Future Civilizations with Michio Kaku

Let’s paint an image, imagine a world where everything is super advanced. Where you could actually see flying cars instead of youtube videos of it saying that they exist. And, a world where the sky is truly the limit and people take advantage of it, in a good way. A world where you put on your calendar to meet up with your cousin who recently moved to mars for a few days then return back to earth. Another way to see this would be a world that also has the same technology as seen in Wakanda (to all those whose seen Black Panther “WAKANDA FOREVER!!!”).

Okay, okay back to the topic. Wait, what was it again?

Oh, yeah, having a really really really advanced world which is in no comparison to our world (for now).

Let’s explore more about this with Michio Kaku in his chapter on advanced civilizations. Who is Michio Kaku exactly? First, in my opinion, he is an awesome scientist. He is also an American theoretical physicist, futurist, and popularizer of science. Okay, now that we’ve covered that back to advanced civilizations. It was actually in 1964 when Russian astronomer Nikolai Kardashev introduced the classification of advanced civilization. Initially, Kardashev came up with 3 types of civilizations which are the following:

1. Type I civilization:
   • a.k.a the planetary civilization
   • this civilization would be able to employ all the energy that reaches the planet and all the energy it can produce
   • This energy is solar, thermal, hydro, wind, and more
   • Michio Kaku predicts we would have control over things such as earthquakes, the weather, and volcanoes
   • With research, it was found that this type of civilization would harness the power of 7 x 10⁷
   • To get to this state, we would have to boost our current energy production to 100,000 times
   • We are estimated to reach this stage in about 100-200 years
2. Type II civilization:
   • Would also probably be classified as an interplanetary civilization, too
   • We would be able to use the total energy of our sun (a star)
   • Have the ability to move planets and stars
   • To accomplish harnessing the energy of a star, we would be using a megastructure called the Dyson Sphere 
   • We are estimated to reach this stage in about 1000-2000 years 
3. Type III civilization:
   • at this point, everything would be different from today
   • We’d have space travelers zooming everywhere
   • And, the norm would possibly be cyborgs 
   • We would also have the power to use the energy of an entire galaxy
   • This, as Michio Kaku is estimated to happen in about “one hundred thousand years and possibly not for a million years”

Type o to Type I

In case you were wondering, we are a Type o at the moment and for quite some time, too. The first thing that we would have to do is change from Type o to Type I. Now, we have some obstacles that are preventing and slowing down the process of actually advancing forward and helping our world socially and technologically to reach the next stage. As Michio Kaku writes, “the biggest threat facing a Type I civilization may be a self-inflicted one” and some of the challenges include “global warming, bioterrorism, and nuclear proliferation”. 

Problems preventing the transition from Type o to Type I

Expanding on the problems, global warming, which has been a threat to humanity has countless evidence which Kaku notes, the following:

• EVERY major glacier on the Earth is receding
• The Northern polar ice has thinned by an average of 50 PERCENT over the past fifty years
• Large parts of Greenland, which are covered by the world’s second-largest ice sheet, are tawing out
• A section of Antartica the size of Delaware, the Larsen Ice Shelf C, broke off in 2017, and the stability of the ice sheets and ice shelves is now in question
• The last few years have been the hottest ever recorded in human history
• The Earth’s average temperature has increased by the 1.3 degrees Celsius in the past century
• On average, summer is about one week longer than it was in the past 
• We are seeing more and more “one-hundred-year events,” such as forest fires, floods, droughts, and hurricanes

Another great danger which the world and humans face which have been there for quite some time is diseases, plagues, and epidemics. The influenza epidemic killed an estimate of 50 million people whereas the war itself had it’s estimated down to 20 million less than that of influenza. The problem with this? There is such a thing as a weaponized biogerms. Yes, I know, terrible, if there is such a ferocious disease which gets created and released it has the potential to eliminate 98% of the human population! These are some of the things that have made it difficult for our advancement. Breaking from this would be a difficult job and a challenge when we emerge to a new civilization. But, if we work together, stop the competition, the inequality and put our awesome minds together, maybe we could transition to a better and advanced civilization compared to where we are now.

Future civilizations may change and evolve. But, with the decisions that are made today, in this century will help in determining whether that change would be better or for worse. If we take the right steps and choices, it may be possible to be living in a world where we have laser porting (which is a future way of traveling[g to the stars in light speed), space elevators, programmable matter, robotic construction, fusion power, asteroid mining, and a better-civilized world…. 

….and maybe (MAYBE) we might be living in a really cool world like in WAKANDA. Am I right?!?!

Hope you’re having an awesome day, afternoon, or night! Till the next blog, bye!!

Yours truly,

L.O.A.S.H

 

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 © Elizabeth Anne Villoria