Think Type 1 Civilization
Let's
take a quick stroll through history. Civilizations have generally
advanced when radically new ways of communicating and sharing ideas have
emerged. One of the first major advances occurred when mankind learned
to speak. People started to gather togther and socialize around the
campfire. Tribes began to emerge and form. Civilization on Earth was
born.
This
was followed many centuries later by the next major advancement, the
creation of the written word. This in turn led to the start of commerce
and the creation of the first nation-states, e.g. Egypt, Greece, China.
Over the next many centuries, ships and roads allowed commerce to spread
and written ideas to be communicated and shared with others across
great distances. Civilization continued to slowly but steadily advance.
Jump
forward a thousand years through the Dark Ages to the 1400's and the
invention of the printing press. Knowledge and ideas were able to be
shared on a much wider scale than ever before. The Bible and many other
great works were suddenly available to more than just the select few.
The pace of innovation and change around the world began to slowly pick
up speed. Kingdoms started falling and the Protestant Reformation
radically disrupted civilization and the status quo.
Then
came the 1800's and the invention of the steam engine and the
telegraph. Steamboats and steam powered trains allowed ideas,
information, and goods to be shared faster. The telegraph allowed
communication to really speed up. These inventions set the stage for the
transition from the Agricultural Age to the Industrial Age of the 20th
century.
The
first half of the 1900's saw the invention and mass production of cars,
airplanes, electricity, telephones, the radio, and television. The pace
of innovation accelerated and all aspects of our civilization were
disrupted as new ideas, inventions, information and knowledge were
shared as never before. The stage was set for the transition into the
Information Age of the 21st century and globalization.
Computers,
digital telecommunications, software, fiber optics, satellites,
robotics, the Internet, nanotechnology and so much more are all
contributing to the quantum leap forward we are now in the process of
taking together, sharing information and knowledge on a global scale.
Innovation and the rate of change continues to increase with each
passing day.
Today,
someone can come up with a new idea, share it with millions on the
Internet, and see the idea rapidly transformed into action and reality
within days or weeks. Something that
took decades if not centuries to ocurr can now happen almost overnight.
Talk about a dramatic change of pace! But you ain't seen nothing yet.
Are
we prepared for where this is taking us all? Probably not. Are we ready
for the death of nation states? For every human having the ability to
access all the world's knowlege? Having the capability to replace body
organs and living for many hundreds of years, tapping into unlimited
sources of energy, colonizing other planets in our solar system, and...
A Type 0 civilization extracts
its energy, information, raw-materials from crude organic-based sources
(i.e. food/wood/fossil fuel/books/oral tradition); pressures via natural disaster, natural selection, and societal collapse creates extreme risk of extinction; it's capable of orbital spaceflight;
societies that fail to improve
social, environmental and medical understanding concurrently with other
advancements, frequently accelerated their own extinction.
A Type I civilization extracts
its energy, information, and raw-materials from fusion power, hydrogen,
and other "high-density" renewable-resources; is capable of interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary communication, megascale engineering, and interplanetary colonization, medical and technological singularity, planetary engineering, world government and trade, and stellar system-scale influence; but are still vulnerable to possible extinction
A Type III civilization extracts fusion energy, information, and raw-materials from all possible star-clusters; it's capable of intergalactic travel via wormholes and intergalactic communication, galactic engineering and galaxy-scale influence.
A Type IV civilization extracts
energy, information, and raw-materials from all possible galaxies; it's
effectively immortal and omnipotent with universal-scale influence,
possessing the ability of theoretical time travel and instantaneous
matter-energy transformation and teleportation, moving entire asteroid
belts and stars, creating alternate timelines, ...
We
are facing the need to revisit and redefine our purpose as humans and
the world we live in as we continue to transition into a more advanced
Type 1 civilization during the remainder of the 21st century. [Fast forward to 2020 and the global COVID-19 pandemic. The questions and predictions just described are even more pertinent.]
What are some of the basic questions we need to be asking ourselves right now? How do we incorporate and strengthen
our faith in God as we continue to transition to a Type 1 civilization?
Think about this and share your constructive ideas with us.
* Check out this video by Michio Kaku: The Birth-Pangs of a Planetary Civilization
