Nizka's Notes 1 (Patreon)

Xenoanthropology - Scales

Traditional attempts to chart the development of civilizations have relied upon tiered systems, usually ones which categorize a society’s technological achievements in stages. This has the effect of creating something of a ‘ranking system’ for all civilizations, intentionally or otherwise. It is also where the entire enterprise falls apart, at least in my considered opinion.

The classic Kardashev scale, for instance, proposes that a civilization’s progress can be measured best by its ability to technologically harness energy from its environment. This begins with simple measures, like agriculture, and proceeds to industrialized power and production on the planetary scale.

Eventually, the idea is that an advancing society must move beyond its world of origin in pursuit of more power. It envisions energy consumption increasing from a planetary to a stellar model, and then a cosmic one, with “Dyson shell” constructions ultimately enshrouding countless suns, absorbing all their heat and light for millions of years to come.

This scale cannot, however, be readily applied to the methods by which civilizations actually develop, given their varied circumstances. In the first place, despite an ever-increasing demand, efficiency of application could (and often has) render the consumption of so much power totally unnecessary.

The best example of this is the often-proposed Dyson shell itself – the effort involved to actually cover a star in solar collection engineering would require staggering resources, and so much effort that any civilization capable of constructing a Dyson shell would not need one. Harnessing a star so completely would simply take more than anyone could possibly get out of it.

There exist no known beings at any stage of development actively pursuing the top hypothetical tier on the Kardashev scale for any reason; even if you somehow acquired control of all the energy in the universe, after all, the achievement would have no application for intelligent life in its presently-understood forms.

I must, therefore, study up and devise a new classification system. I, as well as academics everywhere, have need of one which categorizes phases these phases of societal development in a manner more practical for my purposes.

I intend to foster universal understanding between all beings and achieve an A+ average in fifth grade, so I’d better get started now.

- Nizka