Kardashev scale

The Kardashev scale is a real world scale for space faring civilizations.
== The Kardashev scale ==
*Type I (planetary) civilization (K1): can use and store all of the energy available on its planet.
*Type II (stellar) civilization (K2): can use and control energy at the scale of its planetary system.
*Type III (galactic) civilization (K3): can control energy at the scale of its entire host galaxy.
=== Problems ===
The biggest issue is there are few true K2 civilizations in fiction and aside from a brief scene in Babylon 5, there has been no real representation of a K3 civilization in fiction though the Organians and Q from Star Trek come close in terms of raw power and general attitude.
The second issue is no real relationship between Tech Level and the Kardashev scale. A true K3 TL9 civilization could crush a K2 TL12 civilization like a bug; what they lack in technology the K3 TL9 civilization more then makes up for it in terms of power and resources. It could be argued that Organians and Q have evolved beyond technology and could be in terms of technology sitting at TL0 and only mimic the higher technology with their evolved powers.
The final issue is that the scale doesn't take efficiency into consideration. Black Hole and Iron Star civilizations are so efficient that they can have populations rivaling that of K3 civilizations and yet use less energy then a AA battery.
==Carl Sagan Scale==
Isaac Arthur points out that having only three steps is problematic and provides a much finer scale proposed by Carl Sagan ((exponent-6)/10):The Kardashev Scale (Narration Only)
Carl Sagan Scale	Kardashevscale	# ofPeople	Short ScaleName 	Long ScaleName
10^6 watts 	K0 	N/A 	NA 	NA
10^16 watts 	K1 	10^10 	10 billion 	10 thousand million
10^26 watts 	K2 	10^20 	100 quintillion100 billion billion	100 trillion1 million trillion trillion
10^36 watts 	K3 	10^30 	1 nonillion 	1 quintillion
==Examples from Fiction== 
Using the above tweaks it is easier to place fictional civilizations on the Kardashev scale. Yet none qualify as even K2. Figuring out their Tech level is only doable if you have a reasonable amount of information.
Lowballing the Tech level and using Issac Arthur's estimates based on population results in:The Kardashev Scale (Narration Only) timestamp 11:07
* Star Trek is K1.3 at TL(6+3)^ to TL(7+2)^
* Asimov's Empire (Foundation Series) is K1.7 at TL10^-11^,
* Star Wars, Dune, and Warhammer 40k are in the K1.6 to 1.8 range at TL10^-11^. 
Yet all of these are interstellar civilizations; likely due to their superscience of FTL.
If the population numbers on The Ancient Ones wiki are correct, the Moon Kingdom sat at around 300 million (3x10^8) people or K0.03 but the power Sailor Saturn wields way beyond that in terms of raw power, possibly on par with a K2. This shows that population and power don't always line up.
==Additional Information==
*What Do Alien Civilizations Look Like? The Kardashev Scale
==References==
*Orders of magnitude
Category:Space