Are we ever to become a Type III civilization?

[Phynx]

Re: Are we ever to become a Type III civilization?

I dunno, don't cut down humans ability to improve just yet. We're driven by innovation so based on that philosophy we're bound(if we survive by our own hands) to become Type I+ at any point in time. There are many mediums we have yet to explore in terms of improving critical systems to their maximums. Of course we could be eons away from the research being done to discover these "mediums" potential usages but hey, we'll get there one way or another.

This is going out on a far limb but maybe even a more advanced civilization will show us some new tricks one day. :P

[awein999]

Re: Are we ever to become a Type III civilization?

If we can get to type II we should eventually be able to get to type III if it is indeed possible. The path to type II is long and arduous and it is probably very unlikely for us to progress that far . But if we do make it to type II we are not going to destroy ourselves from that point on.

[PlayTrumpet]

Re: Are we ever to become a Type III civilization?

I remember stumbling upon this a while ago. My personal guess is that we won't be able to reach Type II due to lack of resources/technology and/or we will have died out before we do.

[EzExZeRo7497]

Re: Are we ever to become a Type III civilization?

We can reach Type I, probably in around 400-1,200 years time. If humans are able to reach other planets, it'll be Type I, hands down.
Type II? I don't think we can exist for that long?
Type III? Impossible.

[Reach]

Re: Are we ever to become a Type III civilization?

Highly unlikely.

Sadly it looks like it's going to be unlikely a cheap and easy way of FTL travel will ever develop. This makes reaching Type 3 impossible.

It essentially makes Type 2 impossible as well. At the rate we're going, we'll probably deplete all of our current resources we have left on Earth in around 1000 years. This of course doesn't factor in other energy resources we rely on in the future, but between gas, coal and nuclear, we have a pretty limited supply.

There's simply not enough to sustain us for long periods of time, and with the inability to quickly move from solar system to solar system, this pretty much caps our production capacity. It is going to make it nearly impossible to engage in intergalactic travel because it is going to be too expensive and too impractical to gather the resources and time necessary to make the trip. We'll be too concerned with our own survival here at that point through alternative energy forms.

[Reincarnate]

Re: Are we ever to become a Type III civilization?

Yeah, interstellar/intergalactic travel is the biggie IMO. The distances between stars and galaxies are simply too vast. I feel like the only civilizations capable of making the leap to that kind of travel are those who are already in solar systems that have won the lottery: Having multiple inhabitable planets within reasonable distances.

Either that or we figure out wormhole technology if wormholes are even possible. While wormholes may be viable solutions to Einstein's equations, that doesn't mean they exist.

[Reach]

Re: Are we ever to become a Type III civilization?

Yeah, interstellar/intergalactic travel is the biggie IMO. The distances between stars and galaxies are simply too vast. I feel like the only civilizations capable of making the leap to that kind of travel are those who are already in solar systems that have won the lottery: Having multiple inhabitable planets within reasonable distances.

Either that or we figure out wormhole technology if wormholes are even possible. While wormholes may be viable solutions to Einstein's equations, that doesn't mean they exist.

Well, assuming they exist and can be made, even then that doesn't necessarily imply they can be made cheaply and easily, which will be the ultimate factor here. Given how much resource it takes to simply take a shuttle into orbit now, I can only imagine how much we would need to invest into a worm hole trip.

It might be a one time deal, or something we do only for colonization, and at that point the planning and the money you would need to put into it would again put a huge cap on our energy resources (we're not talking billion dollar investments anymore, moving that many people we're talking trillions).


There's just nowhere readily feasible to get the energy we would need for such a thing. We'd have to hope we can perform some sort of magic voodoo in the future and tap directly into zero point energy while violating conservation of energy or something, because every other alternative is going to turn up pretty much moot in respect to FTL travel D:

Fusion/antimatter rockets could reach *near* c speeds, but that's not going to get us past Type 1. Sure, it might help us survive, but even then, distant planets are going to take generations to reach and people will have to be cryogenically frozen until arrival...by the time they get there everyone on Earth would be gone themselves or dead, preventing advancement to the next civilization type yet again.


tldr; unless a miracle happens, we'll be lucky to scrape past Type 1.

[Reincarnate]

Re: Are we ever to become a Type III civilization?

Yeah, apparently to open and maintain the throat of a wormhole 1 meter in diameter, you'd need a negative mass (exotic matter) the size of Jupiter.

[ffraxis]

Re: Are we ever to become a Type III civilization?

we are not even half way to type I.

maybe in a couple millennium if we don't kill ourselves first and work together.

also quick reference: people do not have the capability to harness an element like hydrogen to the maximum potential yet, let alone travel through space at speeds equal to or less then light speed.

technically if you can move space around you through some x factor that i do not know about, you could travel faster than light speed.

but seriously we gotta fix up earth before accomplishing any of this, otherwise whats the point? we go around the universe and start shitting everything up