EFC Series 1 - Alien civilization ranking (Part 3)
Apr 15, 2021 16:32:39 GMT
Gerd von Rundstedt likes this
Post by John Marston on Apr 15, 2021 16:32:39 GMT
Kardashev Scale
"Doraemon...! Gian and Suneo are troubling me! Please give me a gadget so that I can teach them a lesson please please please..." All of us are familiar with this dialogue. For those who don't know what is this, it is a famous dialog from the cartoon- Doraemon. It is a typical dialogue, usually at the beginning of an episode where two boys- Gian and Suneo trouble and bully Nobita. People from all the walks of life are familiar with this cartoon. Also, they even time travel to show that humanity has reached type 1 civilization. Wait, what is a type 1 civilization and how is it related to Doraemon?
Type 1 civilization is a part of the Kardashev Scale. You must have guessed it by now that whatever this thing is, it is Russian. Yes, actually it is Soviet. The Kardashev scale is a type of measurement, developed by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev in 1964
He suggested that the level of development of not only earth but also other extraterrestrial civilizations can be gauged by looking at the energy consumption of of those civilizations. They have been mainly classified into 3 types. They are -
1. Type 1 civilization - The main feature of this type of civilization also known as a planetary civilization is that it consumes about 10^17 Watts of energy. Some of the other features of the type 1 civilization are-
a. It can harness all the energy falling on it from it's mother star.
b. They can produce antimatter in large and commercial quantities. (Antimatter is the opposite of matter. In simple words, if -1 and +1 combine to form 0 or nothing, antimatter and matter combine and produce vast amounts of energy.)
c. It can use all of the renewable power on the planet.
d. They can control the weather of the planet.
e. a planetary civilization should be able to control such things as earthquakes, the weather and volcanoes and would be building ocean cities.
It is estimated that humanity is currently 100-200 years from attaining type 1 civilizational status.
2. Type 2 civilization / Planetary civilization - The main feature of this civilization is that it consumes about 10^27 Watts of energy. Some notable features of this civilization are-
a. It can harness the entire energy output of the mother star.
b. It would control the orbit of all planets in that system
c. It harvest asteroids and comets and consume the resources of the entire solar system.
d. It can collect energy from black holes or from the photons, (which are the fundamental particle of light) emitted by the black holes.
e. It can recycle antimatter.
f. It can use a portion of a star for other uses.
However, we won't be alive by that time as it would take another 1000-2000 years to transition into a type 2 civilization.
But, when we reach the type 2 civilization, we can build some amazing structures like the dyson sphere, dyson ring, dyson swarm, dyson shell. All of these are meant to absorb all of the energy given out by the sun. However, the most fascinating one is that of the Matroishka Brain or the Jupiter Brain.
Matroishka Brain- The Matroishka Brain is named after the Matroishka dolls in Russia. This is another extension or prototype of the dyson sphere. The structure of it is such that the one dyson sphere covers the sun, another sphere covers the first sphere, the third sphere covers the second sphere, thus, eventually encompassing the whole of the entire solar system.
The energy for this thing to work comes from the sun. The first sphere performs its function and transmits the waste heat energy to second sphere, second to third and so on and the temperatures keep on lowering. It will use this waste heat to function. This will have been the largest 'supercomputer' humanity will have ever built and also the most efficient device ever. Remember that the Matroishka Brain will be made entirely from tiny computers! Also, it has been proposed that humans can live on its surface. This will be a dream come true for space hikers.
What is the use of it? As I already mentioned it before that it is a supercomputer, it is used to simulate entire alternative universe! (Remember that it is "simulating" and not "creating") For comparison, the amount of energy required to power computations by the world's fastest supercomputer would be enough to power a building; the human brain achieves the same processing speeds from the same energy as is required to charge a dim light bulb.
Another fact for comparison is that the world's fastest supercomputers take a few minutes to simulate 1 percent of the human brain for 1 second. Some other features of the Matroishka Brain is that it can be used to upload human brain into virtual reality and can possibly used to change the structure of the universe.
Once we upload the human brain into virtual reality, our consciousness can even visit other planets and also feel our surroundings. We will be absolutely fine and no damage will happen to our body as we are only sending our consciousness there and it will also prevent any mishaps or fatal accidents to humans. (The future is exciting!!)
3. Type 3 civilization- This is the last type of civilization in the 'original' Kardashev scale. In this type of civilization, the energy consumption is about 10^37 Watts of energy. Here, along with new technology, the older type 2 technologies are implemented on a galaxy-wide scale.
They can-
a. Extract energy from supermassive black holes, usually at the center of the galaxy.
b. Energy of White holes(opposite of black holes, in which nothing can enter) can be extracted by them if they exist.
c. The energy from quasars, which has the output of a few active galaxies, can be a major source of energy for them.
They can also harness, store and use the energy output of all stars within that galaxy. Such a civilization would use planets like building blocks, being able to move planets from one solar system to other, merge solar systems, merge stars, absorb supernovae, and even create stars! That is a very powerful power to hold.
However, scientists have predicted that there is NO type 3 civilization in the observable universe (93 billion light years in diameter, 1 light year = 94,60,52,83,98,224 km).
These are the different types of civilization on the Kardashev scale. He didn't go any further because he thought that no civilization could be as advanced as the type 4 civilization.
If we measure the earth's development on this scale, we are on type 0. Suppose let's assume that microbial life forms has been discovered on another planet. Here, we can't compare the developmental level of this planet and earth as both of them are 0 on this scale. To meet this problem, scientists have developed some other types on this scale. They are sub zero, type 4 and type 5 scale (Though there are type 6 and 7 on this scale in some websites, they seem irrelevant).
Now, we can compare the different civilization on this scale. According to the example above, the planet on which microbial planet was discovered, it is type 0 on this scale since there no energy consumption and that of earth is 0.72. It is because the earth consumes about 72% of the energy required to be a type 1 civilization. Similarly, a type 1.89 civilization consumes about 89% of the energy required to be a type 2 civilization.
The type 4 civilization can harness the energy output of the universe and travel throughout the universe, and type 5 can travel through different universe (or multiverse as we call it).
However, the main drawback of this is that because we cannot understand advanced civilizations, we cannot predict their behavior. Thus, the Kardashev scale may not be relevant or useful for classifying extraterrestrial civilizations.
In a typical Doraemon episode, Nobita always uses Doraemon's gadget for wrong uses and usually ends up in trouble at the end of the episode. Similarly, if we won't use our resources carefully, our hard earned progress and development will stagnate. It is not a good thing because, if we cannot develop and leave the earth, then, humanity will be doomed. Assuming that humanity manages to stay alive, in the next 5 billion years, the earth will be fried into a crisp or swallowed by the sun.
However, it is also a bitter truth that we consume more resources than the earth can produce. It is said that humans consume the stock of resources meant for one year by October or in best cases, by September. Though it has been pushed back a bit due to the Corona pandemic, it is still a few days. All the technology and advancements of the human race we read in science fiction is fascinating, which makes us excited about our future. But all of this happens only when we plan our future meticulously and carefully. Only then, we can conquer the 'final frontier'.
