The Kardashev Imperative
Given our predicament as a global civilization it’s useful to look at things in a broad perspective. The broadest perspective I know of is the Kardahsev Classification System. Dr. Nikolai Kardashev is a Russian Astrophysicist and Deputy Director of the Russian Space Research Institute. Kardashev was thinking about how we could classify galactic civilizations, some of which may be millions or billions of years ahead of ours, and therefore more advanced. The Kardashev Scale is a method of measuring advanced civilizations. Naturally, it’s speculative. The primary metric in the scale is a civilization’s energy consumption, or the energy at its disposal, plus the degree of space colonization. There are three types: Type 1 is a civilization that has achieved mastery of the energy of its home planet, Type 2 its solar system, and Type 3 its galaxy. Because of the wide consumption ranges Kardashev includes intermediate measurements – in hundredths. As of 2010 we are at Kardashev 0.72.
In thinking about how we’re doing on the way to Kardashev Type 1 I realized that what I was really looking at is a species intelligence test. I’ve just made up the Kardashev Test: Is your species intelligent enough to develop and maintain a civilization capable of successfully mastering the energy resources of your planet, solar system or galaxy? Which means you’re going to be smart enough to avoid blowing yourselves up through war or experimenting with dangerous fuels, avoid exhausting all one fuel before you’ve developed a more advanced one, avoid polluting your environment catastrophically and avoid destroying your climate. Because if you do any of these things your nascent civilization will fail.
The caveat here is the famous “one shot” quote by Sir Fred Hoyle:
“It has often been said that, if the human species fails to make a go of it here on the Earth, some other species will take over the running. In the sense of developing intelligence this is not correct. We have or soon will have, exhausted the necessary physical prerequisites so far as this planet is concerned. With coal gone, oil gone, high-grade metallic ores gone, no species however competent can make the long climb from primitive conditions to high-level technology. This is a one-shot affair. If we fail, this planetary system fails so far as intelligence is concerned.”
Roz Savage, the Ocean Rower and Environmental Campaigner, (good luck on the Indian Ocean Roz) asked me if there’s anything left to play for. Yes Roz, there’s everything to play for. It’s all or nothing. We are either going to wake up and get smart enough to achieve Kardashev Type 1, or we will fail. There are a lot of environmentalists out there who think it’s game over and there’s no doubt we’re on the edge.
So the Type 1 Kardashev test is, if you’re too dumb to manage your planetary resources, population and environment, you weren’t an intelligent species to begin with.
This is the Kardashev Imperative: To devise a global system based on the scientifically rational use of resources and technology to sustain and advance our civilization until we reach Type 1.
Which means we won’t be able to indulge in religious mumbo jumbo, idiot wars, corporate capitalism and its artificial externalities, exponential population growth, and all the rest of the primitive nonsense we’re up to at present.
So far it looks like we’ve turned down the rational MIT approach in favour of the Hollywood action film version with Somali pirates, Russian Mafia, billion person famines, super yacht driving banker villains, mad max infrastructure, and internet porn to keep us entertained when we’re bored with Halo Reach and Lady GaGa. I mean, really, is that the best we can do?
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