Kardashev Scale: Civilizations as Energy Consumers
Kardashev Scale: Civilizations as Energy Consumers
In 1964, Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev asked a simple question: if we're searching for extraterrestrial intelligence, what should we look for?
His answer: power consumption.
A sufficiently advanced civilization, Kardashev reasoned, would be detectable by its energy signature. Civilizations don't