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00:00The observable universe is about 93 billion light-years in diameter.
00:05Light from the farthest galaxies we can see has taken 13.8 billion years to reach us.
00:12For a Type 4 civilization, though, it's all in a day's work.
00:18What would you do with the power of the cosmos?
00:27In 1964, the Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev devised a way to measure how advanced a civilization
00:33is.
00:34It became known as the Kardashev Scale, and it theorizes that because civilizations tend
00:39to need more energy the more they grow, we can measure how advanced a society is by measuring
00:43the amount of energy they're able to harness.
00:46Kardashev originally foresaw three levels of advancement – Type 1, Type 2, and Type
00:513 civilizations.
00:53Since then, however, his scale has been extended by others, and more levels have been added
00:57– including Type 0, 4, and 5… with some speculating about even Type 6, which would
01:03be far, far beyond what even Kardashev thought possible.
01:07Today, our focus is Type 4, which is seen by some as potentially the last stop for progression.
01:12So, what can a Type 4 civilization do?
01:15For starters, they can do everything that Types 1, 2, and 3 can.
01:19A Type 1 civilization is able to fully harness the energy of its home planet and enjoy complete
01:25control over it.
01:26For humanity, that would mean being able to build cities on the ocean, to perfectly manage
01:30Earth's weather, and being able to predict and even prevent natural disasters like volcanic
01:35eruptions, earthquakes, and hurricanes.
01:37A Type 2 civilization can do all of that, but also harness the full energy of its home
01:42star, which is the sun in our case.
01:44Now, humanity would have a megastructure like a Dyson Sphere around the sun to gather all
01:49of its energy, and we'd also likely have bases on multiple solar system planets.
01:54Type 3 would be even more advanced, harnessing not only its home star and planet, but all
01:58of the stars and planets in its galaxy.
02:01Long-distance, interstellar space travel would almost certainly have been invented, as, for
02:05us, we'd have branches of humanity scattered across the Milky Way.
02:09The physicist Michio Kaku has previously compared a Type 3 civilization to something like the
02:14Star Wars universe.
02:16But then comes Type 4, where we would be doing all those things, and more.
02:20A Type 4 civilization can not only harness all of the power in its home galaxy, but of
02:25the entire universe.
02:27In terms of energy potential, we're in the big, big leagues now.
02:31But how much energy is in the universe?
02:33Actually, many physicists would argue that the total energy in the universe equals out
02:37to, well, zero.
02:39This is due to the presence of positive and negative energy throughout the cosmos, and
02:43a predicted balance between the two.
02:45No one knows the amount of positive energy there is, but it's theorised that there
02:49is enough negative energy to match it.
02:51None of that would really matter to a Type 4 civilization, though, as it would be able
02:55to identify and use to its advantage all energy in every form.
02:59That's including the so-far ultra-mysterious dark energy.
03:02We're basically talking unlimited power here.
03:06Were humanity to reach this level, then our civilization will have spread out across the
03:09entire universe, collecting, recycling and repurposing all of the energy from every single
03:14planet and star in every single star system in every single galaxy as efficiently as possible.
03:21We would have a complete map of the universe, although probably an ultra-futuristic map
03:25digitally stored in our collective minds, rather than the 2D paper maps of today…
03:30and we would know the location of every star and planet, and be able to travel to and from
03:34them with ease.
03:36Galaxies, in this world, would be viewed more like how we see towns, cities and countries
03:41today.
03:42Different, yes, but easy to visit.
03:44We'd also have as clear as possible an understanding of what other life exists in the universe
03:48and where.
03:50The steady search for extraterrestrial intelligence would no doubt still run in the background,
03:54but we will have essentially completed it.
03:56For a Type 4 society, all aliens are known and nothing is unknown.
04:01A Type 4 civilization would have many different forms of technology at its disposal, too.
04:06Most of them, for us as we are, at around 0.7 on the Kardashev Scale, are impossible
04:11to predict… but some form of faster-than-light travel would, by this stage, be a given.
04:16Which means it would take us next to no time to travel through space.
04:20But it could possibly go further than that, with Type 4 humanity able to manipulate space-time
04:25to its will, and access time travel.
04:28The logistics of time travel are famously difficult to comprehend, to the point that
04:32some believe it might not ever be possible purely because of the numerous paradoxes and
04:36dangers it entails.
04:38If it is to ever be possible, though, then a Type 4 civilization would probably have
04:43it.
04:44Teleportation is a different, slightly more feasible matter, however.
04:47It already exists in the quantum world, so it doesn't feel like too big a stretch that
04:51a far-future society, one with a whole universe's worth of energy, should have developed it
04:56for use in the macro-world… with whole human beings, whole animals, whole skyscrapers getting
05:01zapped from one place to another.
05:03In fact, the advent of teleportation might even prove to be what pushes Type 3 humanity
05:08into Type 4… because it would be the thing which allows humans to visit other planets
05:13or galaxies, to travel a universe in an instant.
05:16Before teleportation, we will have relied on traditional, physical travel.
05:20After teleportation, even the most advanced of spaceships might not be needed, and the
05:25entire cosmos opens up to us.
05:27Taking vacations in the Andromeda Galaxy might be a common occurrence for a Type 4 being
05:32based in the solar system, in the Milky Way… but, really, there's nothing to say that
05:36any Type 4 humans would still live in this particular region of space.
05:40Say, in the future, we really do get to Type 4… by that time the solar system could have
05:44changed completely.
05:46And it might only be remembered as a kind of homeland, rather than anywhere we actually
05:50lived anymore.
05:51And, as we stretched further and further away, we might have made homes on more than just
05:55the billions and billions of planets out there.
05:58A civilization this advanced might even be living inside, or close to, stellar, supermassive
06:04or ultramassive black holes.
06:06We'd almost certainly be living in extremely close proximity to stars, at least, on the
06:10Dyson Spheres and swarms that would encircle them.
06:13Type 4 humanity will have mastered the universe and everything in it… even the things, like
06:18black holes, which are totally mysterious to us today.
06:21So, nothing would be off-limits.
06:23Although many of these potential feats feel like they belong firmly in the realm of science
06:27fiction, there are some who believe that Type 4 civilizations could already exist… with
06:32evidence supposedly found in the giant voids in space that we already know about, like
06:36the CMB Cold Spot.
06:38This Cold Spot is more than three billion light-years across, and can't easily be
06:42explained away by modern theories on the universe… but there are various suggestions that it
06:47could be evidence of parallel universes, which are then seen as proof that another advanced
06:52civilization is on the outside looking in, and affecting our universe in some way.
06:57If such a civilization really were to exist, then it will have actually gone beyond Type
07:024 and into Type 5 on the Kardashev Scale… meaning, even an all-knowing Type 4 humanity
07:07would have some limits placed upon it.
07:09But nevertheless, there would still be nothing left to discover in our universe, and nothing
07:13left to explore.
07:14So, if this was our limit, perhaps we as a species could die quite happily.
07:19But would we actually need to?
07:21Probably not.
07:22In fact, there are a number of different ways that a Type 4 civilization could become basically
07:27immortal.
07:28For one, its sheer prevalence in the universe would better its chances of never dying out.
07:32Short of a universe-wide disaster, like vacuum decay, extinction events just wouldn't be
07:37as terminal to a Type 4 species as a whole.
07:40Meanwhile, a Type 4 human might well be individually immortal, too.
07:44It's thought highly likely that, by this stage, technology will have reached a point
07:48where we'd be either partly or fully cyborg, with our minds implanted into synthetic bodies
07:53to prevent ageing.
07:55And even if we still had organic bodies, they will have been enhanced to the point of invincibility.
08:00It would be a good thing, then, that we'd have the whole universe at our disposal, because
08:03before long, we would definitely need the space.
08:07Overall, Type 4 humankind would be an all-powerful master species, living all across the universe
08:12as we know it, harnessing all of its energy, living close to forever, and probably manipulating
08:17the very laws of space-time itself to suit any purpose we like.
08:21It wouldn't be a bad life, would it?
08:23And it's difficult to imagine that anything more advanced than Type 4 could even be theorized…
08:28but it has been.
08:30And some do consider the possibility of a Type 5 civilization, covering for those hypothetical,
08:35outside-looking-in creatures mentioned earlier.
08:38Such beings would not only have mastered their own universe, but also the proposed multiverse
08:42as well.
08:43They'll have essentially achieved godhood, as they play with the fundamental rules of
08:47physics and nature to create multiple versions of their own, customised universes… maybe
08:52just for fun.
08:53But you'll have to check out our other video to find out what it would be like if humans
08:57ever reached that point.
08:59In the meantime, we still have a long way to go before we even begin to significantly
09:02conquer the Kardashev Scale… but that's what would happen if humanity was a Type 4
09:07civilization.
09:08What do you think?
09:09Is there anything we missed?
09:10Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
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