The Russian astronomer Nikolai Kardashev and the U.S. physicist Freeman Dyson established a staggering array of advanced civilizations, grouped into three types. When science is devoted to SF, the mind boggles.
A Type I civilization is called worldwide, because it masters all forms of energy of the planet. It can alter the climate, exploit the resources of the oceans, extract energy from the core. It consumes all the energy of the world. The environment and natural resources are managed with care and respect through a high cooperation between the countries.
It manages a sophisticated global communication system, development programs and worldwide economic exchanges. Corruption networks are out, same for totalitarian regimes, fanaticism, and any activity that may harm the public interest.
This implies a moral code, spiritual values, intellectual and subtle shared. Wars are just bad childhood memories. Such a civilization can visit all the planets in its solar system. So far, no Type I civilization has been detected.
Dyson believes that the earth can reach this stage around 2200.
Type II civilization is called stellar because it controls the energy of its star. Dyson imagined that civilizations having reached this level would surely be able to build a giant sphere around their central star to capture its energy. Built with lightweight materials, it should be far enough away not to burn, but close enough not to lose too much energy.
In the case of the Sun, the sphere could be at the distance of the planet Mars. This capture, as effective as it is, would leave probably a part of the stellar energy get away in the form of heat.
By this sign, we could identify potential Type II civilizations: an astronomical research program is looking for an infrared radiation which might be an indication of a civilization of this type. No suspect radiation has been detected so far. Kardaschev would have expected that we could reach the stage II in 5200.
Type III civilization is called galactic because it uses the energy of all the star systems in a galaxy. This civilization moves at will in the galaxy, and manages to unite all the civilizations of type I. Star Wars, Dune, Valerian, Lanfeust, SF has provided us with many galactic empires or federations, like Sillage. A galactic civilization is necessarily very old, it is based on hundreds of thousands, even millions of years of evolution.
This type of civilization is the ideal candidate to explain the UFO phenomenon. It is possible that the former gods, our “creators” have belonged to a galactic civilization. They modulated life on this planet, that they have terraformedSF word that means transforming a planet to model it to the earth criteria., and they made an intelligent race. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, a black monolith transforms apes into intelligent beings. But this is a parable, a legominism. The truth is more concrete. For Kardaschev, we will reach the stage III by the year 7800.
What is a legominism? The word is of Gurdjeff. It is a fable whose interest is not in what it says but in a spiritual structure, esoteric, that the legominism develops in students. The Sufi teaching uses tales for this purpose. Idries Shah calls them teaching stories.
Following the works of Kardashev and Dyson, an attempt was made to extrapolate two other types, Type IV, civilization of a galactic cluster or supercluster, which manages to unite several galaxies. The comic Sillage is a perfect example. Finally, the last stage, the Type V civilization is unique since it occupies the entire known world. This is the universal civilization. I hear your asking: Who is the big boss?? Oh dear.
The big boss, if there is one, may well be called Big Brother, Allah, Shiva or God the Father, he is just an intermediary, still he is not the Source. We will soon know the civilizations who have made us and who watch us grow, so let’s stop being naive. The Greeks, like the Hebrews, had an angelic vision of the first gods who embodied the Nemesis, the Perfect Standard, the Ideal Conduct to which every man would comply. Yet Zeus the seducer is not a paragon of virtue. The jealous Yahweh is not a model of justice either.
They no longer exist, R.I.P.: it is our turn to carry the Olympic Flame.
The visionary work of Kardashev and Dyson, a Russian and a U.S. together, show us the path of unity which leads to Type I. Dyson has planned it for 2200. This is tomorrow. The best preparation consists in reading our remote past with our present eyes. The ancients have long frequented the galactic civilization. And they liked it. So much that they have made religions to commemorate the golden age, the time when gods lived among men. The former giants were undoubtedly scholars of Type III.
Their generosity was real, as well as their obvious talent for terraforming exoplanets like ours: they did a good job. When their time came, they created us to continue their work. Seeing the care they have put to create the woman, this Pandora endowed with all talents and all graces, it shows they have not screwed us, our very grandparents. Still remain some bugs in our program: a life too short, some viruses, lots of villains and exploiters, but the former ones have left us the key on the door.
Now that we have found the lock, we will finish the job.
Standing hearts, Superman arrives.
Our descendants will live several centuries.
Will they be happier anyway?
A man does his duty – in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures – and that is the basis of all human morality.