Type II

A **Type II or K2** civilization has control over their solar system, and may be able to harness the power equivalent of a single star. It extracts fusion energy, information, and raw-materials from multiple solar systems; it is capable of evolutionary intervention, interstellar travel, interstellar communication, stellar engineering, terraforming, and star cluster-scale influence; the resulting proliferation and diversification may negate the probability of extinction. Complete control of the fate of its home planet where threats like ice ages and global warming can be avoided.

A possible utopian outcome on the low to mid end of the K-scale is the Dyson Sphere, a hollow gigantic shell with a surface area equivalent to millions of Earths that can fully enclose the Sun and capture all of its solar energy output. Under the direction of a Godlike superintelligence, huge numbers of automated, self-replicating ships can build it using material from the asteroid belt, the Kuiper Belt, and the Oort Cloud. The interior walls will have a gravitational field similar to Earth's and will use magmatter to withstand the immense tensile forces required to maintain structural integrity. Portions of this sphere have stable atmospheres, oceans, and landmasses, and are a habitat for many sapient lifeforms, including biological humans, transhumans, aliens, and androids.

With digital immortality, many humans live in massive, hyper-realistic simulations. Others are using synthetic and biological bodies created for them in the physical world using advanced versions of nanotechnology and programmable matter.

Mars has been terraformed into a planet that's able to support a wide variety of animal and plant life. Biological humans walk on the surface of Mars without spacesuits. Mars is now another home, effectively becoming a backup for mankind.

After Mars, Venus is terraformed. Venus is now a habitable, Earth-like planet. Its entire orbit was shifted further away from the Sun to bring it closer to the Goldilocks Zone where biological life is able to exist at stable temperatures. Comets made of ice were redirected from the Oort Cloud and the Kuiper Belt into the upper atmosphere of Venus, releasing vast quantities of water. Carbon dioxide was captured and removed in Venus's atmosphere by dispersing nanobots to absorb carbon dioxide and other toxic gases and replace them with breathable air.

The high end of the K-scale would be a hybrid galactic culture, with millions of cooperating worlds in a galactic community. Poetically, this would be a mammoth archipelago of solar system societies, a multitude of civilized islands separated by the vastness of the oceans of space.

A dystopian path is also possible. Aggressive and ruthless expansion could lead to an uncontrolled sprawl far beyond any form of functional government, regressing into societal collapse and eventually a form of interstellar barbarism with little regard for life.

## Sub-Types

Interstellar age
* Colonized another star system, heralding the Interstellar Age. The second space age begins to unveil here.
* Dyson swarm is complete in some civilizations.
* First warp drive and faster than light travel.
* Crewed spaceships are preferred over spacecraft to explore the stars.
* Hostile alien threat is at its highest danger level now before we sprawl across the stars.
* Virtual reality and virchuniverses can now simulate reality.
* Antimatter weapons are obsolete and are being replaced by monopole weapons, created by anti-alien convention.
* Cryogenic sleep is used in travel between star systems.
 2.1
HoloAge
* Multiple star systems colonized.
* Matrioshka brain is complete for some.
* First stellification of a brown dwarf is done using fusion reactors.
* Holograms look real and holosuites are addictive and escapist.
* Other star engines are created. The Nicoll-Dyson beam is developed as an interstellar defense weapon.
* Holograms become alive, introducing the risk of a second technological singularity.
* The colonization of many habitable exoplanets initiates scientific search for life forms and xenobiology.
 2.2
XenoAge
* 100 star systems colonized.
* Meeting with alien species, and either trading or warring with them (assuming similar levels of advancement).
* Interstellar communication systems are being developed.
 2.3
Transhuman age
* 1,000 star systems colonized.
* Natural wormholes are explored.
* First object sent to intergalactic space.
 2.4
Posthuman age
* 10,000 star systems colonized.
* Ability to use wormholes and devices like stargates, as some faster-than-light technology is too slow for vast interstellar distances.
 2.5
Age of essence
* 100,000 star systems colonized.
* First time travel using relativistic time dilation.
 2.6
Dark Matter Age
* 1,000,000 star systems colonized.
* Species now may move towards sophonce and be one of the leading civilizations in a bustling galaxy of cooperation and trade, and respond to common threats.
 2.7
Second Magnetic Age
* 10,000,000 star systems colonized.
* Artificial wormholes are created with antimatter or stable dark energy fusion reactors.
 2.8
Black Hole Age
* 100,000,000 star systems colonized.
* Black hole starships may be used.
* Stellification is routinely done using artificial black holes to rapidly terraform systems.
 2.9
Galactic Age
* Galaxy Colonized.
* Remote contact with aliens from another galaxy. A higher type civilization could support the pre-K3 civilization with intergalactic technology, or late K2 could invent it themselves. Travel is now possible to another galaxy, but do not have the means to colonize yet.

## Civilizations that are considered Type II

**Navigation to Kardashev Type**

```
 Omniverse: Type 0 - Type I - **Type II** - Type III - Type IV - Type V - Type VI - Type VII
Hyperverse: Type VIII - Type IX
Outerverse: Type X - Type XI - Type XII - Type XIII
   Adverse: Type XIV - Type XV - Type XVI - Type XVII - Type XVIII - Type XIX
    Beyond: Type XX. This is the final official type.

```