Despite every technological advancement that we have today, we are still referred to as a baby civilization. But why baby civilization if you may ask? Modern scientists and futurists rate the growth of an advanced civilization based on their rate on the Kardashev scale.
Note that Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev proposed the concept of the Kardashev scale in 1964 as a means of measuring a civilization’s level of technological advancement based on the amount of energy, they are capable of using at the moment. This measurement model was named after the scientists who discovered it.
Different Kardashev Scales Humans Need to Advance In the Future
According to the Kardashev scale, humanity still has different levels to attain in the future. These levels include type 1, 2, and 3 civilizations. For humans to become a type I civilization, implies that we will be able to access all the energy on our planet and store it for usage. This implies that we can have control over natural events such as tornadoes, flooding, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and a lot more.
Imagine where we use the energy generated from earthquakes to terraform some part of Earth or generate electricity from the destructive capabilities of tornadoes. Becoming a type I civilization will actually make us gods of Earth as we have total control of everything going on within our home planet.
Becoming a type II civilization will be no easy feat for our generation as humans will be going Interstellar at this point. This is because a type II civilization should have the technologies to harness the entire energy generated by its own massive star.
Some scientists estimate that such a civilization can use a Dyson sphere or Matrioshka brain to trap the entire energy of a star. However, our generation will not attempt to accomplish this technological milestone as our descendants may be left to take the bold step.
Type III civilization will focus on extracting fusion and exotic energy, raw materials, and other cosmic materials from their home galaxy. Any civilization able to reach this milestone will be operating at an Intergalactic scale.
If our civilization will ever reach this milestone, we should be able to travel through wormholes, practice galactic engineering, establish intergalactic communication through subspace, and possess new forms of capabilities.
How We Will Advance from Baby Civilization to A More Advanced Civilization
Despite our modern technological advancement, we are still at Type 0.7276 on the Kardashev Scale. Since we are yet to reach the potential of a type 1 civilization, we are still a baby civilization. According to the Futurist Michio Kaku, humanity will become a Type I civilization in the next 100 to 200 years if we increase our energy consumption to 3 percent per year, Type II status in a few thousand years, and Type III status in about 100,000 to a million years.
However, with the recent advancement of technology, humanity may become a type 1 civilization a few centuries from now. Some NASA scientists have estimated that we won’t reach the type 1 status until 2371, we may possibly achieve that much faster. Even though our generation may not live up to 2371 to experience humanity on another level, we will surely advance technologically before 2100.
We are currently in the era of quantum computing, artificial intelligence, deep space crew exploration, and a lot more. These technological feats will unlock many potentials of humankind and position us on the partway to moving from being a baby civilization into a more advanced civilization before 2100.
Conclusion
The growth of any civilization highly depends on its technological advancement. Our generation is striving to grow from a baby civilization into a more advanced civilization. Based on our technological growth in the last 100 years, humanity will surely become more powerful and experience unique growth before 2100. What do you think about humanity becoming more advanced and heading towards becoming a type 1 civilization?
