happen if  humanity WAS a Kardashev Civilization. 

What do you think? Is there anything we missed?  Let us know in the comments, check out these other   clips from Unveiled, and make sure you subscribe  and ring the bell for our latest content.

2023-03-22

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