The Most Advanced Civilizations That Terrify Scientists
The Cosmographer
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In 1964, a Soviet astronomer named Nikolai Kardashev sketched a ladder with three rungs to measure how much energy a civilization could ever command. Tonight the ladder gets climbed the whole way, all nine rungs, from a species that finally masters its own planet's sunlight to one that dissolves into pure pattern beyond space and time itself. Every rung is tested against something real, from the search for Boyajian's Star to an infrared survey of a hundred thousand galaxies. So why, at every rung anyone has actually gone looking, does the sky keep coming back quiet?
Over these 3 hours and 15 minutes, the climb moves from Earth's own 0.73 rating on the Kardashev scale through Freeman Dyson's star-enclosing swarms and the real hunt for Boyajian's Star, past the G-HAT survey's null result across a hundred thousand galaxies, and into more speculative territory: multiverses, John Barrow's inward-turning technologies, Nick Bostrom's simulation argument, and Frank Tipler's Omega Point. Kardashev, Dyson, Sagan, Everett, and Bostrom all make an appearance, alongside the one signature no civilization can hide: waste heat.
Settle in and let this slow countdown through nine rungs of cosmic power, from planetary engineers to a civilization indistinguishable from a god, keep you company tonight. Subscribe to The Cosmographer if you like the long way through the universe's greatest lists.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
1:19 Type I — The Planetary Civilization
21:50 Type II — The Star Harvesters
46:19 Type III — The Galactic Civilization
1:09:28 Type IV — The Universal Civilization
1:31:58 Type V — The Multiversal Civilization
1:49:50 Type VI — The Law Makers
2:11:40 Type VII — Beyond Space and Time
2:30:12 Type VIII — Indistinguishable From Gods
2:52:02 Type IX — The Omega Civilization
3:03:57 The Ladder's Three Lessons
SOURCES
The Extended Kardashev Scale — https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ab792b
Forecasting the progression of human civilization on the Kardashev Scale through 2060 — https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-38...
Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation — https://doi.org/10.1126/science.131.3...
Project Hephaistos – II. Dyson sphere candidates from Gaia DR3, 2MASS, and WISE — https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae1186
Extinction and the Dimming of KIC 8462852 — https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa899c
The Ĝ Infrared Search for Extraterrestrial Civilizations with Large Energy Supplies. III. — https://doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/217...
Is artificial intelligence the great filter that makes civilisations rare in the universe? — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2...
Homogeneous cosmology with aggressively expanding civilizations — https://doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381/32/...
Hubble Reveals Observable Universe Contains 10 Times More Galaxies Than Previously Thought — https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hub...
Discovering a Runaway Universe — https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubb...
Mapping the Cosmic Web — https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubb...
The Star Tug: An active stellar engine capable of accelerating a star to relativistic — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2...
'Relative State' Formulation of Quantum Mechanics — https://doi.org/10.1103/revmodphys.29...
The information paradox: a pedagogical introduction — https://doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381/26/...
The Simulation Argument: some explanations — https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anp063
—
Disclaimer: The Cosmographer produces educational entertainment. Factual claims come from published research and official scientific institutions, and any speculation or open question is labeled as such when it appears. This channel is not a news outlet. Watch at your own discretion.
#KardashevScale #DysonSphere
20 Comments
We tend to measure advancement by how much energy a civilization can harness and how much of its environment it can manipulate. But perhaps that only describes one stage of technological development. A truly ancient and advanced civilization may eventually move in the opposite direction: toward extreme efficiency, minimal waste, and an increasingly small observable footprint.
At some point, technological expansion itself may no longer be the primary goal. The focus could instead shift toward consciousness, knowledge, existence, or forms of reality that we do not yet understand. Such a civilization might have little reason to build enormous visible structures or broadcast its presence across the galaxy.
That makes the Fermi paradox especially interesting to me. Perhaps the universe appears quiet not because advanced civilizations are absent, but because we are looking for them using assumptions based on our own relatively young technological civilization.
Maybe the ultimate sign of advancement isn't how loudly a civilization announces itself to the universe, but how little evidence it needs to leave behind.
Type II - Tabby star has, same as with Betelgeuse, a small star partner which is causing various disruptions.
Type V - What if there's unlimited parallel universes, but the important thing is if they are "hydrated", or in other world living in full dependencies. While others are only a sets of unhydrated events' skeletons, rather mathematical structures existing and recording events. From the view of observer - happening for consistency of advanced multiversal physics, or from the view of God just for consistency of the whole multiverse. So, in this concept, there'are unfinite universes, but only a countable fraction of them may be real and not just theathers of dummies or cheshire cat reflections or Japan theater of shades or British museums recording their unreal pasts. Unhydrated universes are not a burden of total multiverse available energy because they don't burn resources. It also means that the energy (in certain form) is important in every universe.
Type VI - Editors of physics. Very nice name.
The Most Advanced Civilizations That Terrify Scientists
The Cosmographer
147,661 views
Hey guys! We’re now live on Spotify🎧
Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c2uppn...
In 1964, a Soviet astronomer named Nikolai Kardashev sketched a ladder with three rungs to measure how much energy a civilization could ever command. Tonight the ladder gets climbed the whole way, all nine rungs, from a species that finally masters its own planet's sunlight to one that dissolves into pure pattern beyond space and time itself. Every rung is tested against something real, from the search for Boyajian's Star to an infrared survey of a hundred thousand galaxies. So why, at every rung anyone has actually gone looking, does the sky keep coming back quiet?
Over these 3 hours and 15 minutes, the climb moves from Earth's own 0.73 rating on the Kardashev scale through Freeman Dyson's star-enclosing swarms and the real hunt for Boyajian's Star, past the G-HAT survey's null result across a hundred thousand galaxies, and into more speculative territory: multiverses, John Barrow's inward-turning technologies, Nick Bostrom's simulation argument, and Frank Tipler's Omega Point. Kardashev, Dyson, Sagan, Everett, and Bostrom all make an appearance, alongside the one signature no civilization can hide: waste heat.
Settle in and let this slow countdown through nine rungs of cosmic power, from planetary engineers to a civilization indistinguishable from a god, keep you company tonight. Subscribe to The Cosmographer if you like the long way through the universe's greatest lists.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
1:19 Type I — The Planetary Civilization
21:50 Type II — The Star Harvesters
46:19 Type III — The Galactic Civilization
1:09:28 Type IV — The Universal Civilization
1:31:58 Type V — The Multiversal Civilization
1:49:50 Type VI — The Law Makers
2:11:40 Type VII — Beyond Space and Time
2:30:12 Type VIII — Indistinguishable From Gods
2:52:02 Type IX — The Omega Civilization
3:03:57 The Ladder's Three Lessons
SOURCES
The Extended Kardashev Scale — https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ab792b
Forecasting the progression of human civilization on the Kardashev Scale through 2060 — https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-38...
Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation — https://doi.org/10.1126/science.131.3...
Project Hephaistos – II. Dyson sphere candidates from Gaia DR3, 2MASS, and WISE — https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae1186
Extinction and the Dimming of KIC 8462852 — https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa899c
The Ĝ Infrared Search for Extraterrestrial Civilizations with Large Energy Supplies. III. — https://doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/217...
Is artificial intelligence the great filter that makes civilisations rare in the universe? — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2...
Homogeneous cosmology with aggressively expanding civilizations — https://doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381/32/...
Hubble Reveals Observable Universe Contains 10 Times More Galaxies Than Previously Thought — https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hub...
Discovering a Runaway Universe — https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubb...
Mapping the Cosmic Web — https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubb...
The Star Tug: An active stellar engine capable of accelerating a star to relativistic — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2...
'Relative State' Formulation of Quantum Mechanics — https://doi.org/10.1103/revmodphys.29...
The information paradox: a pedagogical introduction — https://doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381/26/...
The Simulation Argument: some explanations — https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/anp063
—
Disclaimer: The Cosmographer produces educational entertainment. Factual claims come from published research and official scientific institutions, and any speculation or open question is labeled as such when it appears. This channel is not a news outlet. Watch at your own discretion.
#KardashevScale #DysonSphere