A Type 1 Kardashev civilization is capable of harnessing the total energy of its home planet. Solar Energy received by the Earth from the sun is 174 Petawatts (1.74 X 10^17 watts). A type 2 Kardashev ...

Let’s be honest, we have our fair share of problems on planet Earth: war, floods, disease, poverty, and environmental destruction (the list goes on and on, really). But we also have a lot of things ...

The Kardashev scale is based on how much energy a civilization uses. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. What might we find: little ...

Humans love to put labels on pretty much everything — even stuff we know nothing about, like undiscovered alien civilizations. Over 50 years ago, a Soviet astrophysicist invented a power ranking for ...

To measure the level of a civilization’s advancement, the Kardashev scale focuses on the amount of energy that a civilization is able to harness. Obviously, the amount of power available to a ...

Avery Hurt is a freelance science journalist who frequently writes for Discover Magazine, covering scientific studies on topics like neuroscience, insects, and microbes. View Full Profile. Nikolai ...

Type I — a civilization that is able to harness all of the power available on a single planet — has approximately 10^16 or 10^17 W available. Earth specifically has an available power of 1.74 × 10^17 ...

Elon Musk has contemplated the future of energy harnessing, referencing the Kardashev Scale. He envisions a hundredfold increase in energy use as humanity approaches Type I civilization, primarily ...

James is a published author with multiple pop-history and science books to his name. He specializes in history, space, strange science, and anything out of the ordinary.View full profile James is a ...