Here’s an article from Wikipedia about how to measure the advancement of civilization. It’s based on technology and energy use. However, it doesn’t take into account the human tendency to use technology for advanced weapon systems that might ultimately to destroy us and the planet. Likewise, no mention is made of the tendency to damage or destroy the environment in our search for energy.
At the rate we’re going, we probably will not reach the level of a Type I civilization. Take a look and see what you think.
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The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring an advanced civilization’s level of technological advancement. The scale is only theoretical and in terms of an actual civilization highly speculative; however, it puts energy consumption of an entire civilization in acosmic perspective. It was first proposed in 1964 by the SovietRussian astronomer Nikolai Kardashev.
The scale has three designated categories called Type I, II, and III. These are based on the amount of usable energy a civilization has at its disposal, and the degree of space colonization. In general terms, a Type I civilization has achieved mastery of the resources of its home planet, Type II of its solar system, and Type III of its galaxy.[1]
The original and the final draft for this particular scale had energy consumptions ranging so widely from each other, that Kardashev himself revised the scale as to include values between, in hundredths. The human civilization as of 2010 is currently somewhere around 0.72, with calculations suggesting we may attain Type I status in about 100–200 years, Type II status in a few thousand years, and Type III status in about 100,000 to a million years.[2]
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Like most futuristic perspectives, the role of spiritual advancement is left out on this scale as if it were immaterial for our progress as humans. Okay, time to remedy that. Here’s the MacGregor scale that focuses solely on a view of the future through a more holistic approach.
Let’s see, we will reach a Type I civilization when state religions disappear, when dogmas are released, when religious authorities no longer dictate what is right or wrong in a spiritual context. This shift is accompanied by communion with beings from other dimensions, who interact openly with us. The shift takes place in 1 to 100 years.
Type II civilization follows when national borders disappear and governments are replaced by collective decision-making that is made in the dream world. Earth wars are replaced by higher challenges of a non-physical nature.
We’ll reach Type III civilization when the spiritual quest is the center of existence, when we learn to move easily between the physical and non-physical realms, when we develop the ability to transport ourselves across the cosmos, across the dimensions not by spacecrafts, but through through our abilities to move ourselves at a higher vibrational level through time and space.
Are we ready for this journey?
The world is more complicated than mathematics which also has some loopholes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems. I guess what I wanted to say was lost somewhere in translation. I don’t support that article or anything, but its author kind of thinks he is the right to say this is God and that isn’t (or that God doesn’t like – you probably experienced something similar while talking to some people about yoga).
I kind of “envy” to people who have a fixed opinion about something so complicated.
This article is about criticism of pantheism: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11447b.htm. It’s like claiming: “I am bigger than God and God is only a small subset of my understanding of how stuff works”. No offense to anyone’s belief, but…
Don’t quite get your point, Alek. How could any individual be greater than All That Is. That makes no sense.
Pantheism is, according to that article, something with “errors” and religious authorities are there to let us see those errors. It’s like if someone: “I believe in something similar to what people call God” and then some kind of religious authority says: “No, you don’t, I am here to explain you that God is something else”. It’s not about right or wrong, but this kind of deity is supposed to be a subset of our perceptions and I, “weak” as I am, need another human just like me to explain me that God is a person and can’t in any way be nature/my own consciousness/physics because that man says so.
I have problems with religious dogma. The idea of some ubiquitous supreme being overseeing everything, everyone, 24/7 just seems absurd, Aleksandar. For instance, after the Haiti earthquake, one of our neighbors said that god caused the quake because of the voodoo practitioners in Haiti. I was shocked that anyone could actually believe such a thing. Why would any god do that to the poorest country in the western hemisphere? It doesn’t make sense.
Yes, the Kardashev scale is one-dimensional, to say the least (Trish and Rob’s scale has a lot more depth). One might even say that the amount of energy we use is a function of our dissociation from nature. I wrote about this some time back in a Futures Studies journal, when I critiqued physicist Michio Kaku’s book “Visions”. Kaku uses Kadashev’s scale as he describes a techno-utopian future which in my opinion is a just a further projection of the colonial mindset – let’s bash and slash our way across the galaxy and burn as much fuel as possible, while fiddling with lots of cool gadgets. I doubt such a future would do anything more than recreate all the horrors of colonialism and rampant materialism of the past few hundred years. Not meaning to spam Trish and Rob, but you can read the article here if you want: https://www.mindfutures.com/articlepdfs/artpdf18.pdf
Marcus
Thanks for the link, Marcus, and good point about galactic colonialism.
I *LIKE* The MacGregor scale! It’s a much nobler path to spiritual acceptance than the myriad of organized religions which persecute those with dissimilar beliefs on the narrow-minded basis that there is only one “right” God, and all others are wrong.
And I *especially* like your definition of a Type II civilization, which bears a striking resemblance to the society of an invisible city from a certain adventure novel that I have read many, MANY times before! 🙂
I guess you’re keeping the title veiled, Whip!
No pun intended, right? 😉
I love your scale!! I am actually sort of taken aback because the book I am ACTUALLY writing is about beings who are basically living in a Phase III reality when they have to interact with, and protect other planets/beings from a species that is basically still in Phase 0, never having made it to Phase I…. and that is all I am going to say right now! 😉
Anyway, your descriptions sort of blew me away as to the similarities… Whoa. We must be pulling off of each other!
This is your sci-fi novel, right??How cool it sounds!
Simon, very very well said. Guys, I’ll see you all in a few days. Surgery tomorrow at 11am, (with ole Mercury retrograde…pooh!), but will be back online and in MU before long. Don’t let me miss anything super fantastic and don’t solve ALL the problems of the world while I’m AWOL! I’ll have to go back like DJan and catch up. See ya!!
We’ll be thinking of you and sending good vibes your way. I’m betting you’ll be back on by tomorrow evening!
but as for Lennon,, yeah we could live in a word without religion,, but a word where man didn’t believe in a higher purpose,,,,,, I’m not so sure…..
Belief in a higher purpose is different than believing in a religion.
a cililization is advanced when anyone who is hungry gets to eat,, any one who is sick get the attention and if needed medicine they need to get well,,,, anyone who is cold can be sheltered,, and any one who just wants to drink beer and watch football has a place to do it… and the civilization is truelly advanced when it makes sure the last guy never gets the opportunity to breed……
Perfectly said, Simon! I agree.
Amen!
I had to find you again, not remembering the name of the new website. I cannot seem to figure out how to get emails from WordPress letting me know when you have published a new post. Is there a way? I’ve caught up now on all the ones I’ve missed, and it’s been some doozies!
Still trying to figure it out. Good to see you again!
The only way we can evolve is to start thinking through our heart (chakra). It changes everything, and is the way we will be considered “ready” to join the “civilized” cosmos.
I like that thought, Nancy!
As much as I crave a society whose core values is a the spiritual quest, it seems that our global culture is not ready to give up their dogmas (which are the cause of all wars and the root of political systems).
From what I have learned, through extensive research and “interaction with the unseen” is that it is critical that mankind re-establish it’s relationship with the “mundus imaginalis” (Henry Corbin, Jung, Remo Roth, etc.) This is a holistic approach that puts humans in a deeply interdependent , centered relationship with all of creation. It implies complete responsibility for our actions individually & collectively.
Good points, Debra. Not to be pessimistic, but the chances of any such changes–even to Type I by the end of 2012 look pretty slim. Hopefully, such changes won’t involve the destruction and downgrading of civilization to primitive levels that Hank Wesselman writes of in his Spiritwalker series.
Beautifully said, D
I prefer your version, with shades of John Lennon:
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…
Your Type III: Yes, again, this must be what we are heading for. As to ‘Are we ready for the journey?’ As a race, probably not as yet.
Lennon: he really did have things pegged. What an evolved soul.
I don’t know about Type III, but let’s see the first two.
Type I: Religion (Christianity in my case and many people posting comments here) should keep its role, not only because the opposite is/isn’t heresy, but because it’s a way to keep the idea of God even in times of “rationalism”. My parents are former communists/atheists, but the idea of religion (and unfortunately religious fundamentalism – religion as the only certain way to differentiate Serbs and Croats) was alive in communism.
Type II: Maybe if it’s some kind of global empathy. “Too big to fail” systems of transport, production, market, global population and “one worldview for all” are too big and the best way to prevent them from failing is to somehow make them smaller.