Civilization Classification Scales

A **Civilization Classification Scales** are ways to measure the advancement of a civilization like the Kardashev Scale.

## Kardashev Scale

The scale was originally designed in 1964 by the Russian astrophysicist  Nikolai Kardashev (who was looking for signs of extraterrestrial life within cosmic signals). It has 3 base classes, each with an energy disposal level: Type I (10¹⁶W), Type II (10²⁶W), and Type III (10³⁶W). Other astronomers have extended the scale to Type IV (10⁴⁶W) and Type V (the energy available to this kind of civilization would equal that of all energy available in not just our universe, but in all universes and in all time-lines). These additions consider both energy access as well as the amount of knowledge the civilizations have access to.

First, it is important to note that the human race is not even on this scale yet. Since we still sustain our energy needs from dead plants and animals, here on Earth, we are a lowly Type 0 civilization (and we have a LONG way to go before being promoted to a type I civilization). Kaku tends to believe that, all things taken into consideration, we will reach Type I in 100 – 200 years time. But what does each of these categories actually stand for in literal terms?

### Type 1 - Civilization

A **Type 1** designation is a given to species who have been able to harness all the energy that is available from a neighboring star, gathering and storing it to meet the energy demands of a growing population. This means that we would need to boost our current energy production over 100,000 times to reach this status. However, being able to harness all of Earth’s energy would also mean that we could have control over all natural forces. Human beings could control volcanoes, the weather, and even earthquakes! (At least, that is the idea.) These kinds of feats are hard to believe, but compared to the advances that may still be to come, these are just basic and primitive levels of control (it's absolutely nothing compared to the capabilities of societies with higher rankings).

### Type 2 - Civilization

A **Type 2** civilization can harness the power of their entire star (not merely transforming starlight into energy, but controlling the star). Several methods for this have been proposed. The most popular of which is the hypothetical ‘Dyson Sphere.' This device, if you want to call it that, would encompass every single inch of the star, gathering most (if not all) of its energy output and transferring it to a planet for later use. Alternatively, if fusion power (the mechanism that powers stars) had been mastered by the race, a reactor on a truly immense scale could be used to satisfy their needs. Nearby gas giants can be utilized for their hydrogen, slowly drained of life by an orbiting reactor.

What would this much energy mean for a species? Well, nothing known to science could wipe out a Type II civilization. Take, for instance, if humans survived long enough to reach this status, and a moon sized object entered our solar system on a collision course with our little blue planet--we’d have the ability to vaporize it out of existence. Or if we had time, we could move our planet out of the way, completely dodging it. But let’s say we didn’t want to move Earth... are there any other options? Well yes, because we’d have the capability to move Jupiter, or another planet of our choice, *into* the way – pretty cool, right? So we’ve gone from having control over a planet, to a star, which has resulted in us harboring enough "disposable" energy to essentially make our civilization immune to extinction.

### Type 3 - Civilization

A **Type 3** civilization, where a species then becomes galactic traversers with knowledge of everything having to do with energy, resulting in them becoming a master race. In terms of Humans, hundreds of thousands of years of evolution - both biological and mechanical - may result in the inhabitants of this Type III civilization being incredibly different from the Human race as we know it. These may be cyborgs (or cybernetic organism, beings both biological and robotic), with the descendants of regular humans being a sub-species among the now-highly advanced society. These wholly biological humans would likely be seen as being disabled, inferior, or unevolved by their cybernetic counterparts.

At this stage, we would have developed colonies of robots that are capable of ‘self replication’; their population may increase into the millions as they spread out across the galaxy, colonizing star after star. And these being might build Dyson Spheres to encapsulate each one, creating a huge network that would carry energy back to the home planet. But stretching over the galaxy in such a manner would face several problems; namely, the species would be constrained by the laws of physics. Particularly, light-speed travel. That is, unless they develop a working warp drive, or use that immaculate energy cache to master wormhole teleportation (two things that remain theoretical for the time being), they can only get so far.

### Type 4 - Civilization

Kardashev believed a **Type 4** civilization was ‘too’ advanced and didn’t go beyond Type III on his scale. He thought that, surely, this would be the extent of any species’ ability. Many think so, but a few believe there is a further level that could be achieved. (I mean, surely there is a limit?) Type IV civilizations would almost be able to harness the energy content of the entire universe and with that, they could traverse the accelerating expansion of space (furthermore, advance races of these species may live inside supermassive black holes). To previous methods of generating energy, these kinds of feats are considered impossible. A Type IV civilization would need to tap into energy sources unknown to us using strange, or currently unknown, laws of physics.

### Type 5 - Civilization

A **Type 5** might just be the next possible advancement to such a civilization. Here beings would be like gods, having the knowledge to manipulate the Universe as they please. They would begin exploring the vast never-ending reaches of the Multiverse. To actually achieve the full Type 5 status, they would need to harness the full energy content of the Multiverse. Now, humans are a very, very long way from ever reaching anything like this. But it’s not to say that it cannot be achieved as long as we take care of Earth and each other. To do so, the first step is to preserve our tiny home, extinguish war, and continue to support scientific advances and discoveries.

## Information Mastery Scale

### Type A - Civilization

A **Type A** civilization is one that processes 10^6 unique bits of information. This would correspond to a primitive civilization without a written language but with a spoken one. So, civilizations such as this would be extremely limited in their knowledge. They would be more primitive than any human society we have on record and a good starting point for the Information Mastery Scale.

### Type B - Civilization

A **Type B** civilization is one that processes 10^7 unique bits of information. This kind of information content would be enough to start the development of a written language as well as a spoken one. Once a written language is established, the total information content rapidly explodes. In our case, the Sumerian language is the oldest linguistic record that we know of. This led to the invention of many useful things.

### Type C - Civilization

A **Type C** civilization is one that processes 10^8 unique bits of information. With this type of information content available, this civilization would be able to create large, magnificent palace-like structures and small cities. Similar to the Indus Valley cities, a Type C civilization would be noted for its urban planning, technical and political processes concerned with the use of land, and design of the urban environment. It would be able to create brick houses, as well as a cluster of large, non-residential buildings. Additionally, this civilization will also be able to develop elaborate drainage systems, and water supply systems for its cities.

### Type D - Civilization

A **Type D** civilization is one that processes 10^9 unique bits of information. Physicist Phillip Morrison of MIT estimated the information content of the Classical Greek civilization to be about this much, making it a Type D civilization by Sagan’s ranking. The Classical Greek civilization of the Mycenaeans developed a hierarchical system which led to many achievements. They were excellent engineers and built outstanding bridges, tombs, residences, and palaces. Moreover, their city was so large, that they had to actually build outer city walls to protect themselves. They also mastered prehistoric weapons like arrowheads and spearheads. This is exactly what a Type D civilization can accomplish anywhere else in the universe according to this scale.

### Type E - Civilization

A **Type E** civilization is one that processes 10^10 unique bits of information. This amount of available information would allow a Type E civilization to build detailed sculptures and architecture as well as delve in advance education and philosophy. Similar to the golden age of Periclean Athens, the philosophical ideals of this civilization would direct it towards morals, logic, and ethics. Its inhabitants would no longer need to rely on superstition, myth, or magic to explain the natural phenomena around them. This is because they would develop philosophy as a way of understanding the world around them, without resorting to religion, myth, or magic like some of the lesser civilizations on this scale. In fact, Type E philosophers would also be scientists who would observe and study the known world, their planet, seas, mountains, solar system, planetary motion, and astral phenomena just like the early Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

### Type F - Civilization

A **Type F** civilization is one that processes 10^11 unique bits of information. This civilization would have mastered agriculture to the point where it would be available throughout the planet. Some inventions that would help in this monumental task would include water mills, water turbines, steam turbines, animal-driven plows, water wheels, and its knowledge of crop rotation.

### Type G - Civilization

A **Type G** civilization is one that processes 10^12 unique bits of information. With this kind of information availability, this civilization would be able to achieve many great feats. For example, the use of combustion engines, steam locomotives, steamboats, and steamships would completely mobilize it to travel across its entire home planet at a much faster pace than ever before, similar to the advances made during our industrial revolution. It would also be able to build better buildings and structures using engineered materials such as stainless steel, reinforced concrete, and Portland cement.

### Type H - Civilization

A **Type H** civilization is one that processes 10^13 unique bits of information. Such a civilization would be capable of not only mastering ground-based travel but also achieving and mastering air travel within its home planet. Chemical propulsion rocket systems would also be within the reach of a Type H civilization. Using these methods, it could even travel to its home planet’s natural satellites, if the planet had any, similar to our civilization of the recent past. Also, launching satellites into orbit would be quite common which could give rise to Global Positioning Systems. Moreover, building space stations and setting them into orbit around its home planet is also something this type of civilization can manage. In other words, this civilization is one that could launch itself into space using rocket technology.

### Type I - Civilization

A **Type I** civilization is one that processes 10^14 unique bits of information. This type of civilization would be one that has started exploring its Stellar System. Since its knowledge and understanding of robotics would be considerable, creating small probes and sending them to explore other planets in its Stellar System would not be much of a problem. Although a Type I wouldn’t be able to send crewed space shuttles to other planets, it would have started taking keen interest in perfecting its rocket propulsion technology for such missions. For example, with the help of mega projects like the large hadron collider, a Type I civilization may be able to create anti-matter for use as a rocket propellent as well. It may also develop newer methods of space travel such as Solar Sails or magnetic sails.

### Type J - Civilization

A **Type J** civilization is one that processes 10^15 unique bits of information. Given this kind of unique information available at its fingertips, a Type J would at least be a few centuries more advanced than our civilization today. In fact, Sagan estimated that such a civilization would have had its first contact with other alien civilizations in its universe.

### Type K - Civilization

A **Type K** civilization is one that processes 10^16 unique bits of information. With this amount of unique information availability, a Type K would be at least a millennium to several millenniums more advanced than our civilization today. Similar to a Type J, Sagan viewed a Type K civilization as one that would have already mastered the dynamics of interstellar travel, thus, making it one that would also have had contact with extraterrestrial lifeforms within its universe.

### Type L - Civilization

A **Type L** civilization is one that processes 10^17 unique bits of information. A civilization possessing this much unique information content would be capable of many great feats! Apart from having all the methods of interstellar travel of previous civilizations available to it, a Type L civilization would also be able to delve into projects of terraforming certain types of planets within its galaxy. That is, planets that are reasonably close to its home planet’s conditions in terms of their temperature, pressure, and atmosphere. For example, Mars-like worlds would represent these easily terraformed planets in our case. In addition, since terraforming would require advances in bioengineering, this type of civilization would be able to manipulate any DNA in order to create efficient bioengineered life forms! These could include lifeforms that are hybrid with its existing species, or completely new for its own benefit.

### Type M - Civilization

A **Type M** civilization is one that processes 10^18 unique bits of information. A civilization of this caliber wouldn’t only be able to travel to and terraform certain types of planets, like a Type L civilization before it, but it would also be able to terraform any planet within its galaxy regardless of their conditions. For example, terraforming worlds that are too hot, like planet Venus, or too cold like Titan, the moon of Saturn, would be considered routine for inhabitants of Type M. So, as long as a planet has a day/night cycle, the technology of this type of civilization will enable its inhabitants to terraform it with ease.

### Type N - Civilization

A **Type N** civilization is one that processes 10^19 unique bits of information. Given its superior information content in comparison to a Type M, a Type N wouldn’t just be able to terraform only rotating planets, but also be able to deal with planets that are tidally locked to their parent stars. Its technology would be so superior, that it could even impart rotations on such planets if it wanted to. Moreover, because of its ability to control matter at the subatomic level, a civilization such as this would have complete control over all aspects of any given planet in its galaxy. For example, it would even have control over electrical and magnetic fields of any planet it comes across in its travels. So, technically, a Type N civilization could even bring back ‘dead’ planets by jump-starting their inner cores!

### Type O - Civilization

A **Type O** civilization is one that processes 10^20 unique bits of information. This civilization’s information and energy content would be far more advanced than even a Type N, allowing it to accomplish many extraordinary feats. For example, it would be able to build Ringworlds in space around stars, which could rotate faster than orbital velocity to create artificial gravity on its inner surface. This would allow the inhabitants of this civilization to thrive in any Stellar System regardless of whether it has any planets or any other celestial bodies! Moreover, building and sustaining space colonies for its inhabitants would also be within the capabilities of a Type O civilization. This may include hollowing out asteroids and other celestial objects to create miniature enclosed worlds, or structures resembling the Starbase Yorktown from the Star Trek universe! But these are not the only qualities of a Type O civilization.

### Type P - Civilization

A **Type P** civilization is one that processes 10^21 unique bits of information. Given this much unique information content at its fingertips, a Type P civilization would possess knowledge and abilities that far surpass those of even a Type O. Not only would a civilization such as this be able to harness all the energy output of stars, but it would even be able to create its own stars using the available resources of its galaxy! To achieve this kind of feat, perhaps it would need to be able to move around celestial bodies, such as black holes. If it could place appropriately sized black holes within brown dwarfs or Jupiter-like planets, it could potentially cause thermonuclear reactions igniting their fires! But this is only one way to do this, perhaps a civilization that has such vast information content available to it would have far better ways of accomplishing this kind of task that would be almost incomprehensible to our civilization today!

### Type Q - Civilization

A **Type Q** civilization is one that processes 10^22 unique bits of information. So, if there were a galactic civilization of a million worlds, and if each of these worlds were characterized by a thousand times the information content of our terrestrial civilization, then that galactic civilization would be of Type Q. In other words, a Type Q civilization could be comparable to the Kardashev Type 3 under the assumption that the information content and the energy content of a civilization have a positive correlation of course.

### Type R - Civilization

A **Type R** civilization is one that processes 10^23 unique bits of information. With its given information and energy content, this is the civilization that would have broken out of its galaxy and begun intergalactic travel. It may have even fully colonized a second nearby galaxy apart from its own. This would be possible because a Type R would have refined its warp drives to the point where they would be capable of traveling hundreds of times faster than the speed of light if not more. But of course, with such vast amounts of information availability, these types of feats would be well within the grasp of a Type R civilization.

### Type S - Civilization

A **Type S** civilization is one that processes 10^24 unique bits of information. This amount of available information could make it possible for this civilization to unlock perhaps newer ways of space travel. For example, the inhabitants of a Type S may have developed Hyperdrives using their knowledge of higher dimensions within their universe. Now, it should be noted that while warp drives bend or manipulate space to travel, Hyperdrives usually work by stepping completely out of space and into a dimension or area that allows rapid transit from one place to another. So, Hyperdrives can in fact be much faster than warp drives since they could allow the people of such civilizations to find shortcuts in the fabric of their universe and enable travel thousands of times faster than light! Perhaps this is why they may be able to colonize hundreds of nearby galaxies within their universe. But even with this impressive feat, we should keep in mind that although Hyperdrives are capable of faster than light travel, just like warp drives, they still do not permit instantaneous travel and transfers between two points. They also require a measurable passage of time to get to one place from another similar to warp drives. Nonetheless, achieving several times faster than light travel is no small accomplishment!

### Type T - Civilization

A **Type T** civilization is one that processes 10^25 unique bits of information. With its enormous information and energy content, such a civilization would have fully mastered both warp drives and hyperdrives. But these would be the thing of the past for a civilization of this caliber. It would have moved on to even bigger and better projects!

### Type U - Civilization

A **Type U** civilization is one that processes 10^26 unique bits of information. Having such an immense amount of information and energy content available at its fingertips, this type of civilization would have figured out how to open and stabilize wormholes! Perhaps by suppressing quantum fluctuations, a Type U would have discovered or invented some kind of exotic matter, which experiences gravity as a repulsive force rather than attractive, allowing for the stabilization of wormholes. Now, using this, the inhabitants of this civilization may even create jump drives, which could tear open ship-sized wormholes connecting any two points in the universe, allowing near-instantaneous travel. This would allow a civilization of this caliber to colonize and control its entire supercluster! Which means, it would have expanded to over 100,000 galaxies or 200,000,000 light-years in diameter! Now, that would be an incredible feat, to say the least.

### Type V - Civilization

A **Type V** civilization is one that processes 10^27 unique bits of information. A civilization possessing this much information and energy content would have technology that is way beyond even a Type U. For example, the inhabitants of Type V may have mastered all the methods of teleportation which would eliminate the need for any spaceship travel, at least to relatively nearby destinations. Perhaps, they may also have answered all the philosophical questions related to such methods of travel. Of course, given such a vast amount of information content, it is no wonder that a civilization like this may have answered most, if not all, of the fundamental questions about life and the universe.

### Type W - Civilization

A **Type W** civilization is one that processes 10^28 unique bits of information. Given such an immense amount of information and energy content, such a civilization would be capable of many incredible feats. It would be able to exploit exotic or fantastical physical phenomena such as cosmic strings along with dark matter and the like. Understanding and manipulating these cosmic strings may allow such a civilization to twist and bend the fabric of space-time itself! It may also enable it to unlock some of the deepest mysteries and transformational periods of its universe. This would be extremely beneficial since it could allow such a civilization a lot more freedom to expand and colonize its universe than ever before. So, using its knowledge of these fantastical physical phenomena, a Type W civilization’s sphere of influence could be around 25 billion light-years in diameter, assuming of course, that its visible universe is around 100 billion light-years across.

### Type X - Civilization

A **Type X** civilization is one that processes 10^29 unique bits of information. Having this much information and energy content, this civilization would have very little left to uncover in its universe. It would possess knowledge of things such as the origins of life and the ultimate fate of its universe along with all the other technology to manipulate the very fabric of its space-time continuum similar to a Type W. The inhabitants of this civilization may also be very close to cracking the code of dark energy and other hidden mysteries of the universe. With such extensive knowledge and technology, a Type X civilization would have colonized about 50 billion light-years across which would be about half of its visible universe!

### Type Y - Civilization

A **Type Y** civilization is one that processes 10^30 unique bits of information. With such an incredibly vast amount of available information and energy content, a Type Y civilization would be nearing the limits of how much progress a civilization can make under this model. For instance, a civilization of this caliber may even control dark energy allowing it to further manipulate its entire universe at will. It would even have control over entropy giving it the freedom of making absolutely any object or person immortal if it wanted to. Perhaps instantaneous transportation of its inhabitants to any place within its universe may also be a possibility for a Type Y civilization using laws of physics that are currently unknown. This would allow such a civilization to colonize a large chunk of its visible universe up to 75 billion light-years across assuming the visible universe to be about 100 billion light-years in diameter.

### Type Z - Civilization

A **Type Z** civilization is one that processes 10^31 unique bits of information. He estimated that an advanced civilization that can harness the information content of at least billions of interconnected Type Q civilizations, would qualify that civilization as a Type Z. So, a civilization of this caliber would be capable of controlling and manipulating things at the Planck length giving it absolute control over its universe! Since the entire universe for this civilization would be at its disposal to manipulate however it chooses, creation or destruction of planets, stars, black holes, galaxies, or even galaxy clusters would all just be a day’s work for this type of civilization. Moreover, all the questions about life and the universe would be known to a Type Z civilization. Nothing would be a mystery to it since every corner of its universe along with all lifeforms within it would have been mapped out. For this reason, a Type Z civilization would have expanded and colonized its entire visible universe!

## Microdimensional Mastery Scale

### Type 1 - Civilization

A **Type 1-minus** civilization is one that is capable of manipulating objects only at a macro level according to the Microdimensional Mastery version of the Kardashev Scale. In other words, it can only control matter at the observable level with whatever senses the civilization possesses to ‘observe’ things. In terms of human civilization, this would equate to being able to manipulate only the things we can see with our eyes or touch with our hands. So, in general, a Type 1-minus civilization would be able to work over a scale of about 10^0 m or 1m. But even then, this civilization is not to be taken lightly. Although it can only manipulate objects over the scale of itself, this type of civilization can still accomplish pretty great feats.

### Type 2 - Civilization

A **Type 2-minus** civilization is one that is capable of manipulating objects at a very basic micro-level. This means that a civilization such as this would be able to work over a scale of about 10^-7m. At this scale, it becomes possible to be able to manipulate genetic codes which gives a Type 2-minus civilization a lot more control over its surroundings.

### Type 3 - Civilization

A **Type 3-minus** civilization would be capable of controlling and manipulating matter over a scale of about 10^-9 m. This means that a Type 3-minus civilization would be capable of manipulating individual molecules and molecular bonds to its liking. This would provide it a significant amount of control over its surroundings as compared to a Type 2-minus civilization.

### Type 4 - Civilization

A **Type 4-minus** civilization would have reached levels far beyond a Type 3 - minus. So, a Type 4 - minus civilization would be capable of working over the scale of 10^-11m. This would allow it total control over the manipulation of individual atoms in the universe. This is extremely impressive since all the visible matter in the universe is made up of particular arrangements of atoms.

### Type 5 - Civilization

In order for a Type 4-minus civilization to advance to a **Type 5-minus** civilization on the Microdimensional Mastery scale, it would need to be able to work over a scale of around 10^-15 m. A Type 5 - minus civilization is capable of exactly this level of control. It would be capable of controlling and manipulating the atomic nucleus which is far smaller than even the atom. In other words, a Type 5 - minus civilization would be able to work with and manipulate the individual protons and neutrons that live within the center of atoms. This level of control would be highly advanced and far beyond our current capabilities. So, a civilization of this status would easily far surpass us, humans, in every way imaginable.

### Type 6 - Civilization

Going beyond a Type 5 - minus civilization, we have a **Type 6-minus** civilization. This type of civilization would not only be able to control the nucleons in any given atom, but also be able to manipulate the very elementary particles of matter. To be able to achieve this, a Type 6 - minus civilization would need to work over the scale of 10^-18 m. This would allow this type of civilization total control over Fermions which include quarks and leptons. Now, the feats that a Type 6 - minus civilization would be able to achieve with this level of control are far beyond what we can do today. So, they would practically be like gods to us as far as we understand.

### Type Ω - Civilization

A **Type Omega-minus** civilization is the ultimate civilization. It is capable of working at the Planck length of 10^-35 m. This kind of mastery would allow it to manipulate the very fabric of space-time itself. So, a Type Omega-minus civilization would be capable of controlling and manipulating the very fundamental structures and elements of space-time. Things such as faster than light travel using warp drives may be the norm for this civilization. Even using wormholes to travel between any two points in its universe would be a real possibility for a Type Omega-minus civilization.