Everyday Life In a Type III Civilization | Unveiled

Everyday Life in a Type III Civilization

In the modern world, it seems as though science and technology is developing and improving at a faster than ever pace. Compare where human society was one hundred years ago to where it is today, purely from a technological point of view, and there’s a vast chasm of difference. So much has changed between then and now that, were you to somehow travel back in time to the 1920s to inform people alive then of what was to come, they likely wouldn’t believe you. But equally, when we look into our own future, and try to predict what’s on the horizon, it can be hard to picture how the potential changes could impact humans like ourselves.

So, this is Unveiled, and today we’re exploring what everyday life would be like in a Type Three civilization.

Admittedly, according to almost all projections, even the most optimistic ones, it’s likely going to take a lot longer than one hundred years before we reach Type Three. For our regular viewers, the Kardashev Scale is by now a well-known concept… proposed, as it was, by the Soviet astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev in the 1960s. The Scale famously imagines various levels of future human civilization, beginning at Level One, and rising through Levels Two, Three, and then according to more recent expansions made to it, Levels Four, Five, and beyond. At Level Three - or Type Three - a civilization has harnessed all of the available energy from its home galaxy, which in our case is the Milky Way. But, dwindling as we are at around Level 0.7 at the moment, we’re a long, long way away from that. While estimates do vary, one of the most often-cited ballpark figures comes from the famed theoretical physicist, Michio Kaku, who has predicted that humanity might reach Type Three somewhere between 100,000 and one million years from now.

Nevertheless, we can still dare to dream that we’ll reach Type Three quicker than that. And even if we don’t it’s fun (and maybe even necessary) to consider how a Type Three would work, given the much-debated possibility that if there is alien life out there, then some of it might be operating at that level. So, for the rest of this video, we’re imaging that humankind has soared up the Kardashev Scale and is a Type Three… how does your day start, how does it end, and what happens in the time in between?

Well, when you wake up in the morning, the chances are that it won’t be on Earth. In fact, a Type Three human might not have any recollection of Earth, at all. By this stage, we’re a full-blown intergalactic species. Which means that there would be many, many billions of us, spread out to all corners of the Milky Way, and most likely into other galaxies as well. There may still be some humans on Earth, but whole generations will have by now lived and died on other planets, and in other star systems. The majority of humans will’ve sought pastures (and planets) new.

Open your curtains (or whatever the Type Three equivalent of curtains is) and you could well be looking out on an alien landscape… but, also, at a sky without an immediately obvious sun. Dyson Spheres are probably the most well-known requirement for a Type Two civilization… that is, one which has harnessed all the energy of its own star. So, by the time of Type Three, Dyson Spheres (or Dyson Swarms) should be standard practice, and potentially every star in the galaxy could be enclosed within one. This wouldn’t automatically mean that everything was dark, though… just that the energy emitted by stars was being wholly controlled, and sent only to where it’s needed. In general, the higher up the Kardashev Scale you climb, the more efficient a civilization should become… so much so that even starlight would now be measured to perfection.

So, you’ve opened your eyes, opened your curtains, now to get out of bed and stretch out your body, ready for the day ahead. Except your body would probably be very different. Some have predicted that, by the time of Type Three, organic humans might be a thing of the past. The unfortunate fact is that our natural bodies, despite all the incredible things they can do, aren’t as efficient as they could be. Bones break, muscles weaken, chemical imbalances happen, and we all inevitably age. There are various routes we could travel down to achieve immortality (if immortality is ever possible) but at the very least members of a Type Three civilization will likely have long been upgrading their bodies, since as far back as Type Two and even the latter stages of Type One. This means your Type Three self could have anything, from reinforced arms and therefore superstrength, to cybernetic eardrums and therefore perfect hearing. And, again, anything your optimum body can do should also be under your complete control. Perhaps, you’d be able to turn your senses on and off… or condition your muscles without ever needing to actually exercise. Once more, efficiency is the name of the game.

Next, it’s breakfast and off to work. Food is almost impossible to predict this far out from Type Three, but you can bet that every last milligram of it will be beneficial in some way. Far future science fiction often substitutes food as we understand it for something much less varied, like a one-a-day pill or drink. In whichever way it’s served, though, there should be no waste whatsoever… and food, like all other energy sources at Type Three, should perfectly suit the needs of the consumer.

The nature of work is equally difficult to predict, particularly as most conceptions of a Type Three civilization foresee robots pretty much everywhere. AI by now should be so common and widespread that it’s barely ever called into question. The use of machines will no doubt have been a major reason as to how humans will have achieved Type Three in the first place, and so - if we were to get to this level - then it perhaps figures that the robots and us would be on good terms. But still, there is a whole lot of energy production that goes into maintaining a Type Three society… so there would likely still be regular old human jobs going, as well. Not to mention any roles that remain in sectors traditionally thought to be less suited to a robot revolution, such as in science, law, or the arts.

The commute to work, though… here’s where we could’ve gone one of two ways. In one version of future humanity, we break the apparent laws of physics and develop a means to travel faster than the speed of light, and we get to work (or anywhere else in the galaxy) that way. In another version of future humanity, we build a massive, wide-reaching, and reliable network of wormholes. Because, ultimately, nothing says technological advancement quite like stepping through a cosmic doorway and emerging out the other side in a different realm of the galaxy! Wormholes are theoretically possible, and they would certainly make the business of harvesting a galaxy’s worth of energy much more feasible… but there’s really no telling whether they ever will or won’t happen. Regardless of how we achieve it, however, a steady, dependable, and fast means of cross-galaxy travel would be a must in a Type Three world.

But finally, what happens after the working day is done? As a member of a Type Three civilization, the literal galaxy is your oyster. You might choose to visit friends on a different planet, to cruise between star systems just because you can, or you might prefer to just stay at home and watch the Type Three version of television. Whatever you opt for, you at least can be safe in the knowledge that your species, humankind, is here to stay. Because were we to reach Type Three on the Kardashev Scale, then we could safely say that almost nothing could threaten our general existence. Whereas now there’s always the vague possibility of an asteroid strike or some other cosmic disruption to wipe out life as we know it, for Type Three beings there’d be no such danger. Comfortably spread out across a galaxy, it would now take a galaxy-wide event to doom us forever. And, even if such an event did take place, what would there be to stop us from just wormholing our way out of the line of fire? Thanks to our technological knowhow, we’ll have reached a stage where even the highest level of disaster couldn’t worry us.

So, all things considered, how would you feel about living in a world like this? At a moment in human history when today’s reality is long forgotten, and all the stars in the sky are reachable? For now, it’s a sci-fi fantasy… but there are many schools of thought to say that it is where we’re heading. And that’s what everyday life would be like in a Type Three civilization.