Category
š¹
FunTranscript
00:00At first, Type 3 was the highest possible level on the famed Kardashev Scale, but since
00:06the days of its inception, the scale has been added too, and most now accept that Type 5
00:12is the true upper limit.
00:14A civilization at this level has full mastery over the total mystery and enigma of the multiverse.
00:21Their power is so vast and extreme, that according to some interpretations, it may even be they
00:28who made us, the Type 5s who created humankind.
00:36As arguably the most famous theorized model for advanced civilization there is, the Kardashev
00:41Scale needs little introduction.
00:43But we're going to zoom through the basics to recap, just in case.
00:47First proposed by the Soviet astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev in the 1960s, it means to
00:52measure the advancement of civilizations based on the amount of energy they could theoretically
00:57harness.
00:58The original Kardashev Scale had three levels, or types.
01:01A Type 1 civilization can harness all the energy of its home planet.
01:05For Type 2, it's all the energy of its home star system.
01:09And for Type 3, it's all the energy of its home galaxy.
01:13Later versions of the scale, however, added a Type 4, which is all the energy of the universe,
01:17and also a Type 5ā¦ which is what we're most interested in today.
01:22Accepting that a Type 5 civilization could exist requires many moves away from the more
01:27conventional ways of understanding reality.
01:29That's because a Type 5 can harness all the energy from multiple universes.
01:34In other words, it holds all the energy of the multiverse.
01:38Briefly put, the multiverse is the idea that this universe isn't the only universe in
01:43existence.
01:44It may well be crammed full of planets and stars and galaxies and everything we've
01:48ever knownā¦ but the general multiverse theory says that there are many more just like it.
01:54And a Type 5 on the Kardashev Scale is a civilization so advanced that it exists on
01:59a high enough plane to see and access all of it.
02:02In our minds, a Type 5 is akin to a god.
02:06It's all-seeing and all-powerful.
02:08And while there are some theories that the Kardashev Scale could be extended further
02:12still to Type 6 and beyond, for this video, we're imagining there's nothing else above
02:185.
02:19You've reached that point, and you truly have completed the game of not just life,
02:23but reality.
02:24What would a Type 5's existence mean for us, though?
02:28Humans are usually calculated as having reached just 0.7 on the Kardashev Scale to get to
02:33this point.
02:34We haven't even fully mastered our own planet yet, and according to some more cynical worldviews,
02:40we might never get past Kardashev Type 1.
02:43Type 5 will always be almost incomprehensibly far away from us, then.
02:48So much so that some theories suggest that we could be under its control.
02:54The shape and form of a Type 5 is something that no one can really agree upon.
02:58In that way, it's again like how we tend to picture gods.
03:02In most basic pop culture depictions, gods are shown as though they exist above the clouds,
03:08taking up a position that mere human eyes can never get to see.
03:12And from there, they're able to pull the strings of life on Earth.
03:16But it's also often said that God is all around us, or inside us.
03:20There's a metaphysical quality to God, as though divine entities exist outside of the
03:25conventional laws of physics, time, and matter.
03:29Again, a similar description could be given to a Type 5 being.
03:34They don't so much have to obey the laws of physics or nature, they are the laws of
03:39physics and nature.
03:40We can quite confidently say, then, that if a Type 5 does exist, then humans will likely
03:46never recognise it for what it is.
03:49The distance between us and the top of the Kardashev Scale is just too vast.
03:54But if we look hard enough, might we find hints to its existence?
03:58In some ways, this is what we're trying to do whenever we search for alien life.
04:02So far, across all of human history, there's no record of any life other than the life
04:07on this planet.
04:08But were we to finally discover an extraterrestrial presence somewhere, then we'd know that
04:13our way isn't the only way.
04:15We'd know that other civilizations and other civilization types were, without a doubt,
04:20possible.
04:21It's why, should we ever find one alien world, many scientists predict that we would
04:25more quickly find a second, a third, and more.
04:28Our understanding, at least, of our place in the universe will have moved up a level,
04:32which would force our technological development to catch up, to push us into the higher brackets
04:37of the Kardashev Scale.
04:39Then the thinking would be, if we can get to Type One or Type Two, then why not Types
04:43Three, Four, or even Five?
04:46The fabled fifth level would seem to us much less of a, well, fable.
04:50Instead, it would feel like a goal waiting to be achieved.
04:53Sure, it could take us literally billions of years to get there, and we might need to
04:58change our physical being in the meantimeā¦ but we'd more firmly believe that it was
05:02possible.
05:04But for now, we still haven't discovered alien life, nor any civilizations that are
05:08more or even less advanced than our own.
05:11So, where else could we go hunting for glimpses of a Type Five truth?
05:16We could try searching for the equivalent of the miracles that feature so prominently
05:20in some religionsā¦ or we could await with faith the arrival of some sort of Type Five
05:25disciple or prophet onto Earth itself.
05:28A Type Five being would absolutely be capable of travelling anywhere within the multiverseā¦
05:33and wherever it was, it would always hold the total knowledge of the multiverse within
05:38itself.
05:39If, for some reason, it chose to manifest all of that into human form, then we'd have
05:43our prophet.
05:44Whether or not the rest of humankind would believe someone who claims to have come from
05:48a Type Five world, though, is an altogether different matter.
05:52Failing that, miracle-like events could be our only real sign that our Type Five overlords
05:57were watching.
05:58But even then, would we, humans, really know or understand when a miracle was happening?
06:04Say a Type Five power generously redirected an asteroid on the outskirts of Andromeda
06:09so that it was no longer in line to strike usā¦ we'd never realise that the momentous
06:14event had never taken place.
06:16Equally, were a Type Five to have stepped in behind the scenes at the time of the Big
06:20Bang to ensure that conditions were just right for, say, oxygen on Earthā¦ then we'd simply
06:25never know that that had ever happened.
06:28These things would all be taking place many planes of reality above our own, and would
06:33therefore fail to register down here on our lonely planet.
06:37But finally, if our continued existence really was reliant on the far-off actions of a higher
06:42power, then what if those actions were to grind to a halt?
06:46What if the miracles stopped?
06:48Perhaps the scariest part of imagining a Kardashev Type Five is the realisation of just how insignificant
06:54Earth and human beings probably are to it.
06:57Consider that there could be trillions of planets in our universe, and that this universe
07:01would be one of many under its powerā¦ then why would it pay particularly close attention
07:06to us at all?
07:08Why should we ever hope to find proof of a Type Five's existence when we amount to
07:12just a single grain of sand along the endless beach of its own reality?
07:18If we are the creation of a Type Five civilisation, then our insignificance could ultimately be
07:23twofold.
07:25That creator will have created so much before and since us that they may never look in our
07:30direction again.
07:32In their minds, our planet is buried beneath billions of others, kept in a universe amongst
07:37millions more, and irretrievable unless there was ever a particular reason to dig it back
07:42out again.
07:43Second, while we generally consider life on Earth to be special, given that it's the
07:48only life we ourselves know aboutā¦ that more than likely wouldn't be the case at
07:52Type Five.
07:54And the 300,000 years or so of the modern human could feasibly amount to a footnote
07:59on a footnote, in their own recordsā¦ unless, of course, the opposite is true, and life
08:05is so rare and unique that our universe, holding our planet, is actually treasured by Type
08:11Five.
08:12It's certainly a more optimistic view to takeā¦ perhaps what's really happening
08:16is they peer down upon us.
08:18They see us chiselling out our unlikely existence within an infinite multiverse, and they're
08:24filled with hope.
08:25Hope that one day, we might learn enough to join them at the top table of reality.
08:31If and when that day comes, remember that you heard it here first.
08:35What do you think?
08:36Is there anything we missed?
08:37Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
08:41subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.