In 1964 Soviet astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev, searching for radio signals from alien civilizations, asked: how powerful would the signal of a civilization far more advanced than ours be? He proposed ranking civilizations by the energy they can harness: Type I (planet), Type II (star), Type III (galaxy). In 1973 Carl Sagan made the scale continuous, allowing decimal values like 0.73. Later authors, including Michio Kaku, imagined levels beyond III.
The scale measures power, energy per second, in watts. Sagan's formula is K = (log10 P − 6) / 10. Each level is about 10 billion times the previous one: the Sun emits 3.8 × 10²⁶ W, the Milky Way about 10³⁶ W. Underneath lies thermodynamics: every complex structure, a cell or a city, exists only while it transforms energy and releases heat. More complexity requires more ordered energy.
The scale is logarithmic: going from 0.7 to 0.8 does not mean 10% more, but ten times more energy. That is why humanity, despite huge progress, is still far from Type I: at current growth rates it would take about 100-200 years. The leap is not only technical: managing a whole planet's energy requires a civilization that coordinates like a single organism.
The scale is a ruler, but also a mirror. It asks whether we can grow without destroying ourselves: many Great Filter hypotheses suggest civilizations fail precisely on the way to Type I, through war, climate and resources. Climbing a level therefore means maturing: more power requires more wisdom, cooperation and responsibility.
Vertical axis: power in watts as a power of ten. Each step multiplies energy by about 10 billion.
K = (log₁₀ P − 6) / 10 · Carl Sagan, 1973
Types 0-III are Kardashev's original scale, IV-V are later hypotheses, VI-VII belong to the Omegamind universe.
Type 0 · Local resources
< 10¹⁶ WUses a small share of its planet's energy, mostly fossil fuels, wood and early renewables. It is divided into competing nations.
Type I · Planet
10¹⁶ WUses all the energy reaching its planet: sun, wind, tides, geothermal, fusion. It can influence climate, predict earthquakes, govern itself as one species.
Type II · Star
10²⁶ WCaptures its star's entire output, for example with a Dyson sphere or swarm. It colonizes its solar system and is practically immune to extinction.
Type III · Galaxy
10³⁶ WControls the energy of billions of stars and perhaps black holes. It spans an entire galaxy, with travel times of thousands of years.
Type IV · Universe
~10⁴⁶ WHypothetical level: uses the energy of the whole observable universe, perhaps even dark energy.
Type V · Multiverse
—Speculative: draws energy and knowledge from multiple parallel universes.
Type VI · Time
—Omegamind extension: it does not only use energy but bends the sequence of events, treating time as material.
Type VII · Creation
—Omegamind extension: consciousness becomes a generator of new physical laws and universes. It is the endpoint of the Architect's Chronicles.
730 narrative days taking a civilization from 0.72 to 7.0. Each chronicle records its Kardashev progress: reading them in order is climbing the scale.
Every civilization in the universe has a precise type and level, with energy source, social structure and crisis consistent with that step.
The manifesto reads the scale as an evolutionary law: a civilization rises only if it turns energy into shared order, not domination.
Readers have a level too: reads, archetypes and contributions advance the evolutionary profile along the same steps.
Every card carries a K level: the higher, the rarer and stronger, but balance rewards synergy, not just power.
Humanity at 0.73 is in the most fragile passage. Omegamind exists to spread the thinking that helps us cross it: cooperation instead of competition.