What If Humanity Was a Type VII Civilization? | Unveiled

What if Humanity Was a Type VII Civilization?

Some say it will never be done. That some things are just impossible. But others recognise it as the ultimate endgame of existence. The final destination for life and everything.

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; what if humanity was a Type Seven civilization?

Here it is. The big one! Regular viewers to our channel will, by now, know the Kardashev Scale like the back of their hand. But we’ve never, ever travelled this far up it. Type Seven is all new territory, and the absolute apex of this particular system. But, first of all, how did we get here? As far as looking into the future goes, it makes for quite an incredible journey! So, for one last time, here’s the recap.

The Kardashev Scale was devised by (and takes its name from) the Soviet astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev, who first proposed it in 1964. It’s a method of measuring how advanced any given civilization is or could become, based on how much energy they’re able to control and use. Kardashev initially imagined three levels to it, with Type One harnessing all of the energy from its own planet; Type Two harnessing all of the energy from its home star; and for Type Three, it’s all of the energy from its home galaxy. There have been various estimations made about where humanity currently ranks on the scale, but the most often cited figure puts us at about 0.7. We still, then, need to master all of the energy from Earth, before we can move on to the solar system and the Milky Way, and beyond.

Because, in the years since, a number of levels have been added to the scale, notably Type Four (a civilization which harnesses all of the energy in the universe) and Type Five (where it’s all of the energy in the multiverse). The standard models tend to end here (and, indeed, many don’t actually go beyond Type Four universal power). But, as we found out in our previous episode, there are theories on a Type Six, which would entail a civilization which exists outside of reality itself. It has complete and total power over the multiverse, and is able to bend and shape spacetime and all the laws of physics to its will. To our minds, a Type Six society would consist solely of god-like beings. But, according to some extremely forward-thinking models, there is still one paradigm shift left for us to make. Type Seven.

How would (or could) Type Seven differ from Type Six? Well, there are two main, major upgrades that it’s theorised to make. The first is that we’re now dealing with what’s usually known as the omniverse. The omniverse is totally and completely everything. It’s also infinite. Any structure or concept or idea or dimension you can think of, or any other civilization Type after you could think of, the omniverse contains. It’s unmatched, unparalleled and unsurpassable. While Type Six exists outside of the reality of a relatively simple multiverse - which is certainly impressive - an omniversal being collects even the content of their superior minds and condenses all of that knowledge and information into one final, all-encompassing data point - a Type Seven existence.

There is a paradox in play, though, because of the infinite, all-powerful position we’ve now taken. By now, the energy usage criteria we’ve applied to each and every level before this dissolves into, well, nothingness. We’re so far beyond the question of energy potential at this stage. Now, it’s all about information and understanding, and a Type Seven has it all within itself. Which means, because there is nothing else beyond it, a Type Seven essentially creates itself. It’s a fluid, constant entity. There is nothing else higher up that can have dominion over it. And that’s what sets up the second major upgrade; that a Type Seven civilization wouldn’t really be a civilization at all.

Rather than being an all-powerful collective, a Type Seven would (by most estimations) need to be singular. A Type Six society might have a number of beings connected via a hive mind - with a universal language and thought transference - but even that would be too inefficient for a Seven. There’d be too many opportunities for something to be imperfect. And perfection is the name of the game at this level.

So, we most likely get one individual thing or essence, not through choice or design, but through nature. Although it, in itself, would also account for the concept of nature, so really, we - way back down here at just level 0.7 - are extremely limited in how we can describe it. Even contemplating the conditions of its reality is currently beyond us. Again, we’d probably call it a God. But, actually, it would also, itself, be the reason why we even had the concept of Gods to fall back onto.

Not only would it, like a Type Six civilization, have all the answers to all the questions imaginable, but it wouldn’t even need to formulate the questions in the first place. To it, the required information would just be. Here, there and everywhere. In the past, the future, the present. Its consciousness is everything. Across every single variation of every single timeline imaginable, in a never-ending number of multiversal dimensions. Nothing would be unknown or unexpected. For the Type Seven, it would just be.

So, where does humanity come into the picture? Well, on the literally never-ending landscape of a Level Seven perspective, we really, truly would be infinitesimally small. One species, on one planet, in a single galaxy, in a single universe, on one arm of one multiverse, inside one vision of one reality. The layers go on and on. If Type Seven really does exist, then it almost certainly gives our existence very little thought indeed. But it does of course know that we exist, all the same. Because it knows everything, always.

And, finally, could humanity ever become this itself? What if we climbed far enough to reach the very top of this absurdly theoretical tree, first planted by Kardashev in the 1960s? Well, such an ascension would confirm various mind-boggling ideas. For one, it would without doubt establish us as the most advanced species ever to exist. We would also have stopped even caring about the Kardashev Scale, though, because we will have long-since realised that the scale only exists as a tiny, ancient piece of our own inevitable journey to total, all-consuming power.

But if that all sounds just a little too crazy… if this all feels just a touch too impossible… maybe that’s because it probably is. Even if the ethereal Type Seven really does exist, then it could be that no civilization - human or otherwise - could ever hope to reach it. That our being outside of it is confirmation enough that we can never become it, ourselves.

If and when we master Earth, we will at least be able to call ourselves Type One. And, according to the lower estimates, that could happen within just a few hundred years’ time… If we were to then work out how to spread across the solar system, we could justifiably re-label ourselves as Type Two… and perhaps humanity won’t need to have changed itself too dramatically between that particular future point and now.

The path gets fairly unknowable from this moment forward, however. By the time our species fulfils the credentials to become just Type Three or Four, as we’ve found in previous episodes, it is already beginning to morph into something that’s unrecognisable to us today. To get to Type Five, we not only have to have understood the true nature of the universe, but we also need to have uncovered actual proof of the multiverse. Not only would we be a totally different prospect at this point, but our reality would be, too. Then, for Type Six, we have to see that reality… and step outside of it. And, finally, for Type Seven, we have to be that reality from the beginning.

We’re now so far removed from our humble beginnings, and all in the name of progress. There’s no telling what path humanity will take in the future, but the route to the top of the Kardashev Scale would transform it beyond all recognition. And that’s what would happen if humanity was a Type Seven civilization.