Millions of years ago, after billions of years of long evolutionary evolution, life on earth finally gave birth to intelligent life mankind. The birth of mankind has also made the earth, an ordinary life planet, no longer ordinary. In the eyes of ancient humans, the earth is a vast and vast world, and everything such as the sun, moon, and stars in the sky belongs to the earth.
With the continuous development of mankind, we have stepped from primitive civilization to today’s technological civilization. More than 200 years ago, the advent of the industrial age brought human civilization into a new era, opening a period of rapid development, and the power of science and technology is powerful. It only took us more than 200 years to achieve the leap of civilization.
The advent of science and technology not only makes people’s life quality higher and higher, but also allows us to re-understand the world with a scientific perspective. With the help of science and technology, human beings have walked out of the earth and have truly seen the vast space beyond the earth.
In front of the universe, the earth is an insignificant particle of dust, but it is just such a tiny particle of dust that gave birth to life and human civilization. From a visual point of view, the earth is as small as dust, and human beings are also very small compared to the earth, so in the face of the cosmic scale, human beings can’t even count as dust.
But from another perspective, intelligent species like humans are undoubtedly very great. Although we are small, we can create technology and rely on the power of technology to understand the nature of matter and the entire universe. It is conceivable that with the continuous growth of human civilization and technology, the future universe may also become our back garden.
While mankind continues to understand the vastness of the universe and the universe, it is also constantly thinking: Are there other intelligent civilizations in the universe? From a cosmic scale, the current observable range of humans has reached 93 billion light-years. This range is too large for us to imagine. Even if photons want to travel through this range, it will take 93 billion years.
Within this observable range, there are at least 2 trillion “Milky Ways”, each “Milky Way” has at least hundreds of billions of star systems, and there are varying numbers of planets in each star, among which there may be similar Life planets like the earth are even civilized planets.
Therefore, from the perspective of the scale of the universe, even if the probability of the existence of alien civilizations is very low, then the number should be a huge number. The number of civilizations in the universe may be very large, so how does their civilization strength compare to humans? Let us look at the age of the universe as 13.8 billion years old. Human beings have only been more than 200,000 years old from Homo sapiens. If we enter the civilization era, it may only be about 10,000 years old.
The age of human existence is insignificant compared to the age of the universe. This is a huge gap. How many civilizations have been born during this long period of time? It is difficult for us to get a result, and it is not surprising that a civilization that was born 100 million years or even a billion years ago appears in these civilizations. Then, to what extent will such a long civilization develop? I’m afraid it is unimaginable with human thinking.
If there are a large number of civilizations with different development levels in the universe, how to divide their strength levels? In response to this, in 1964, an astronomer from the Soviet Union Nikolai Kadar proposed a Nikolai Kadar index. This is a theoretical formula for judging the level of civilization, based on the degree of energy use and consumption.
We all know that energy is indispensable for any civilization to develop, and the more energy a civilization consumes, the higher the degree of development and the higher the level of civilization. Karshov initially defined only 3 levels of civilization, and later generations expanded the level to seven based on this model.
According to the Kadarshoff Index, the first level civilization can use all the energy on the mother planet, while the lower level is the 0 level civilization, which can use all kinds of fossil energy on the mother planet. The characteristic of level 0 civilization is that it mainly relies on chemical fuel propulsion, and belongs to the infant stage in the development of the entire universe civilization.
According to this standard, mankind has obviously not yet become a first-class civilization, and is still working hard at the stage of a zero-civilization. According to the calculation of the Kardashov index formula, the current level of human beings can only be regarded as level 0.7, which is 0.3 level short of the first level civilization. Don’t underestimate this short level 0.3. According to the research of scientists, it may take between 100 to 200 years to surpass this level of 0.3 and upgrade to a first-class civilization at the current rate of human development.
So what kind of effort is needed for human beings to upgrade to a first-class civilization? As we said earlier, energy is the foundation and core of the development of a civilization, and the strength of energy use determines the strength of a civilization. And relying solely on the fossil energy inside the earth, even if the earth’s resources are completely exhausted, we will not be able to become a first-class civilization. To become a first-class civilization, we also need more powerful energy research breakthroughs. Scientists have thought of two methods.
1. Breakthrough in nuclear energy
We all know that the most powerful energy source for human beings is nuclear energy. Although we have been in contact with the application core in the last world, the core that we can really use is still in its infancy, that is, nuclear fission.
Nuclear fission is the primary application mode of nuclear energy. It has many shortcomings and cannot be fully applied. The core advanced application is nuclear fusion, which is a completely stable, clean and powerful energy source. What is going on inside a star is nuclear fusion.
Mastery of controllable nuclear clustering technology plays an important role in whether human beings can leap and upgrade to a first-class civilization. The power of nuclear fusion energy is completely incomparable with the current fossil energy sources. Only by mastering stable nuclear fusion technology and converting it into clean energy, humans can quickly reach the first level of civilization.
So what is the current level of human mastery of nuclear fusion technology? The research and exploration of nuclear fusion began as early as the middle of the last world. So far, it has been researched and explored for more than 70 years. As early as 50 years ago, some scientists made a bold statement: human beings can master controllable nuclear fusion technology in 50 years.
But now 50 years have passed, and mankind has still not made a breakthrough in the exploration of nuclear fusion technology. Now no scientist dares to make a bold statement again: mankind can master nuclear fusion technology within 50 years. According to conservative estimates of scientists, it may take at least 100 years for mankind to truly master controllable nuclear fusion technology and apply it in practice.
2. Efficient use of solar energy
Solar energy is believed to be familiar to everyone. Nuclear fusion is happening inside the sun at all times, which produces a large amount of energy to be released into the universe. Although the energy radiated by the sun into the atmosphere is only one part of 2.2 billion of its total energy, the sum of the energy released by the sun every second is quite 35,000 times the total annual energy consumption of the world.
If we can make efficient use of the energy released by the sun on the earth, the energy will far exceed the current fossil energy. Unfortunately, the application of solar energy to mankind is still in its infancy, most of the energy is not available to us, and we can only let it go to waste. Therefore, a substantial increase in the utilization rate of solar energy is also the key to leap to level 1 civilization.
When human beings upgraded from level 0.7 to level 1 civilization, we took an important step on the road of universe exploration, from the infant stage to the childhood stage, and initially learned to walk. Of course, it takes a longer time for humans to go from walking to running, and it is still unknown whether there is a powerful advanced civilization in the current cosmic civilization.
You know, for an advanced civilization, interstellar navigation is not a difficult task, and it does not seem to be a difficult task to discover the existence of the earth and human beings. But so far, the universe we have seen is lonely, without any traces of alien civilization. What kind of secrets exist in this, it still needs the continuous efforts of scientists to research and explore.