The Kardashev planetary scale has a range of 1 to 3 that measures the technological advancement of the civilization on a planet.

A Type I civilization – also called planetary civilization – can use and store energy that reaches its planet from the neighboring star.

A Type II civilization can harness the total energy of its planet’s parent star (the most popular hypothetical concept being the Dyson sphere—a device that would encompass the entire star and transfer its energy to the planet(s).

A Type III civilization can control energy on the scale of its entire host galaxy.

It is unsettling to learn that, on that scale, Earth is a Type zero civilization! We don’t even qualify to appear on the scale.

To learn why: click here.