Is There An Advanced Civilization Above Humans? | Unveiled XL Documentary

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Is There An Advanced Civilization Above Humans?</h4>

How do you feel about humankind? What would you mark us out of ten for impressiveness, ingenuity, integrity, advancement? And can you imagine that there could be something better than us dwelling somewhere in the universe?

In this video, we’ll first take a look at the knowledge ark; a theoretical construct that we could one day discover as proof of something higher. Then we’re asking what if we’re the product of a higher mind? What if we’ve already found a superior life form? And finally, we’ll more closely investigate the chances of intelligent life, in general, including our own.

This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question; is there an advanced civilization above humans?

When a civilization grows, it acquires a wealth of information… and its continued success is based on how effectively it can use that information to advance. But most civilizations also want to preserve themselves, to lay down markers that say to anyone else in the future that we were here.

If you could make a record of everything you know, how would you do it? Write it down, perhaps? Or video blog your life story? And what if you needed a record of everything all your friends and family members knew, as well? It’s a difficult task! As seemingly advanced human beings, we all carry a lot of information. So, now imagine what would be required to chart the knowledge of the entire human civilization. Of everyone alive at this moment, with every current human being having been influenced by every past human being that had come before them. It’s a herculean prospect. But that’s what a knowledge ark does. 

A knowledge ark is a means to collect knowledge and information on a spectacularly large scale. It also goes by the considerably more ominous-sounding name, a doomsday ark, because it’s a concept wrapped up in end-of-the-world prophecies and apocalypse scenarios. The general idea is that a knowledge ark could survive even when the civilization that built it cannot. And then because it survived, it can be discovered by something, anything in the future. 

If humans started building a knowledge ark today, what form would it take? And what sorts of things would we put into it? It could demand a massive physical space if it contained physical photos, books, and artifacts. But it could also be much smaller if it was digitized onto a database. Most likely, it would be something halfway between the two. A part-physical, part-digital bank of everything. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is one of our most prominent real-world examples of something like this, but even it is limited to only the seeds and crops that it stores. A truly all-encompassing ark would be the seed vault, plus copies of every book ever written, plus complete records of art, languages and technology, plus DNA records for every organism on the planet… it might never be complete, such is the immeasurable amount of information it would need to contain. But, if a future alien species discovered it, they’d certainly know all about us. 

So, what if the opposite happened? What if we were to discover a knowledge ark, built by another civilization? It would surely go down as one of the most momentous days in our history. There are two main ways this scenario could play out. Either we discover an alien ark on planet Earth, or we discover one somewhere else in the universe. The first causes us to rethink what we thought we knew about our own planet; the second proves to us without question that we are not alone. 

A knowledge ark on Earth is perhaps the least likely of these two hypothetical scenarios. In the twenty-first century, humans are fairly confident that they understand how their planet works. We have a reasonably robust origin of life story, and we’ve mapped the vast majority of landmasses. We still haven’t explored the majority of our oceans, though. And while we’re reasonably sure of what a cross-section of Earth looks like, we’ve never ventured underground in a big way. In general, it might be said that we as a species prefer to look outwards, rather than inwards. If then, a knowledge ark were to be hiding on Earth, perhaps underground under the sea would be the best place to look for it… but such a discovery would still shatter most of everything we’ve ever believed about our world. 

An ark somewhere else in space, however, presents a different problem. It would still be a ground-breaking discovery but, as so much of space is unknown to us, it wouldn’t require quite such a dramatic rethink. The ark might be found on an alien planet at a future time when humans have long-distance space travel capabilities. In this case, it would reveal to us that that particular planet was habitable in the past (and could be habitable in the present as well). Naturally, we’d focus all our astronomical attention on the ark world, trying to determine its age, when it hosted life, if it still hosted life, and whether it had any other similarities with Earth. Today, we have only one life-hosting planet sample to study - our own. But now, we’d have another, and it could fundamentally change our outlook. It could change even what it means to be human. 

Another sci-fi-style possibility is that a knowledge ark could be moving through space, between worlds and galaxies. Here, the ark more closely resembles a ship, carrying the information it contains away from its homeland and to… who knows where! In many ways, proposed generation ships double up as knowledge arks. These are massive, hypothetical vehicles, designed so that their crew lives and dies on board. They travel at speeds far slower than the speed of light, but still hope to bridge huge distances (it just takes them a lot longer!). Regardless, they’re usually seen as the last bastions of their home civilization… and those on board are the last remaining few who can spread their knowledge. They’re the curators of their own history, and the preservers of their own tradition… whether it’s future humans venturing forth or ancient aliens waiting to be found. 

So, what would the global reaction be if we discovered any of these ark types, with either an alien presence on-board or proof of aliens that once were? If we found one tomorrow, there’d no doubt be disbelief at first. Humankind currently has zero confirmed evidence of anything extraterrestrial, let alone a whole ship’s worth of information… so the ark would immediately dominate news headlines. But it could all prove too much for us to process. As with most sudden, dramatic changes on a worldwide scale, chaos could take hold as millions rush to make sense of proven alien life… and millions more wish that it wasn’t so. The discovery would rock the foundations of science, but also religion, art, philosophy, and literature. It would be so big that humanity, in discovering it, will have arrived at a decisive moment in its own story - a point from which we would think of time as being either before the ark, or after it. 

What do you think you would do? How do you think you would react? The ‘Oumuamua object gave us a small sense of what the human response could be, when it was discovered in 2017. ‘Oumuamua is the first known interstellar object to have been tracked passing through our solar system, and scientists have long debated its bizarre, cigar-like shape. While many suspect that it’s a natural rock or ice formation, some suggest that it could be a form of alien technology. Perhaps a probe tentatively scanning the solar system, or perhaps a ship itself. Could it be a knowledge ark? When ‘Oumuamua was first spotted it was passing relatively close to the sun, but it’s been moving further away ever since. It isn’t caught in solar orbit, and will eventually leave our solar system, to continue through the Oort Cloud and interstellar space. In all likelihood we will never see it again. Unless, of course, it is alien technology… and it decides to return. Either way, as far as we know it isn’t a knowledge ark. It’s just an unusually shaped object that just so happened to be passing through our part of the universe. And yet, it earned headlines around the world, captured the attention of millions of people, and has been a hot topic in science and astronomy circles ever since. Imagine what would’ve happened if it had been a knowledge ark! 

As humankind grows, and as the Earth changes, we may begin to make more of a collective effort to record all that has happened over the last few hundred thousand years of history. If an alien civilization is out there (or was ever out there!), it might well do the same. And if our two existences ever crossed paths, then we will have reached a higher plain of understanding. We will have opened up another level of the universe.

Do you ever wonder why it is that we’re here? How did it come to pass that we should be living and breathing on Earth, going about our daily lives, thinking, feeling, laughing, crying, and everything else in between? The question of our existence is one that has always intrigued the human mind… fascinating and frightening us in almost equal measure. But, what if all of this is really just a construct of a much higher power?

As arguably the most famous theorized model for advanced civilizations there is, the Kardashev Scale needs little introduction… but we’re going to zoom through the basics to recap, just in case! First proposed by the Soviet astrophysicist, Nikolai Kardashev, in the 1960s, it’s a means to measure the advancement of civilizations based on the amount of energy they could, theoretically, harness. The original Kardashev Scale had three levels, or types. A Type One civilization can harness all the energy of its home planet. For Type Two, it’s all the energy of its home star system. And, for Type Three, it’s all the energy of its home galaxy. Later versions of the scale, however, added a Type Four (which is all the energy of the universe) and also a Type Five… which is what we’re most interested in today.

Accepting that a Type Five civilization could exist requires many moves away from the more conventional ways of understanding reality. That’s because a Type Five can harness all the energy from multiple universes. In other words, it holds all the energy of the multiverse. Briefly put, the multiverse is the idea that this universe isn’t the only universe in existence. It may be crammed full of planets and stars and galaxies, of everything we’ve ever known, but the general multiverse theory says that there are many more just like it. And Type Five on the Kardashev Scale is a civilization so advanced that it exists on a high enough plain to see and access all of it.

To our minds, a Type Five is akin to a God. It’s all-seeing and all-powerful. And, while there are some theories that the Kardashev Scale could be extended further still to Type Six and beyond, for this video we’re imagining that there’s nothing else above Five. Reach that point and you truly have completed the game of not just life, but reality. What would a Type Five’s existence mean for us, though?

Humans are usually calculated as having reached just 0.7 on the Kardashev Scale to get to this point. We haven’t even fully mastered our own planet yet and, according to some more cynical worldviews, we might never get past Kardashev Type One. Type Five will always be almost incomprehensibly far away from us, then… so much so that some theories suggest that we could be under its control.

The shape and form of a Type Five is something that no one can really agree upon. In that way, it’s again like how we tend to picture gods. In most basic, pop culture depictions, gods are shown as though they exist above the clouds, taking up a position that mere human eyes never get to see… and, from there, they’re able to pull the strings of life on Earth. But it’s also often said that God is all around us or inside us. There’s a metaphysical quality to God, as though divine entities exist outside of the conventional laws of physics, time, and matter. Again, a similar description could be given to a Type Five being. They don’t so much have to obey the laws of physics or nature… they are the laws of physics and nature. We can quite confidently say, then, that if a Type Five does exist, then humans will likely never recognise it for what it is. The distance between us and the top of the Kardashev Scale is just too vast.

But, if we looked hard enough, might we find hints to its existence? In some ways, this is what we’re trying to do whenever we search for alien life. So far, across all human history, there’s no record of any life other than the life on this planet. But were we to finally discover an extraterrestrial presence somewhere, then we’d know that our way isn’t the only way. We’d know that other civilizations - and other civilization types - were, without a doubt, possible. It’s why, should we ever find one alien world, many scientists predict that we would more quickly find a second, third, and more. Our understanding, at least, of our place in the universe will have moved up a level… which would force our technological development to catch up, to push us into the higher brackets of the Kardashev Scale. Then the thinking would be, if we can get to Type One, or Type Two… then why not Types Three, Four, or even Five? The fabled fifth level would seem to us so much less of a, well, fable. Instead, it would feel like a goal waiting to be achieved. Sure, it could take us literally billions of years to get there, and we might need to change our physical being in the meantime, but we’d more firmly believe that it was possible.

But for now, we still haven’t discovered alien life, nor any civilizations that are more (or even less) advanced than our own. So, where else could we go hunting for glimpses of a Type Five truth?

We could try searching for the equivalent of the miracles that feature so prominently in some religions. Or we could await with faith the arrival of some sort of Type Five disciple or prophet onto Earth itself. A Type Five being would absolutely be capable of traveling anywhere within the multiverse… and wherever it was, it would always hold the total knowledge of the multiverse within itself. If, for some reason, it chose to manifest all of that into a human form, then we’d have our prophet. Whether or not the rest of humankind would believe someone who claimed to have come from a Type Five world, though, is an altogether different matter.

Failing that, miracle-like events could be our only real sign that our Type Five overlords were watching. But, even then, would we (humans) really know or understand when a miracle was happening? Say a Type Five power generously redirected an asteroid on the outskirts of Andromeda so that it was no longer in line to strike us… we’d never realize that that momentous event had ever taken place. Equally, were a Type Five to have stepped in behind-the-scenes at the time of the Big Bang to ensure that conditions were just right for, say, oxygen on Earth, then we’d simply never know that that had ever happened. These things would all be taking place many planes of reality above our own and would therefore fail to register down here on our lonely planet.

But finally, if our continued existence really was reliant on the far-off actions of a higher power, then what if those actions were to grind to a halt? What if the miracles stopped? Perhaps the scariest part of imagining a Kardashev Type Five is the realization of just how insignificant Earth and human beings probably are to it. Consider that there could be trillions of planets in our universe, and that this universe would be one of many under its power, then why would it pay particularly close attention to us, at all? Why should we ever hope to find proof of a Type Five’s existence, when we amount to just a single grain of sand along the endless beach of its own reality?

If we are the creation of a Type Five civilization, then our insignificance could ultimately be twofold. First, that Creator will have created so much before and since us… that they may never look in our direction again. In their minds, our planet is buried beneath billions of others, kept in a universe amongst millions more, and irretrievable unless there was ever a particular reason to dig it back out again. Second, while we generally consider life on Earth to be special, given that it’s the only life we ourselves know about… that more than likely wouldn’t be the case at Type Five. And the 300,000 years or so of the modern human could feasibly amount to footnote on a footnote in their own records.

Unless, of course, the opposite is true. And life is so rare and unique that our universe, holding our planet, is actually treasured by Type Five. It’s certainly a more optimistic view to take. Perhaps, what’s really happening is they peer down upon us, they see us chiseling out our unlikely existence within an infinite multiverse, and they’re filled with hope. Hope that one day, we might learn enough to join them at the top table of reality. If (and when) that day comes… remember that you heard it here first!

For decades now, the hunt has been on to find other civilizations in the universe. And while we still know of only one place that definitely hosts life - our own planet Earth - we’ve gradually scanned more and more of the cosmos in the hope that, one day, we’ll pick up signals of a different existence. A new world. And perhaps a far more advanced existence than our own, while we’re at it.

According to the original Kardashev Scale, a Type Three civilization is one which has harnessed the entire energy potential of a galaxy. As Kardashev originally imagined it, Type Three was the best there was. The pinnacle of advancement and cosmic civilization.

It's a bizarre concept to think on, because if it is possible to become a Type Three civilization… then there are a couple of important considerations to make. First, it theoretically means that we (humankind) could one day climb the scale far enough to become Type Three ourselves. But second, it theoretically means that there should already be Type Three civilizations out there… and if there are, then why not one that’s ruling over the very galaxy that we call home, the Milky Way? Or one that’s ruling over the next galaxy along, Andromeda? 

The Kardashev model also provides an alternate lens through which scientists and astronomers can consider the entire universe, though, as they comb it for signs of life. As such, there have been various claims made that perhaps a Type Three power has already been discovered by us… although nothing, at this stage, is confirmed.

In August 2021, news broke of a joint study by astronomers at the National Astronomical Observatories of China and Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands. Headlines claimed that it may have identified two candidates toward a Type Three civilization. The study focussed on twenty-one galaxies in all, paying particularly close attention to their mid-infrared emissions, which it’s suggested (if they’re high) could be a sign of Dyson Spheres operating in the region. The idea is that Dyson Spheres (huge, hypothesized structures built around stars to siphon off their energy) should inevitably give off waste energy, too… which can then be picked up by researchers here on Earth. As a Dyson Sphere is said to be a key feature in any advanced Kardashev civilization from Type Two onwards, if we were to find hard proof of their existence then we’ll essentially have discovered not just alien life… but super-intelligent alien life.

Importantly, however, those behind the study aren’t yet claiming to have definitely discovered Type Three civilizations. They’ve only narrowed down their original search of the sky toward two galaxies that might be Type Three candidates. Nothing is proven, and nothing beyond some seemingly unusual mid-infrared measurements has even been detected. For some, then, this could soon become just another false alarm. What’s interesting, though, is that for one co-author of the 2021 study - Professor Michael Garrett of Leiden University - it wasn’t the first time in recent years that potential Type Three groups had been discussed. It’s just that last time the takeaways were a little different... 

Back in 2015, Garrett took a closer look at some other Kardashev candidates and reportedly dismissed all of them as being the real thing. Back then, with most of those candidates being explained away as natural (and not alien-made phenomena) Garrett had concluded that Kardashev Type Three civilizations “are either very rare or do not exist in the local universe”. And, while the more recent 2021 study has served to re-open the possibility that they do exist, the opinion that Type Three civilizations don’t exist (or, at least, that they don’t exist anywhere remotely close to us) is still held by many academics.

In some ways, it boils down to a heightened version of that other pillar of modern astronomical thinking - the Fermi Paradox. Only, while the Fermi Paradox asks “if aliens exist then where are they?”… we’re now asking, “if Type Three civilizations exist, then where are they?”. Because surely we’d have discovered them by now, and with relative ease? Given the size and scope of their powers. Remember, a Type Three group has the energy output of an entire galaxy at their disposal. In the Milky Way, which is a fairly average-sized galaxy, that would mean more than 100,000 lightyears’ worth of stars, planets, black holes, quasars, and general energy potential. How would that not show up on even the most primitive of the telescopes we have?

As with so many other deep ponderings of the universe, one answer is that it’s because space is incredibly, almost unimaginably, big. And then there’s also the fact that when astronomers look far enough into space, thanks to the universal speed limit of the speed of light, they’re also essentially seeing back in time. Whenever we view a star or planet or galaxy it’s not as though we’re viewing it at the same moment in time as that which we’re experiencing here on Earth. Instead, we’re merely viewing it as it was when the light that we see now first left it… and that could have been millions (or even billions) of years ago. And, when you think about it, that means that if we ever were to discover a Type Three civilization, then in real time (our time) it might’ve progressed far beyond that stage already. Which is another reason why many believe that Type Threes just don’t exist… because the odds are that they shouldn’t even be waiting to be discovered, but in fact should just be (from our point of view).

Of course, this also means that whenever we look into the sky, even with the most powerful telescopes available to us, our eyes could well be passing over galaxies that do now host Type Three civilizations… it’s just that there hasn’t been time enough yet for that information to reach us. In fact, if you believe that there are other civilizations out there, and that it’s therefore very unlikely that we are more powerful than all of them… then perhaps a Type Three is inevitable and, again, we on Earth are just waiting to realize it. We could, then, be currently surrounded by higher powers - to some degree - gradually approaching the day when a scientific study does prove it beyond doubt.

At present, however, that’s not what has happened. Scientists haven’t already discovered a Type Three civilization, although Type Three candidates have emerged in recent times. The 2021 study has identified at least two galaxies that may warrant greater scrutiny… but so far, we have only a tiny amount of unusual data to work from. 

Theories continually abound on both sides of the debate, though. And while one researcher might insist that advanced, galactic civilizations must exist somewhere in the universe… another might claim that they can’t possibly exist, simply by the fact that we don’t already know about them. What’s your verdict? And what would your reaction be if a Type Three group were ever to be found? 

here’d certainly be no denying that our own identity will’ve been forcibly shifted. On the day that a Type Three is revealed to us, human beings will’ve altered in their own minds from being an intelligent species… to one that has so much more left to learn. Perhaps that’s a frightening thought, or an exciting one? Perhaps it could lead to our own expansion, or it could trigger an existential domino effect toward our own demise?

In either case, for now it’s a hypothetical thought only. Scientists, astronomers, academics, and all manner of others are increasingly on the lookout for Type Three civilizations, but for better or worse we haven’t already discovered one.

With every passing year, humans on Earth launch various missions to other planets to learn more about the solar system. Meanwhile, on the ground, astronomers are scanning the skies for potential signs of life in the universe. If we one day discover an intelligent, alien existence, it’ll constitute one of the greatest scientific moments of all time… but what if it’s impossible from the beginning to better human beings? 

The famous Drake Equation, created in 1961 by Doctor Frank Drake, aims to predict the possible number of technological civilizations there are in our galaxy and universe. The problem, though, is that answers to it vary. Wildly. To reach a solution, we need to know the number of possible Earth-like planets there are, with the right conditions for life. Then, the fraction of those planets that actually do develop life; then the fraction of those lifeforms that become intelligent; and then the fraction of those intelligent lifeforms that develop interstellar communication and reach a comparable level to humankind. The criteria is strict, but the numbers to input are vague, and that makes the Drake Equation extremely challenging - nay, impossible - to solve right now. 

For today’s question especially, we’re then hindered by our own almost certainly limited human perspective, unable to conclusively determine what would count as more advanced than us. We can’t really know how advanced life can become yet for a few reasons. First, how rare is it for non-living matter to become alive? This is known as Abiogenesis, and refers to the origin of life and how organic compounds managed to form the very first life… and it’s an area of study still quite poorly understood. There are a number of theories, some more convincing than others, but no one knows exactly how life initially began, even just on Earth. Then there are the problems and pitfalls of evolution. We know that it’s taken billions of years for everything that’s alive on this planet right now to get to this point - that it’s an incredible but also incredibly slow process. But some theories argue that life more advanced than humans will’ve had to have developed over an even greater period of time. Generally speaking, though, that’s not much of a problem for the universe as a whole. Sure, it’s taken 4.5 billion years for modern life to arrive on Earth, but the universe itself is some 13.8 billion years’ old. There’s time and then some for life to have developed elsewhere, then, and if more time really does equate to more advanced beings - which it may or may not - then there could be creatures on planets out there with more than twice what humans and the Earth have to work with… meaning many, many more advanced civilizations than our own. 

It almost certainly isn’t as simple as all that, though. For one, the timescale for the development of human civilization really depends on where you start from - the creation of Earth (billions of years ago), the first appearance of ancient hominins (millions of years ago), the development of agriculture (thousands of years ago), or someplace else? Theoretical civilizations could well advance at differing rates, too, some slower and some faster than humans. Meanwhile, there’s a concept known as the Great Filter to contend with, offering another explanation as to why space doesn’t already appear to be creaking with intelligent life, despite the apparently vast statistical probability that there is other life out there. While the Fermi Paradox asks “where are all the aliens?”, the Great Filter answers that there has to be a particular step in the development of life that’s so rare that it almost never happens, or that it happened just once for our own case. It’s a theoretical concept dialing down on whatever it is that seemingly prevents intelligent life from becoming common in the universe. 

There are a number of suggestions as to what this preventative structure could be. The chances of Abiogenesis occurring anywhere could just be astronomical; or the chances of life developing and surviving for so long could be miniscule; or there’s the possibility that despite abiogenesis and evolution, all civilizations inevitably destroy themselves when they become too intelligent. And that’s why we haven’t found aliens yet; they’ve all killed themselves off. It’s also why many are concerned that various human activities will soon bring about our own demise… we could be falling into the same trap, where our apparent intelligence becomes our downfall. 

The problem again, though, is that we only have one data point to go from, ourselves, and nothing to compare us to. So, while it’s wholly unlikely that we’re the most advanced civilization there is… it’s also not impossible! Similarly, we can’t reliably say how long a civilization lasts once it becomes advanced, either. We’re obviously still here, but that’s all we know. We, humankind, might’ve completed the Great Filter already… or we could still be passing through it, destined to one day disappear for whatever reason other advanced, hypothetical civilizations apparently have done. The outlook is either promising, or really rather bleak! But, whatever the case, it adds another strand to this thought experiment, where humans could not only be the most advanced civilization right now, but also of all time, across the universe’s entire history. Logic says that one civilization has to rank as the most advanced ever, so what if we’re it? After all, from our perspective, there aren’t currently any other candidates. 

Could we really be that unique? Well, as fun (or frankly terrifying) as it might be to imagine that humans are the most intelligent living thing there ever was… it’s also extremely, extremely unlikely. At this stage, we can’t even be totally sure that we’re the first advanced beings on Earth. We’re yet to find proof of any life outside of Earth. And, given that when we observe other stars, planets and galaxies in the sky we’re actually seeing them as they were however many lightyears in the past… if we ever did find signs of alien life, we’d only ever be seeing it as it was in its own ancient history. Baring all of that in mind, there have been various studies to calculate just how special (or not special) we truly are. 

For example, one 2016 study by the physicist Adam Frank argued that the only way humans could be the first technologically advanced species in the history of the universe is if the odds of a civilization developing on habitable planets were less than one in ten billion trillion… but most predictions have the chances of life as much higher than that. A 2020 study led by a team at the University of Nottingham, for instance, argued that there could be as many as 211 actively communicating civilizations right now, in just our own Milky Way Galaxy. If that’s true then human life, while still special, isn’t unique, and could even be primitive compared to some of the others. Almost all calculations of this kind, however, depend at some point on how you apply the Drake Equation - all of it, or part of it - which we know is open for interpretation, bias and inaccuracy. 

According to one multi-authored study in 2018, for example, titled “Dissolving the Fermi Paradox”, humans really could be a one off. It used a parameter of values, rather than exact numbers, and concluded that humans are most likely the only intelligent species around; that our existence is so improbably, incomprehensibly rare. On the other hand, there’s the often-cited Infinite Monkey Theorem - the idea that monkeys randomly pressing keys on a computer could eventually type out the works of Shakespeare - which argues that given enough time, anything can happen, no matter how unlikely it might seem. So, for civilizations more advanced than human beings, it just depends on whether 13.8 billion years is enough time? 

In truth, there’s just too much uncertainty about almost all the key values required here to estimate where on a Kardashev-type ladder of advancement we might rank, or if indeed there are other civilizations out there to even rank alongside. With a sample size of one, life on Earth, we just don’t know enough about life in general - its properties and potential. Some will argue that it’s exceedingly common, pointing out that we’re so far one for one; that the only planet that we know of that’s perfect for life - Earth - has successfully developed it. But, at the same time, others see our being here as just the product of extremely good fortune and impossibly aligned circumstances. 

If we’re so unlikely that we’re actually alone, then we’re naturally the most advanced… if we’re not, if life itself is common, well, the odds that we’re the superior ones aren’t at all in our favor.

So, what’s your verdict? Is humankind the highest there is? Or are we quite insignificant in the grand scheme of things? What do you think about the idea of a knowledge ark? Can you picture a type five power being the master manipulator of everything? Is it possible that scientists have already discovered a type three group? And how would you use the Drake Equation to best understand the true nature of reality?

Is there an advanced civilization above humans? On the one hand, there’s nothing that we have yet identified. On the other, in a potentially infinite universe, along a potentially endless pecking order, the chances are that there has to be something more.