The energy ladder of civilizations. From mastering a planet, to harnessing a star, to wielding the output of a galaxy — a thought experiment for measuring technological reach across the cosmos.
The swarm closes into a near-complete sphere. The star is fully enclosed infrastructure — its entire output belongs to the civilization.
We currently harvest roughly 18 TW of power — about 0.7% of the energy that reaches Earth from the Sun every second. We are not yet even a Type I civilization.
Energy of all the stars in the observable universe — a civilization across galaxy clusters.
Manipulates energy across multiple universes. Pure thought experiment — well beyond our current models of physics.
The Kardashev scale defines three types of civilization by the energy they can harness: Type I (planetary) controls all the energy of its home planet (~10¹⁶ W), Type II (stellar) captures the full output of its star (~10²⁶ W), and Type III (galactic) wields the energy of an entire galaxy (~10³⁶ W).
Civilizations are commonly ranked in stages by energy mastery: Type I (planetary), Type II (stellar), and Type III (galactic), with speculative extensions to Type IV (universal) and Type V (multiversal). Humanity is currently a pre-Type I civilization at about K = 0.73.
Humanity is not yet a Type I civilization. We generate roughly 18 terawatts of power, which puts Earth at about K = 0.73 on the Kardashev scale — still climbing toward the Type I threshold of K = 1.0.
The Kardashev scale was proposed in 1964 by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev as a way to classify how technologically advanced a civilization is, based on the amount of energy it can use.
The original scale only goes up to Type III. Type IV (universal) and Type V (multiversal) were added later as speculative extensions, and labels like “Type VI”, “Type Omega” or “Type 100” are informal shorthand rather than scientific categories.
