131- The Kardashev Scale of Civilisations

<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&#39;s return to astrobiology!</p><p><br></p><p>Sources for this episode:</p><ul><li>Byrne, P. (2007), The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett. Scientific American 297(6): 98-105.</li><li>Cirkovic, M. M. (2016), Kardashev&#39;s Classification at 50+: A Fine Vehicle with Room for Improvement. Serbian Astronomical Journal 1(15): 10.2298.</li><li>Gray, R. H. (2020), The Extended Kardashev Scale. The Astronomical Journal 159: 228.</li><li>Hooper, R., New Scientist (2009), Hugh Everett: The man who gave us the multiverse (online) (Accessed 10/09/2026).</li><li>Raikar, S. P., Encyclopedia Britannica (2025), Kardashev scale (online) (Accessed 10/09/2026).</li><li>Smith, J. (2022), Review and viability of a Dyson Swarm as a form of Dyson Sphere. Physica Script 97(12): 122001.</li></ul><ul><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><li>Wright, J. T. (2020), Dyson Spheres. Serbian Astronomical Journal 200: 1-18.</li><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></ul><ul><li>Author unknown, Homo Deus Lab (date unknown), Galaxy Colonization: How Long Would It Take? (online) (Accessed 10/09/2026).</li></ul>