3 Signs We're Becoming a Type I Civilization | Unveiled

3 Signs We’re Becoming a Type I Civilization

What does the future hold for the human race? How will we move along the road of progress? Predicting what’s to come is always a difficult business… but, when we take stock of society in the twenty-first century, we can see the beginnings of a new world.

This is Unveiled, and today we’re exploring the signs that humanity is becoming a Type One Civilization.

A Type One civilization on the Kardashev Scale is one which has mastered all of the energy potential of its home planet. It’s in total control of its local world which should, in theory, mean that it’s living its best life.

Today, we know that this isn’t quite the case for humans on Earth. There are various problems facing us, some of which threaten our very existence on this particular rock. Yes, we’re still comfortably in the habitable zone of our solar system… there’s still enough oxygen for us to breathe here, and the gravity doesn’t crush us. But that doesn’t mean that we’re on easy street. Some things can still go wrong, and some things still need to improve. All of which means that we’re generally said to rank at about 0.7 on the Kardashev Scale. If humans had a report card, it might read; good, but could do better.

The Kardashev Scale isn’t the only way of measuring advancement and, as we found out in a previous video, it might not even be the best way… but it is one of the most established. And, as such, it’s something that new technologies are so often pitted against - to see how they move us up the scale, and where they leave us when they’re done. So, which technology has had the greatest impact in recent years? Many would say the internet.

The internet is one sign that we’re climbing the Kardashev Scale. In most models of a Type One civilization unity is key. Everyone needs to pull in the same direction. And the internet, in theory, allows us to do that. Today we have the world wide web, the internet of things, and smart technology… none of which would’ve been conceivable to the majority of the population just thirty or forty years ago. The internet links people and countries and communities all across the world map, meaning we’ve never been more connected as a unified force. A global civilization.

According to some interpretations, a Type One society should be united in other ways too, including currency and language. With currency, we’ve made some steps toward this. Many countries on the European continent share the Euro, for example. Meanwhile, the US Dollar is held in banks all over the world as reserve currency. We also have emerging digital currencies like Bitcoin. And other, more mainstream ways of exchanging money worldwide, like debit cards and banking apps.

The development and future of language is perhaps a little more complicated. In fact, most versions of Type One retain multiple languages, so there’s no need to lose this particular part of our cultural diversity. There usually is, however, a universal language which runs alongside all of that. And it might be claimed that the internet is that universal language. Or at least that digital code is. Failing that, there’s some argument that… emojis are a step in the right direction. Purely because they skip most language barriers and translate everywhere. Like hieroglyphs for the modern age, accelerated into usage, once again, by the internet.

But we all know that, deep down, what the Kardashev Scale really concerns itself with is something even more fundamental to society than money and communication; it’s energy. But here, as well, there are signs that humans are moving in the right direction.

One thing a Type One civilization has to do is lose its reliance on fossil fuels. Not only to protect the environment, but also because they’re not sustainable. Instead, Type One needs renewable resources - and these are the second sign that humanity is beginning to make the grade. Time will tell whether we’re too late (or too slow) from a climatological point of view, but we’ve seen the emergence of solar, wind and tidal power stations in recent decades. These make use of the planet’s natural, ongoing processes (sunlight, atmospheric pressure and wave patterns) by converting them into useable energy for the everyday human.

For many, nuclear energy also has a role to play in us climbing the Kardashev Scale. Again, there are big environmental concerns here, chiefly with how and where to safely store radioactive waste… but the argument goes that if humanity can find a way to switch from fission to fusion, then our power potential could skyrocket. Nuclear fission is the now traditional method of harvesting energy via the splitting of the atom. Nuclear fusion, however, involves combining atomic nuclei for energy. It requires extremely high temperatures, and it’s what happens inside a star.

If humans were to master fusion, we’d be able to bring that kind of cosmological power down to Earth. And we are making moves to do that, with most fusion reactor designs using two isotopes of hydrogen - deuterium and tritium - which, when put together, have a high reaction rate and energy yield. It isn’t yet a viable energy solution because it’s so impractical and expensive to heat and run a reactor… but there are various experiments underway to improve this - including ITER, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. If, or when, nuclear fusion becomes commercially possible, many claim that that will be a breakthrough moment for our Type One ambitions.

Finally, we can see early signs of a progressing civilization in how humanity is trying to spread out. Both on Earth and in space. One signature of a Type One culture is that it’s capable of converting previously uninhabitable environments into safe and even comfortable living spaces.

Today, there are various ideas for underwater cities, including the ocean spiral - a real-life water world and future living concept dreamt up by the Japanese architectural firm, the Shimizu Corporation. The same company also has plans for a Mega-city Pyramid - a wholly artificial metropolis to house at least one million people which, if it ever gets built, would easily become the largest ever human made structure. The plans are to install it into Tokyo Bay, as a way of addressing the city’s massive population and otherwise lack of space. It’s still very early days for projects like this, but if humanity ever becomes Type One then it’s predicted that they’ll be commonplace. And that these artificial worlds would not only serve to house a growing population, but might also be built in regions where cities would otherwise struggle to thrive - like across the Sahara or even in Antarctica.

But, still, there are plans gathering pace to move us even further afield than that. Over the first two decades of the twenty-first century, humanity has shown renewed interest in space exploration. There are now multiple, established and ambitious space agencies all across the planet, as the space race is no longer run between only America and Russia. We also have countless private companies vying for their piece of the cosmological cake. It all amounts to us having a long list of hefty space goals for the near future. A return to the moon… Crewed missions to Mars… Orbital cities and space tourism. All while our probes and landers travel even further out to try and make sense of our place in the solar system, and universe.

In some ways, our plans for space travel seem to go beyond Type One. We aren’t yet masters of the energy on our home planet - as all Type Ones need to be - but we’re already trying to get off of this world and onto another one. But then, space travel can also be seen as just one way in which we’re trying to push our boundaries. And some argue that it’s the only route to the future survival of our species. Even comparatively close by projects, like the International Space Station, serve to better our understanding… giving us a greater grasp on things like weather processes, for example, and how Earth’s atmosphere works. Bearing in mind that weather control is another key attribute at Type One.

So, the groundwork is being laid. The internet knits us together… the search for new energy sources propels us into the future… and the quest to build and discover new and revolutionary places to live is reshaping the human landscape. We could be on the cusp of monumental change, because those are the signs that we’re becoming a Type One Civilization.