IMAGINE

Imagine an alien species; say a Type-3 (three) civilization. Now type threes are galactic sailors. Masters of the universe. A mega-race if you may. They have learnt everything there is to this universe.They can be creators or lords of destruction. They can manipulate space and time. They can do it all and now, they're bored.

Type-1

Homo sapiens (Latin for 'wise') and wise as they are, created a Type-0 (zero) classification only to fit themselves in. Now the Kardashev scale was originally designed in 1964 by a Russian astrophysicist who goes by the name of Nikolai Kardashev (dude was searching for aliens). This scale classified a civilization into 3 types based on an intelligent race's capacity to harness energy. A Type-1 species could harness all the energy available to it on its planet. This includes all the energy available from its parent star. Imagine being a part of this race. You wake up in the morning, a little late for your liking. You are late for work. You hurry through breakfast made by your wife. She's a humanoid. Up and away you are in whatever crazy futuristic mode of transportation you have. You don't check for the weather update for your kind has now got that under control. You are disappointed on how technology has changed life; you had heard stories about the planet's unpredictable weather and how the Mexican weather report was just worth every bit. This very thought pulled you back to last night's dinner conversation on ancient ruins of American civilization and the wall around it. "They thought they could make just a particular part of the planet great", you remember Mark saying. You totally agreed how naive the species was. You couldn't help but feel a little sad to the thought that followed; Mark had come down to your place to inform that he still didn't get a call on his gene propagation application(having a child). You shake it off and glance over to your wagon suit's console. "Not again" you think followed by a lazy sigh. The deep blue screen console to your left was counting down an ETA of 37 minutes which was way over your usual travel time. You slide both your arms into a small chamber cut onto the armrest and lean back. Your playlist consisting Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin (they never get old) start playing at once. You had plans for a romantic dinner with your wife which is obviously not happening now that you're going to your planet's moon. You work at the department of experimental energy, studying potential phenomenon that can be used to harvest energy. Being a researcher is the most common profession of your time with 50% of the population working on different branches of science. This is not surprising as with the advent of the 'Genetic age' the world was transformed. It all started with 'CRISPR' (Clustered Regularly Inter-spaced Short Palindromic Repeats) and Cas9, a small step towards genetic manipulation. It was possible to precisely alter any gene of any species on the planet and with power like this they eventually changed their own. Natural selection no longer worked, and neither was artificial selection required. Darwin's theories no longer mattered for now they could make their own species. They eventually engineered themselves to live longer, be smarter and stay healthier. Now getting smarter, they realized the flaws in their ways and came together to rebuild the world. There was no war as there were no difference in opinion for there were no more 'stupid'. Having children was regulated by the center to keep the population in check owing to the decline is death rate. The AI(artificial intelligence) did not take over the world for it was still tricky to mimic consciousness and all of you live together on a single continent. But being smarter came at a price. Logic and reason could no longer co-exist with certain emotions and instincts which were thought to be primitive and no longer serving purpose. Ego for instance, was a product of evolution at its very basic level. At its root, it is an innocent survival instinct; importance to oneself helps one survive. When survival was no longer an issue, it took on a complex form we now call ego. Ego and reasoning can just not reason. Ego as a concept was dissolved and slowly individuality grew scarcer giving rise to a world of collectivity. This had some pretty neat implications. One no longer needed stuff better than the other and this obliterated the concept of money. The planet was more than capable of satisfying the needs of all and this resulted in a world of peace, understanding and harmony.
You wake up to a sudden jolt as your wagon arrives at pad A3I0 of department of stellar aviation. "Why are we at headquarters?" you ask your colleague while both of you climbed down your wagons. "rumor has it that project Dyson is a go" he replies. You feel a sudden wave of shiver. Time seem to slow down as your body pumped enough adrenalin to make you feel you can take on a bear. This was the very project you had been working for your whole life.

As one might have guessed, we are far from attaining Type-1 status. Optimistic predictions range from 100 to 200 years and that is if we don't kill ourselves first. This, many scientist think is more likely to happen considering the Fermi paradox. It seems that although the probability of emergence of life in such a vast expanse of space is very high, the species attaining type 1 and 2 status is very unlikely. It is hypothesized that they either die out of catastrophic annihilation or destroy themselves. This could be the reason we haven't found alien life so far. Every golden age is preceded by a Dark age and so, only if a species survives this Dark age can they be on their way to being a master-race.

Going stellar

Now a Type-2 civilization would be a race that goes stellar. With an energy disposal level of the range 10²⁶W, they are an inter-planetary species. In our solar system, it would mean human settlements in Mars, Venus and some moons of the outer planets. Pioneers setting out to different star systems; they would master the art of Terra-forming slowly inhabiting alien planets. This colossal energy requirement, it is theorized, can be met by tapping directly into their mother star. "A Dyson sphere could do that" said Freeman Dyson in his paper in 1960. It is essentially a monstrous spherical structure that would cover the entire star and harness all its energy output. Ludicrous as it sounds, the idea breaks down much as soon. For starters, assuming we build one, the stresses on this structure would be enormous to be handled by any element Known. Moreover the raw material that would be needed to build such a gargantuan structure would require us to disintegrate every inner planet except Earth along with some asteroids. The idea though, is not completely hopeless as a Dyson 'swarm' could be the answer. The idea is to build smaller (about 1 kilometer in diameter) self replicating energy harvesters that orbit the star. For humans that would mean creating structures that cannibalizes Mercury for raw materials that would self replicate and create a partial Dyson swarm. This way we get to keep Mars and Venus. Other promising alternatives include Anti-matter engines which theoretically would be 100 percent efficient. When anti-matter comes in contact with matter, they annihilate and produce enormous energy. However currently, it takes more energy to create anti-matter than what we get back.
Life as a Type 2 species would be different in so many ways that if humans were to eventually reach type 2 status, they would look nothing like us today. They would have probably mutated to different sub-species living on different planets and moons mainly due to the difference in gravity and atmosphere.
They are still mastering the physics of this universe. Now, interstellar travelers, they are making mother-ships working on warp drives. Yes, warp drives. FTL (faster than light) travel in theory may be possible. The idea is to alter the space time fabric by contracting the space in front of the spaceship and expanding the space behind. This does not contradict Einstein's cosmic speed limit (speed of light) as we are not moving the spaceship but moving space-time itself. Fascinating as the idea may seem, this tech is far into the future and we still don't know of some unknown physics that might make it impossible.

Once a type-2 civilization perfects interstellar voyages, intergalactic travel could happen fairly soon. Other conceptual technologies like a kugelblitz engine (German of ball lightning) would only aid in their understanding of the universe. Now, a Kugelblitz is a black-hole that can be created by concentrating colossal amounts of energy into a very tiny space. Energy can then be harvested as a result of hawking radiation or from the angular momentum of the resulting black hole. When one can summon a black-hole at will, one is that much more closer to understanding the universe in its entirety. One of the most puzzling concepts of physics has always been "singularity" where time and space reverse roles; where Physics as we know it, doesn't exist. Singularity is thought to exist, at the very center of a black hole (the movie 'Interstellar' taught us that much).

Elders

A species would eventually reach type 3 status where they could colonize every habitable planet in the universe if they choose to. They are now truly wise. Sapiens, would now be an apt name. They know how their universe came by and another one seems just as probable. Intergalactic travel is child's play and now they are wondering if theirs is the only universe.

This is much like when humans started looking up to the heavens in curiosity and wonder. The cosmos enticed us to her vastness and we set forth to explore her depths. Sure, not finding intelligent life elsewhere is a letdown. The universe being 13.772 billion years old we expected better. But maybe, just maybe, we are the first of the universe's intelligent inhabitants. After all, we might not have been wrong calling ourselves "Sapiens". Maybe we ARE the ancient race of the future. Would we be "Elders" to other intelligent lives to come? How would our minds work at such monstrous levels of perspective?

One can only "IMAGINE".




Post Scriptum : The article above is a story touching great scientific leaps made by mankind. Viewers are strongly recommended to do their own research.

Artwork credits : Daya Mundaye