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00:00 Cast your mind out into space and visualize what might be happening.
00:04 In the distant realms of the Milky Way, a thriving Type Three civilization dances with
00:08 the energy of a thousand suns.
00:11 The inhabitants of this colossal society spread across many, perhaps even millions of planets.
00:16 They harness the power of all of the stars under their gaze.
00:19 Dyson Spheres envelop entire suns like cosmic orbs, capturing energy on an unimaginable
00:25 scale and siphoning it all the way to exactly where it needs to be.
00:29 Enormous structures, impossible to our eyes, bridge the void between worlds.
00:34 Hyper-advanced links form an interconnected web of dazzling highways.
00:38 The Type Three beings that live there wield technologies indistinguishable from magic.
00:44 Mind reading, teleportation, telekinesis, the creation of matter from nothing.
00:49 They can do it all.
00:51 Artificial intelligence orchestrates the harmony of their lives, maintaining whole planetary
00:55 ecosystems, guiding infinite fleets of self-replicating spacecraft, and honing the individual body
01:02 of every person there into an indestructible, immortal, super-powered vessel for the mind.
01:08 Virtual realities, as intricate as the fabric of the universe itself, offer immersive experiences
01:13 that transcend the boundaries of the waking world.
01:16 And perhaps even the multiverse is known and explored, as even time itself falls under
01:21 their spell.
01:22 But from our point of view as lowly human beings, the main question is an easy one.
01:27 Is any of it even possible?
01:29 A Type Three civilization is born of the Kardashev Scale, an influential framework first proposed
01:34 by the Soviet astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev in 1964.
01:39 It ranks civilizations based on their ability to harness and manipulate energy.
01:43 At Type One, it's all the available energy on its home planet.
01:47 Mastery over weather, seismic activity, and sustainable energy sources are key.
01:52 And it's the first major level that we human beings are busily inching towards at the moment.
01:57 At Type Two, it's all about stellar domination.
02:00 Advancing beyond planetary bounds, a Type Two civilization extracts energy directly
02:05 from its closest star.
02:07 Most likely, they build a Dyson Sphere, a megastructure that surrounds that star to
02:12 ensure that every single unit of energy it emits is held and used.
02:16 For this video, we're most interested in the specifics of Type Three, which we'll
02:20 get to imminently… but for context.
02:23 And although Type Three was the original zenith as Kardashev himself viewed it, there have
02:27 since been higher levels suggested, including Type Four, which extends its influence across
02:32 the entire universe, manipulating the fabric of space-time, and Type Five, which would
02:37 move even higher and into the multiverse.
02:40 Of course, all of this is theoretical, but Type Three still sets itself apart as something
02:44 of a pinnacle within the model, as it arguably does still retain a good degree of plausibility.
02:50 You don't necessarily need to imagine what would essentially be a "god of all things"
02:54 for it to be possible, as per Type Four.
02:56 You don't need to subscribe to the various multiverse theories to allow for it, as per
03:00 Type Five.
03:02 And yet, its scope far, far surpasses even Type Two.
03:05 In galactic terms, Type Threes have got it made.
03:09 A true Type Three civilization sweeps through an entire galaxy.
03:13 If it were local to us, that would mean full dominion over the Milky Way.
03:17 An average-sized spiral galaxy, but still one that's up to 200,000 light-years across,
03:22 and potentially contains more than 400 billion separate stars.
03:26 Type Three is an unfathomable joggernaut, but probably built around certain key technologies.
03:32 For one, Dyson spheres and swarms.
03:35 Again, these would capture all the radiant energy of all the stars under Type Three control.
03:41 They would work something like a blanket of cosmic engineering, most likely linking one
03:45 star to the next to the next, all to run everything else that a Type Three does.
03:50 Most notably, intergalactic travel.
03:53 Traversing vast cosmic distances with ease, via wormholes, warp drives, or other exotic
03:59 propulsion systems.
04:00 Only once intergalactic travel is invented could a group ever hope to gain full control
04:05 over their own galactic realm.
04:07 The distances at play would simply be too vast otherwise.
04:10 With massive energy capture and intensely high-speed travel in place, we can begin to
04:15 picture what life would be like on the ground.
04:18 Planet-wide cities, known as Ecumenopolises, built to host all manner of lifeforms, all
04:24 under their shared Type Three identity.
04:27 All would boast the mastery of quantum computing, at least, enabling them to gather information
04:32 at a staggering pace.
04:33 Some foresee a "hive mind", or collective consciousness at this stage, perhaps powered
04:38 by the principles of quantum entanglement - meaning that every Type Three being would,
04:42 or should, know everything about everything as standard.
04:46 From some perspectives, this should mean a paradise, with planets and moons individually
04:51 transformed into precisely whatever it is that will allow them to thrive.
04:55 Large-scale ecological engineering.
04:58 All-encompassing knowledge and contentedness.
05:00 A limitless energy structure.
05:02 And yet, there would still be questions to answer and problems to solve.
05:06 How does a Type Three group truly ensure freedom and fairness for all?
05:10 What ethical considerations guide the decisions of a society with such immeasurably vast power?
05:15 How can a Type Three know that whatever it does is for the best?
05:19 Or does that no longer even matter?
05:21 For some, these conundrums alone are why a Type Three actually might not be possible.
05:26 Sure, all or most of the envisioned "tech" itself could be doable, given enough time
05:31 and advancement… but would anything ever be able to manage all that it would bring?
05:35 For example, with the energy at its heart.
05:38 Ensuring equal distribution would be paramount… but would it really happen?
05:42 In reality, might a Type Three fall at the first hurdle, when it allows some to have
05:47 more than others?
05:48 The potential issue of galactic diplomacy is another that many - speculators and sci-fi
05:53 writers alike - believe could prove a bridge too far.
05:57 Consider just the international politics of Earth, and the many tensions that it triggers.
06:01 Now multiply those issues by a few billion, and add the potential meeting with another
06:06 Type Three force from another galaxy, and it's a sure bet that there will be arguments,
06:10 fights, and wars.
06:12 And with the prospect of war meaning Type Three weapons aimed from planet to planet,
06:17 that more than likely means that any disagreement would have extinction-level consequences.
06:21 In this way, the question of whether or not Type Threes really exist can be viewed as
06:25 a debate on the so-called "Great Filter" - the idea that there's something that all
06:30 or most of life simply cannot get past, and so it dies out before it.
06:35 It could be that the Great Filter is specifically tied into technological advancement, suggesting
06:40 that no matter how smart any one group gets, they will eventually obliterate themselves.
06:45 It's already feared that lowly humanity may have already flown close to this point.
06:50 So, what are the chances that a Type Three could ever navigate hundreds of thousands,
06:54 perhaps even millions of years' worth of more tech evolution?
06:58 Perhaps those chances are as good as zero.
06:59 It is impossible to get that far.
07:02 Back in the here and now, and despite the allure of the Kardashev Scale, it remains
07:06 difficult to argue that the higher levels of it will ever be reached - by humankind
07:10 or by anything else.
07:12 Today, we have initiatives such as SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence)
07:16 and Breakthrough Listen, constantly scanning the skies for signs of life… but so far,
07:21 nothing.
07:22 We know that our universe is 13.8 billion years old, and we strongly suspect that there
07:27 must be alien life out there.
07:29 That remains true.
07:30 But if something as large and influential as a Type Three alien existed, then for many,
07:35 it's something that we should've detected by now.
07:37 Of course, that said, only part of the universe is ever observable to us… and thanks to
07:42 universal expansion, that part is getting smaller and smaller by the second.
07:46 And even in just the observable universe, no matter how extensively we think we've
07:50 looked it over, there is still massively more that we don't know about it than do.
07:55 We imagine Dyson Spheres and wormholes, etc., for a Type Three civilization, based on the
08:00 science and knowledge that we do have… but that's not to say that they would operate
08:04 in exactly that way.
08:06 Or even in any way close.
08:07 For now, we're yet to capture a signal that unequivocally points to a Type Three group.
08:12 We're also yet to discover inarguable proof that aliens in general do exist.
08:18 But what do you think?
08:19 Was Nikolai Kardashev onto something when he first laid out his scale in the mid-1960s?
08:24 Or in reality, would a super-advanced group work totally differently to the star-conquering
08:29 cosmic dominators that Kardashev imagines?