The Kardashov Index has appeared in human civilization a long time ago, and is a method of dividing different levels of civilizations in the universe.
To put it simply, a civilization that can control the resources and energy of an entire planet can become a first-level civilization.
A civilization that can control an entire star is a second-level civilization. A civilization that controls an entire river system, such as the Milky Way, is a third-level civilization.
According to this method of classification, human civilization in the original national era was probably a level 0.7 civilization. In its heyday, human civilization before its destruction probably had about 0.75. The current level of new human civilization is about 0.67.
The reason why the level of science and technology at this stage is higher than before, but the hierarchical classification is lower than that of human civilization in the national era, is because the total population at this stage is too small.
But obviously, this division method is very general and does not have much reference significance. What Zhao Changxing wants is a more detailed classification method with more detailed data such as the iconic technology, scope of activities, and scope of capabilities of each level of civilization.
Of course, this matter must be left to scientists.
About two months later, the document on the method for classifying civilization levels that was jointly researched and analyzed by scientists from all walks of life organized by Zhuang Yunwei was placed in front of Zhao Changxing.
"First of all, it needs to be pointed out that the civilization level classification method we have produced at this stage is entirely based on speculation about the future made by existing technology and science. It may not be completely accurate. Because we cannot rule out that a certain item is not affected by The technology we attach great importance to will play an unparalleled role in the future and has the potential to comprehensively change the structure of civilization."
It's like computer technology.
In the early days of human civilization in the national era, when computer technology first emerged, some people even asserted that the entire world only needed a total of five computers. And quite a few people agree with this judgment.
This is a typical example that is completely ignored at the current stage, but will comprehensively and completely change civilization in the future.
"We also cannot rule out the possibility that the entire speculation is based on a ridiculous fallacy because of the neglect of a certain technology."
There are also examples of this situation.
When modern science was just beginning, when some people speculated on the way human beings would live in the future, they speculated on the existence of skyscrapers with hundreds of meters in height and hundreds of floors.
But skyscrapers are too tall. It is very inconvenient to live in it. So people made inferences that seemed rigorous and reasonable at the time, and formed a complete system. That is, there will be a hospital, a supermarket, a school, etc. every few floors in a skyscraper. People living in high-rise buildings can obtain their daily necessities without going down too many floors.
In order to solve the traffic problem between different skyscrapers, high-rise stairs may be built between different skyscrapers, so that people can go from one skyscraper to another without going downstairs and up again. Go inside.
These speculations undoubtedly seemed very reasonable and logical at the time.
But then technology really developed, and the reality was not like that.
Because people equip every skyscraper with an elevator.
This is an example of how the entire reasoning system was built on an absurd basis and led to absurd conclusions due to some initial minor omissions.
"Based on the above two reasons, we do not make specific detailed speculations about different levels of civilization, but only make fundamental and basic inferences. This requires a judgment standard that is as fair as possible and a level benchmark. We have gone through After analysis, we finally chose 'energy source method' and 'navigation propulsion method' as this criterion."
"The energy source method determines the scale of a civilization. Obviously, a civilization that uses controllable nuclear fusion as its main energy source must have the ability to raise a larger population than a civilization that uses fossil energy as its main energy source. They The scale of civilization will inevitably be larger."
"The way of navigation and propulsion determines the territory of a civilization. Based on the fact that interstellar space is too vast, navigation speed is the key to determining how much territory a civilization occupies, whether it occupies one planet, an entire star system, or many star systems. Factors. However, a civilization that adopts ion propulsion method must occupy a larger and wider territory than a civilization that adopts chemical energy propulsion method."
"Secondly, each civilization may have its own set of civilization classification methods. It is very likely that there is no recognized system in the universe. But the more powerful the civilization, the more fair the classification will be. , the more credible it is. Because looking back on the past is always more reliable than looking forward to the future.”
"Based on the above content, we have made the following classification."
"Level 0 civilization: primitive civilization. Including all civilizations that have not mastered the ability to navigate in low-Earth orbit. This level of civilization corresponds to the feudal era of our human civilization and before, and the early industrial era. This level of civilization is relatively fragile, and a major disaster will It can destroy an entire civilization. At the peak of primitive civilization, this civilization could theoretically master the method of entering the planet's low-Earth orbit, and had a certain degree of observation capabilities for the space it was in."
"Level 1 civilization: chemical civilization. Or called planetary civilization. The main energy source of this level of civilization is fossil energy or chemical fuel, and the corresponding propulsion method is chemical fuel propulsion.
This level of civilization can already enter the planet's low-Earth orbit on a large scale, corresponding to the national era of our human civilization.
This level of civilization has a certain ability to resist nature, and natural disasters are unlikely to destroy this level of civilization.
The most important characteristic of this level of civilization is that it has completely mastered chemical energy and chemical propulsion technology, can build huge rockets of hundreds or even thousands of tons, launch many loads into near-Earth space, and even have the ability to control extremely distant places. The planet has the ability to carry out remote detection.
It should be pointed out that even if this level of civilization has mastered nuclear fission technology and has applied it to power generation and aircraft energy supply on a large scale, and has initially mastered ion propulsion technology, we will still classify it as a level 1 civilization. It's just at the peak of level 1 civilization.
Because until controllable nuclear fusion technology is mastered and the technology is miniaturized, neither ion propulsion nor nuclear fission technology can bring disruptive changes to this level of civilization.
The activity territory of this level of civilization is around the planet. They may have landed on nearby planets or satellites, and the artificial satellites launched may have spread throughout the inner star system. "
"Level 2 civilization, fusion civilization, or star-level civilization. The main energy source of this level of civilization is controllable nuclear fusion, and the corresponding propulsion method is a small fusion reactor plus an efficient ion thruster.
At this stage, natural disasters, whether they are super-large volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, or asteroid impacts, can no longer destroy civilization. It cannot even threaten this level of civilization.
This level of civilization has strong interstellar navigation capabilities, the ability to more conveniently travel to and from different planets in the star system where it is located, and obtain the resource supply of the entire star system.
Because the activity range of this level of civilization can cover the entire star system, we can call it a stellar level civilization.
This level of civilization probably corresponds to the peak period on the eve of the demise of the old human civilization (approximately level 2.05), or it may correspond to us now (approximately level 2.1).
At the peak of this level of civilization, the unmanned spacecraft they launched may have the ability to reach another star system across the light-year distance between stars. But large-scale voyages across stars are not yet possible.
The peak period of Level 2 civilization can be roughly compared to the heyday of deep space civilization. Of course, deep space civilization once completed the interstellar voyage from the Lalande 21185 galaxy to the solar system, but during the voyage, they lost 99% of the population and 99% of the resources. This is obviously not a large-scale universal Sexual interstellar voyage should be classified under extreme circumstances.
Therefore, the heyday of deep space civilization was still the pinnacle of Level 2 civilization and cannot be classified into the category of Level 3 civilization. "
"Level 3 civilization, anti-matter civilization, or star cluster-level civilization.
This level of civilization has mastered the technology of large-scale industrial production and storage of antimatter, and has applied it to interstellar navigation on a large scale. It should be pointed out that the universal large-scale energy source for this level of civilization will most likely still be controllable nuclear fusion. Among them, antimatter actually plays the role of 'energy storage', not 'energy supply', just like a battery.
The energy storage efficiency of unit mass of antimatter, including the heat engine loss during the process, may reach 10-20 times that of unit mass of fusion fuel. In this way, this level of civilization may rely on nuclear fusion as an energy source and produce antimatter on a large scale, then use antimatter as a reserve energy source for spacecraft, and use this to launch long-distance interstellar voyages across stars.
Because the ion propulsion method still has great potential to be tapped at the level 2 civilization stage, we believe that ion propulsion will still be the main propulsion method at the level 3 civilization stage.
With sufficient energy supply, the ion flow ejected by the ion propulsion engine may reach 99% of the speed of light or even higher, giving the spacecraft higher acceleration. It can even support spacecraft to reach true sublight speed and sail between different stars.
Because the activity territory of this level of civilization can be as high as several or even a dozen stars, and in extreme cases it may even be as high as hundreds of stars, we can call this level of civilization a star cluster level civilization. "
