Kardashev’s Civilisation Scale

Back in 1964 astronomer Kardashev categorized civilisation based on power consumption. The scale regards energy consumption on a cosmic scale.

Type 0: subglobal Culture

A civilisation that harnesses the intrinsic power of existing resources within our planet earth but whose influence does not extend beyond home planet. Chemical propulsion being sole means of planetary travel and so infrequent that civilsation is confined to its planetary perimeter. We will only transition to Type 1 civilsation once we explore planetary system and completely control energy of our home planet. From Type I to reach Type 3 when we would be able to use entire Milky Way’s energy it would take us millions of years.

 

Type I: Planetary Culture
Civilization utilizes all available resources on home planet and can harness entire world’s energy output (10^15 watts for planet Earth). 

We are estimated to reach this stage in 100-200 years.

Type II: Stellar Culture
Civilization can harness the energy of its star (in Earth’s case, 10^26 watts). This could resemble Star Trek’s Federation of Planets.

We are a few thousand years of evolution away from this society.

Type III: Galactic Culture
Civilization harnesses an entire galaxy’s energy output (hundreds of billions of stars and around 10 billion times the output of a Type II civilization). The whole galaxy is colonized and society can travel across interstellar space, inhabiting countless planets. 

This civilization is 100,000-1,000,000 years more advanced than Type 0.

As per Kardashev’s Scale currently our civilisation stands at Type 0.