{"id":727,"date":"2026-09-20T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biopedia.co.uk\/?p=727"},"modified":"2026-09-20T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T10:00:00","slug":"131-the-kardashev-scale-of-civilisations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biopedia.co.uk\/?p=727","title":{"rendered":"131- The Kardashev Scale of Civilisations"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-727-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/anchor.fm\/s\/3d2240d8\/podcast\/play\/125985928\/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-8-19%2F6128294b-41a9-c2e0-e158-bd0202b09cfe.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/anchor.fm\/s\/3d2240d8\/podcast\/play\/125985928\/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-8-19%2F6128294b-41a9-c2e0-e158-bd0202b09cfe.mp3\">https:\/\/anchor.fm\/s\/3d2240d8\/podcast\/play\/125985928\/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-8-19%2F6128294b-41a9-c2e0-e158-bd0202b09cfe.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>How do you quantify how big a civilisation is? In the 1960s, Nikolai Semenovich Kardashev came up with a scale based on how much energy hypothetical civilisations can exploit- which has been modified by others to stretch all the way from multiverse levels of energy usage down to the fabric of spacetime itself. Let&#039;s return to astrobiology!<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Sources for this episode:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Byrne, P. (2007), The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett. Scientific American 297(6): 98-105.<\/li>\n<li>Cirkovic, M. M. (2016), Kardashev&#039;s Classification at 50+: A Fine Vehicle with Room for Improvement. Serbian Astronomical Journal 1(15): 10.2298.<\/li>\n<li>Gray, R. H. (2020), The Extended Kardashev Scale. The Astronomical Journal 159: 228.<\/li>\n<li>Hooper, R., New Scientist (2009), Hugh Everett: The man who gave us the multiverse (online) (Accessed 10\/09\/2026).<\/li>\n<li>Raikar, S. P., Encyclopedia Britannica (2025), Kardashev scale (online) (Accessed 10\/09\/2026).<\/li>\n<li>Smith, J. (2022), Review and viability of a Dyson Swarm as a form of Dyson Sphere. Physica Script 97(12): 122001.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Vidal, C., Fields, B. L., Sowinski, D. R., Elowitz, M., Bartlett, S., Terrile, R. J., Ellery, A., Bibas, D., Mastrogiovanni, A. M., Dobler, N., Singla, M., DeMarines, J., Fisher, T., Uno, Y., Turner, J. D., Sneed, E. L., Huggahalli, A., Li, M. G., Li, Z. (C.), Huston, M. and Saide, R. (2026), The Search for Technosignatures: A Review of Possibilities. arXiv: 2605.21093.<\/li>\n<li>Wright, J. T. (2020), Dyson Spheres. Serbian Astronomical Journal 200: 1-18.<\/li>\n<li>Zhang, A., Yang, J., Luo, Y. and Fen, S. (2023), Forecasting the progression of human civilization on the Kardashev Scale through 2060 with a machine learning approach. Nature Scientific Reports 13: 11305.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Author unknown, Homo Deus Lab (date unknown), Galaxy Colonization: How Long Would It Take? (online) (Accessed 10\/09\/2026).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do you quantify how big a civilisation is? In the 1960s, Nikolai Semenovich Kardashev came up with a scale based on how much energy hypothetical civilisations can exploit- which has been modified by others to stretch all the way from multiverse levels of energy usage down to the fabric of spacetime itself. Let&#039;s return &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/biopedia.co.uk\/?p=727\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;131- The Kardashev Scale of Civilisations&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biopedia.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biopedia.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biopedia.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biopedia.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biopedia.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biopedia.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biopedia.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biopedia.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biopedia.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}