Also known as a Type 5 civilization · K5
A Type V civilization — a multiversal civilization — sits at the far end of the extended Kardashev scale. It is imagined as able to manipulate energy not just within one universe but across many, transcending the physics that bounds every lower type.
The original Kardashev scale stopped at Type III, and even the later Type IV strains against known physics. Type V goes further still: a civilization that treats entire universes as resources, potentially creating, navigating or harvesting energy from a multiverse. At this point the numbers stop being meaningful — energy use is effectively unbounded.
Some thinkers extend the ladder even further, to a Type VI, a Type Omega (Ω), or playful internet shorthand like a “Kardashev Type 100.” None of these are part of any rigorous scientific framework — they are ways of gesturing at god-like command over reality itself. The honest answer to “what is the highest Kardashev type?” is that the canonical scale ends at Type III, with everything above it being speculative extension.
Type V and beyond belong to philosophy and science fiction more than to physics. They are useful as the outer horizon of the thought experiment Kardashev began — a reminder of just how far the concept of a civilization’s energy mastery can be pushed.
A Type V (multiversal) civilization is the far end of the extended Kardashev scale — a hypothetical civilization that can manipulate energy across multiple universes, beyond the limits of known physics.
No. “Kardashev Type 100” is internet shorthand, not a scientific category. The original Kardashev scale defines only Types I–III; Types IV, V, VI and labels like “Type Omega” or “Type 100” are speculative extensions used to imagine ever more god-like civilizations.
The canonical scale ends at Type III. Extensions add Type IV (universal) and Type V (multiversal), and some thinkers go further to Type VI or a hypothetical Type Omega — but none of these are part of the original, rigorous framework.
It is purely hypothetical. A Type V civilization would require physics far beyond anything we understand today, so it lives in the realm of philosophy and science fiction rather than testable science.
