The last human in the universe

Chapter 110 Civilization Level
The Kardashov index has appeared in human civilization a long time ago, and it is a method of dividing different levels of civilization in the universe.

To put it simply, a civilization that can master the resources and energy of an entire planet can become a first-class civilization.

A civilization that can control an entire star is a second-level civilization.A civilization that controls an entire river system, such as the Milky Way, is a third-level civilization.

According to this method, the human civilization in the country era was probably a 0.7-level civilization.In its heyday, the human civilization before it was destroyed was about 0.75.The current stage of new human civilization is about 0.67.

The reason why the level of science and technology at this stage is higher than that at the beginning, but the level division is lower than that of human civilization in the original country era is because the total population at this stage is too small.

But obviously, this division method is very general and does not have much reference significance.What Zhao Changxing wants is a more detailed division method with more detailed data such as the iconic technology, scope of activities, and scope of capabilities of each level of civilization.

Of course, this matter must be left to the scientists to do.

After about two months, the document on the classification method of civilization levels organized by Zhuang Yunwei and scientists from all walks of life was placed in front of Zhao Changxing.

"First of all, it needs to be pointed out that the civilization level classification method we have made at this stage is entirely based on existing technology and scientific speculation about the future, and it may not be completely accurate. Because we cannot rule out that a certain item is not subject to The technology that is valued has played an unparalleled important role in the future, and it has the possibility of comprehensively changing the structure of civilization."

It's like computer technology.

In the human civilization of the country era, when computer technology first appeared, some people even asserted that only five computers were enough for the whole world.And quite a few people agree with this judgment.

This is a typical example of a civilization that is completely ignored at the current stage, but will completely and completely change civilization in the future.

"We also cannot rule out the possibility that the entire speculation is based on a ridiculous fallacy because a certain technology is ignored."

There are also examples of this situation.

When modern science was just in its infancy, when some people speculated about the way of life of human beings in the future, they speculated about the existence of skyscrapers with a height of hundreds of meters and hundreds of floors.

But skyscrapers are too tall.It is very inconvenient to live in it.So people made inferences that seemed rigorous and reasonable at the time, and formed a complete system.That is, there will be a hospital, a supermarket, a school and the like every few floors of a skyscraper, and people living on high floors can get what they need for life without going down too many floors.

In order to solve the traffic problem between different skyscrapers, high-rise stairs may be built between different skyscrapers, so people can go from one skyscraper to another skyscraper without going down and then up. to go.

These speculations seemed to be very reasonable and logical at the time.

But then the technology really developed, the reality is not the case.

Because people have equipped every skyscraper with elevators.

This is an example of the entire reasoning system being built on an absurd basis due to some small initial omissions, and absurd conclusions have been deduced.

"Based on the above two reasons, we do not speculate on the specific details of civilizations of different levels, but only make fundamental and basic inferences. This requires a judging standard as fair as possible, and a level benchmark. We have passed Analysis, and finally choose 'energy source mode' and 'navigation propulsion mode' as the yardstick."

"The source of energy determines the size of a civilization. Obviously, a civilization that uses controllable nuclear fusion as its main source of energy must have the ability to raise a larger population than a civilization that uses fossil energy as its main source of energy. They The scale of civilization will inevitably be larger.”

"The way of navigation and propulsion determines the territory of a civilization. Based on the fact that the interstellar space is too vast, the speed of navigation is the key to determining how much territory a civilization occupies, whether it occupies a planet, an entire star system, or many star systems Factors. However, the civilization that adopts the ion propulsion method must occupy a larger and wider territory than the civilization that uses the chemical energy propulsion method.”

"Secondly, each civilization may have its own set of civilization grading methods. It is very likely that there is no certain set of recognized systems in the universe. But the stronger the civilization, the more fair the grading must be. , the more credible it is. Because looking back is always more reliable than looking into the future.”

"Based on the above content, we have made the following classification."

"Level 0 civilization: primitive civilization. Including all civilizations that have not mastered the ability to navigate in low-Earth orbit. This level of civilization corresponds to the feudal era and before of our human civilization, and the early industrial age. This level of civilization is relatively fragile, and a major disaster will It can destroy the entire civilization. At the peak of the primitive civilization, the civilization could theoretically master the method of entering the planet's low-Earth orbit, and possess a certain degree of observation ability for the space it is in."

"Level 1 civilization: chemical civilization. Or called a planetary civilization. The main energy source of this level of civilization is fossil energy or chemical fuel, and the corresponding propulsion method is chemical fuel propulsion.

This level of civilization has been able to enter the low-earth orbit of the planet on a large scale, corresponding to the national era of our human civilization.

This level of civilization has a certain ability to fight against nature, and natural disasters are unlikely to destroy this level of civilization.

The most important feature of this level of civilization is that they have fully mastered chemical energy and chemical propulsion technology, can build hundreds or even thousands of tons of huge rockets, launch many loads into the near-Earth space, and even have the ability to control extremely distant The ability of the planet to carry out remote detection.

It should be pointed out that even if this level of civilization has mastered nuclear fission technology and has applied it to power generation, aircraft energy supply on a large scale, and has initially mastered ion propulsion technology, we still divide it into the category of level 1 civilization. It's just at the peak of level 1 civilization.

Because before mastering controllable nuclear fusion technology and the miniaturization of this technology, neither ion propulsion nor nuclear fission technology can bring subversive changes to this level of civilization.

The activity territory of this level of civilization is around the planet.They may have landed on nearby planets or moons, and the artificial satellites launched may have spread throughout the inner star system. "

"Level 2 civilization, fusion civilization, or star-level civilization. The main energy source of this level of civilization is controllable nuclear fusion, and the corresponding propulsion method is a small fusion reactor plus an efficient ion thruster.

At this stage, natural disasters, whether it is super-large volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, or asteroid impacts, can no longer destroy civilization.It can't even threaten this level of civilization.

This level of civilization has powerful interstellar navigation capabilities, and has the ability to more easily travel to and from different planets in the star system where it is located, and obtain the resource supply of the entire star system.

Because the activity range of this level of civilization can cover the entire star system, we can call it a star-level civilization.

This level of civilization probably corresponds to the peak period on the eve of the extinction of the old human civilization (about 2.05), or corresponds to us now (about 2.1).

At the peak of this level of civilization, the unmanned spacecraft they launched may have the ability to reach another star system across the light-year distance between the stars.But large-scale voyages across the stars are not yet possible.

The peak period of level 2 civilization can be roughly compared to the heyday of deep space civilization.Of course, the deep space civilization once completed the interstellar voyage from the Laland 21185 galaxy to the solar system, but during the voyage, they lost 99% of the population and 99% of the resources, which is obviously not a large-scale universal Sexual interstellar voyages should be classified as extreme cases.

Therefore, the heyday of deep space civilization is still the peak of level 2 civilization, and cannot be classified into the category of level 3 civilization. "

"Level 3 civilization, anti-matter civilization, or star cluster civilization.

This level of civilization has mastered the technology of large-scale industrial production and storage of antimatter, and has applied it to interstellar navigation on a large scale.It should be pointed out that the universal large-scale energy source of this level of civilization is very likely to be controllable nuclear fusion.Among them, antimatter actually assumes the role of 'energy storage' rather than the role of 'energy supply', just like a battery.

The energy storage efficiency per unit mass of antimatter, including the heat loss during the process, may reach 10-20 times that of unit mass fusion fuel.In this way, this level of civilization may rely on nuclear fusion as an energy source to produce antimatter on a large scale, and then use antimatter as the reserve energy of the spacecraft, and use this to launch long-distance interstellar voyages across the stars.

Because the ion propulsion method still has great potential to be tapped at the level 2 civilization stage, we believe that the ion propulsion method will still be the main propulsion method at the level 3 civilization stage.

Under sufficient energy supply, the ion flow ejected by the ion propulsion engine may reach 99% of the speed of light or even higher, endowing the spacecraft with higher acceleration.It even supports the spacecraft to reach the real sub-light speed and use it to sail between different stars.

Because the territory of this level of civilization activities can be as high as several or even a dozen stars, and in extreme cases, it may even be as high as hundreds of stars. We can call this level of civilization a star cluster level civilization. "

(End of this chapter)