RE: Will we witness the transition from a type 0 to a type I civilization in 100 years?
May 10, 2013 at 2:04 pm
(May 9, 2013 at 12:11 pm)Luminox Wrote: Michio Kaku argues that we will reach a type I civilization in approximately 100 years (based on calculations, which are not mentioned in the video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n-tTst-vyQ
Do you think that mankind will reach this higher level within a century?
This is an old idea. I first came across it in the 70s in an Analog SF article.
There have always been Luddites but they have never succeeded.
But the answer is we will have the knowledge to do within a century almost certainly. The means to implement it may take centuries simply because of the construction involved. No one is suggesting it will happen by magic. It will have to be done with physical objects of a size commensurate to the task. Using the power of a hurricane will have to be something huge beyond anything ever conceived. Perhaps to huge to be considered worth the effort. Similarly using their energy before they start would take require structures covering thousands of square miles all over the tropical oceans of the world.
More pratically having the energy equivalent of the entire earth by some other means such as fusion is much more likely. And there the construction cost and time to construct can be put into every day terms just like coal power plants today.
And the motivation for doing all this? We have to find a use for all that energy before anyone is going to build anything. Given all the energy in the world what could you do with it? Convert it to electricity? How? What is the application for it? Making things in millions of unbuilt factories?
As with most theoretical ideas it all defaults to the engineering and economics.
