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[[Technology Levels]] has some actual reference in the real world in the form of the [[wikipedia:Kardashev scale|Kardashev Scale]], which indicates how much power a civilization uses. This was originally used in the context of astronomy, speculating about what advanced alien civilizations might look like from afar, particularly the implications of enormous energy demands. It has since been used to compare the [[Power Levels]] of fictional civilizations and, sometimes, individuals.
Note that the Kardashev number of a civilization indicates only its power use: it is at best just a proxy for the scale of technological capabilities at play, and it can become less proximate the [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness|softer]] the Sci-Fi gets, which also makes it harder to evaluate where a civilization rates on the Kardashev scale [[All There in the Manual|if no hard numbers are given]]. As an example, consider the human civilizations of ''[[Avatar (
The problem of pinning down these various entities to a nice level could imply a nice subtrope. Most [[Mohs Scale of Sci Fi Hardness|Soft Sci-Fi]] is powered by a Large Convenient Energy Source (LCES), which in theory provides [[No Conservation of Energy|as much energy as the plot requires without refueling]] ("Scotty, I need more power"). Meanwhile, since they are using magic, anti-matter, dark matter, white holes, or black holes, the theoretical power that these devices provide to our protagonists does not result in the expected megascale [[Dyson Sphere|Dyson Spheres]], [[Ringworld Planet|ring orbitals]], or [[Space Elevator|space elevators]]. Unfortunately (or fortunately for the sake of comprehensible story telling) we relate "better" to this soft Sci-Fi even though it does little to represent the actual technology needed to power replicators, transporters, shields, and artificial gravity on grand scales.
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* [[Ender's Game|Ender's Saga]]. As the typical interstellar travel time is tens of years at close to light speed, we can assume humanity still inhabits a relatively small patch of Galaxy after thousands of years. The shown planets have smaller civilizations than our current one, but they are numerous. It is hinted that nearly all of them were conquered in the Third Invasion, and that means no more than a few a day during a few years. Some of the more impressive technology, like interstellar travel, is noted to take relatively little power. So probably less than 1.5 x 10<sup> 17</sup>W.
* ''[[Transmetropolitan]]'' explicitly references the trope -- or an older version of it, anyway. Type I is described not only as harnessing all the power, but having eliminated internal conflicts. The other two types are largely the same. Spider notes that they can perform miracles with engines too small to be seen and have turned all of Mercury into a solar battery enough to power the entirety of Earth continuously... but they are still divided. Approximately 10<sup>17</sup>W if 60% or so of Mercury's light is harnessed.
* ''[[
* ''Triplanetary'', the prequel([[Dolled-Up Installment|-ish]]) [[Lensman]] novel, covers humanity going from a Type 0 to a Type 1. At the end, relatively easy interstellar travel has been achieved, and power is generated through (almost) completely efficient matter-to-energy conversion.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[A Miracle of Science]]'', most of the people live on incompletely utilized planets. However, Mars is completely harnessed and the Martians are doing some interesting things with all that power, though Mars gets quite a bit less sunlight than Earth. All told, probably about Type I.
* The ''major'' races in ''[[
** Debatable. They were able to reverse-engineer technology from the Reapers (below), quite fast, and put them onto their Fighters and Frigates. Also, it's only humanity's colonies that are sparsely populated; the turians had colonies big enough for several wars to be fought between them millennia ago.
* The 12 Colonies of Kobol in ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined|Battlestar Galactica]]'' (prior to the Cylon nuclear bombardment), given that they used at least a fraction of the power available on 12 planets, and have a decent fleet in a setting where nukes are plentiful and considered powerful.
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* The [[Mnogo Nukes|Tsar Bomba]], the most powerful device ever built by humanity, achieved about 5.3 x 10<sup>24</sup>W, near the top of this category.
* The human civilization in ''[[Freelancer]]'', a system-spanning bunch of colonies with lots of stars and planets at their disposal. They also have Jump Gates that interconnect their systems by carving holes through spacetime. Space travel is fairly cheap and common.
* The United Federation of Planets of ''[[
** In one episode, the power output of the ''Enterprise-D'' is given at "12.75 billion gigawatts", which is the same power output of an entire Type 1.3 civilization. So either the ''Enterprise-D'' alone uses an appreciable fraction of the Federation's resources, the Federation is well into Type 2 territory, or [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|the writers just picked a really big number that sounded impressive]].
** For comparison, a Nimitz-class carrier's output is about .001% the total global output, and a Saturn V's was about 3%. So, assuming a similar ratio between the Galaxy-class and the Federation, the whole civilization would be between 4 x 10<sup>20</sup> and 1 x 10<sup>24</sup>W, solidly in Type I territory. This seems to be in line with the widespread use of fusion and bulk antimatter for power.
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* The [[The Precursors|Dom Ka'vosh]] from ''[[Freelancer]]'', who built an almost galaxy-wide empire long before Humanity colonized the Sirius sector. You must enter a [[Dyson Sphere]] in the last mission, and nothing contradicts the possibility that there may be more of them.
** Then again, the "Dyson Sphere" seemed to have a building at the center instead of a star, so maybe it wasn't a real Dyson Sphere but just a [[Hollow World]]. Or that could just be an artifact of the game's [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|bizarre spatial measurement]].
* The unidentified builders of the Dyson Sphere in the ''[[Star Trek:
* The [[Ascend to
* Vorlons of ''[[Babylon 5]]'' are possibly this high based on some demonstrated planetary bombardment, but they're rather mysterious, so it's hard to say for sure. This is even more pronounced for their rivals the Shadows, which, though their superweapons seem to be considerably less powerful, are apparently in a stalemate with the Vorlons.
* The [[Warhammer 40000|Imperium of Man]] probably goes here. It possesses myriad hive worlds, each probably rating about Type I, and countless Type 0 worlds across much of the galaxy. Their more powerful weapons can blow up planets, indicating transitory mid Type II scale power use, though that happens fairly rarely.
* The elusive Geth of [[
== Solid Type II: Clearly more power than a single star, but less than a galaxy. ==
* The unseen aliens in [[The Space Odyssey Series]] have the ability to make stars. This might indicate midlevel Type II power use, depending on just how they go about it.
* In ''[[
** It is probable that Petey is not yet at Type III. A mid-high Type II, maybe, but it isn't clear that he has harnessed the power equivalent of a whole galaxy from just the core. While the core of an active galaxy can outshine the rest, the Milky Way's core emits only a tiny percentage of the overall energy output, so the Fleetmind is probably here unless they're force-feeding the black hole.
** Whether the Andromedan Darkmatter Entities are classifiable as Class III, Class IV, or even classifiable at all, is another matter entirely... but for their sake, you'd better hope they're pretty high, seeing as Petey is dedicating most of his available forces to fighting them.
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* In ''[[Known Space]]'', Puppeteers are pretty solidly Type II. They (claim to have) disassembled at least one entire solar system to build their Fleet of Worlds and accelerated it to a reasonable fraction of the speed of light. They bought the technology to do so from Outsiders, but they were still able to implement their plans on their own.
* The Protoss in [[Starcraft]] have Warp Gates, shields, the ability to distort localized space, and no small amount of [[Frickin' Laser Beams]]. Even individuals and their robots can create local spacetime distortions. However, it is mentioned they are not a prolific race, so that may play with their measurements somewhat.
* The Combine in ''[[
* The Eldar in Warhammer 40,000 were, at their height, capable of birthing and destroying stars. Much of their technology was lost with the Fall (such as the ability to maintain and expand the Webway, a pocket dimension used for safe interstellar travel), they are still able to "capture" stars to use as power sources.
* In his most outrageous [[Silver Age]] incarnation, [[Superman]] could blow out stars with his super-breath, and reignite them with his heat vision. He was thus ''personally'' a Type II on the Kardashev scale.
* Referenced in the [[Alt Text]] for [http://xkcd.com/975/ this] ''[[
== Borderline Type III: power use roughly equivalent to a galaxy's radiant output. 1E36W ==
* The Milky Way shines with about 4 x 10<sup>37</sup>W.
* Human civilization in the [[
* The Pa'anuri of ''[[
** That's their expeditionary force though, the combined 'power' of their population in Andromeda...
* The Galactic Republic/Empire of [[Star Wars]], a galaxy-spanning society with very fast FTL and at least a million heavily developed planets, is a very high Type II, possibly a Type III (at least when the guy with the underbite helmet pulls the lever).
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* The ''[[wikipedia:Star Maker|Star Maker]]'' by [[wikipedia:Olaf Stapledon|Olaf Stapledon]]. The stellar energy output of the whole galaxy is utilized by the ''Galactic Community of Worlds''. -- about 10<sup>36</sup>W
* A rare single being example, Nuklear Man from Brian Clevinger's ''[[Nuklear Age]]'' is capable of using half the power of ''every star in the Milky Way'' to kill [[Reality Warper|Nihilus]].
* The aliens in ''[[Contact (
== Solid Type III: More power than a single galaxy, but probably less than a galactic supercluster. ==
* Quasars vary, but 1 x 10<sup>40</sup>W is a ballpark.
* ''[[
** A star puts out a lot more energy from fusion than a black hole of the same mass would from Hawking radiation. Also, the more massive the hole, the lower its effective temperature. This might be more of a Type II or borderline Type III, depending on exactly how many "multiple" is.
* Though the details are a bit sketchy, some remarks in [[H.P. Lovecraft
* An offshoot of the Caeliar species in the [[Star Trek Destiny]] series. They had been shunted back in time nearly fourteen billion years into another galaxy. In the intervening years, they constructed a [[Dyson Sphere]] around ''every star in their new galaxy'', knowing that such overt technology would attract the attention of their past selves [[Time Travel Tense Trouble|living in the present]], which would let them destroy them for investigating and send a few meager remnants into the past, completing a [[Stable Time Loop]]. They fact that the Caeliar as a whole are borderline [[Reality Warper|Reality Warpers]] who have [[Clarke's Third Law|ridiculously advanced technology]] that makes them functionally immortal and can teleport away entire planets and civilizations that come bothering them probably pushes them close to a Type IV.
* The Danannians from L.E. Modesitt's The Eternity Artifact were at least Type III, but it's entirely possible they were a borderline type IV+.
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** The Master with his 100,000 Black Hole Converters also gets this distinction, assuming they harness the same energy conversion of the gravitational potential energy to neutrinos.
** If you are wondering why they have so many headaches, Time Lords have a big thing about not interfering. You see, the Silver Nemesis, the Time Scoop, all of these things are ludicrously powerful. In "The Three Doctors", they seem to have a monitoring station capable of keeping track of all of the energy in the universe. They are, however, an indolent bunch of bureaucrats and politicians and rarely ''use'' any of their power. The Osirians were said to be able to defeat even the Time Lords. As for the Black and White Guardians, they appear to be personifications of universal concepts, effectively gods, so they are probably beyond even a type IV.
** One of the [[Expanded Universe]] novels states that their stunning ''lack'' of personalities is a cultural defense to make sure no Time Lord gets [[Drunk
** The People, from the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' [[Virgin New Adventures|New Adventures]] novel ''The Also People'', are described as being roughly on par with the Time Lords (to the extent that they actually have a non-aggression pact with them). The technology we see is at the "magic" level, but there's not enough specific information to pinpoint it. They seem to use it only for personal sensual gratification, however.
*** Note that The People are collectively a massive "[[Captain Ersatz]]" of [[Iain M Banks]]' "The Culture."
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* Traditional view of a God creating the universe ex-nihilo means you need to take the current mass-energy content of the universe (4 x 10<sup>69</sup>J) and have expelled it in the time before time existed (one unit of Planck time, or 5.39124 x 10<sup>-44</sup> seconds), coming up with 7 x 10<sup>112</sup>W. This would put God, at a bare minimum, as a [[Beyond the Impossible|Type X]].
* A bizarre example in the ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven" -- the Earth and all the galaxies in the universe are shown to be part of Adam West's bedside table lamp.
* For the denizens of the [[
** And consider that in the Futurama universe, Earth/humanity is a pathetic third-rate wannabe power, only able to bully the very smallest and weakest other cultures- comparable to fascist 1930's-era Italy.
* The Xeelee from the novels of Stephen Baxter's ''[[
* Humanity in the Dancers at the End of Time series: they abused the universe so much that the heat death of the universe is on the verge of happening merely one million years in the future, instead of several trillions. The worst part is that they could fix it, and the ''only thing'' preventing them is... intellectual lazyness.
* The somewhat hazy physics of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' make judging tech levels somewhat difficult, but the Anti-Spirals are easily a Type IV, if not above that: they can manipulate probability to ensure their weapons always hit, they can dodge attacks by casual time travel, and they can create a galaxy-sized [[Humongous Mecha]] that can use the Big Bang as a [[Wave Motion Gun]]. And it's suggested that that's nowhere near the limit of their abilities: in ''[[The Movie|Lagann-hen]]'', they one-up their galaxy-sized mecha with a [[Serial Escalation|universe-sized one]]. The heroes of the story use [[Functional Magic|Spiral energy]] to achieve similar abilities (it's likely that the titular Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, the good counterpart to the aforementioned galaxy-sized mecha, is likely a Type IV on its own), but their civilization is never shown above Type II.
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** However, one of their primary power sources was a miniature universe in a bottle, which were probably mass-produced before they fell.
** The Ori of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' are probably comparable, though since they actually do stuff in the physical universe, they probably could be rated if more information were available.
* The Arquillians from the first ''[[Men in Black (
* The [[Precursors]] in ''[[Contact (
** [[Fridge Logic]]: If pi has an infinite decimal expansion (it does) and is non-repeating (also true), then any sequence you can imagine occurs eventually, simply because ''that's how infinity works''. (It is, however, implied that these sequences occur suspiciously ''early'' in the expansion.)
*** Not exactly. Such a number is called a normal number, but not all irrational numbers are normal. Take, for instance, the number 0.101001000100001000001..., which is infinite and non-repeating, but will never, for instance, have the string "27" or even "11".
* Pre-Mending Planeswalkers from [[Magic:
** Post-Mending 'walkers are still powerful, but much less so. Still, they probably would easily exceed Type III.
** To put the sheer power of the typical <s> MtG player</s> Planeswalker, a crossover with Dungeons and Dragons would be nearly impossible, or at least hard to make sense of, since even achieving epic level (level 20 or above in 4e) is still only a fraction of the power MtG planeswalkers are capable (probably level 25 and above, in D&D terms).
* The holder of the Infinity Gauntlet in the [[Marvel Universe]] possesses pretty high order omnipotence, capable of moving multiple universes and effortlessly deposing the living incarnation of all matter, energy and time in the universe.
* In ''[[
* The 4-D beings from ''[[Star Ocean Till the End of Time]]'' could be considered an example, if a very strange one. Sure, our entire universe is just an MMORPG that they created, but by our standards, the energy output needed to manage our universe as well as all their own affairs would be absolutely incredible.
* The Markovians from Chalker's [[Well World]] series are here, given that they built planet-sized megacomputers that could freely revise physical laws, edit the course of history, and indeed kept the universe stable. Specific estimates of energy usage are probably a moot point, as they were the ones deciding how much energy there ''is'' in the universe.
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* The Tyranids of [[Warhammer 40000]] are an interesting case. If the statement that they've consumed multiple entire galaxies is true, they might be an unconventional Type III, though that depends greatly on the dormant metabolism of Tyranids drifting through space, as even if they have that much mass available<ref>questionable even then, as they seem to only assimilate parts of planets rather than entire stars and nebulae</ref>, actual power use is what counts. Their typical MO of removing a good chunk of terrestrial planets' mass and draining the heat from what's left operates fairly slowly, so probably represents a mid Type I power expenditure per planet being consumed. They may consume up to few planets at any given time, though hive fleets take a while to travel between systems, so this output probably isn't sustained. A full hemisphere-darkening invasion force probably represents about a Type I expenditure for each planet under attack.
** The Necrons and their masters the C'tan are also hard to pin down. The C'tan feed off stars, so might individually approach Type II, though they're not usually very active. The Necrons have the goal of separating the Warp from physical reality, a universe scale goal, though they seem to confine their efforts to one galaxy for now. They have the most advanced technology in the setting, and have fought on galactic scales in the distant past, but virtually all now lie dormant in buried tombs. Though their technology is very potent, they may be low on the Kardashev scale of the major factions of WH40K in the present setting due to their extremely small active numbers. Like the Tyranids, all bets are off if they become active en masse, particularly since they are known to possess at least one Dyson Sphere.
* Magratheans from ''[[The
* The Forerunners of ''[[Halo]]'' at the height of their power were more or less masters of the galaxy, though it's hard to put a number to their power use. They built rather large structures around the galaxy, which might indicate low to mid Type I depending on how fast they did it. Their higher-end stuff, like the "kill everything sapient in the galaxy" function of the halos could potentially get them into Type III, though its actual workings are pretty sketchy on the power needed, especially since it doesn't appear to be a brute-force effect, and the halos would appear to not have nearly the mass-energy available to fuel Type III power use.
** Turns out they successfully built an actual Dyson Sphere (and contained it within another dimension to be only a couple meters wide in normal space), so at least Type II.
* The Reapers of [[
* The villains in the [[Callahan's Crosstime Saloon
* Human civilization in Walter Jon Williams' novel Implied Spaces is at a similar level, and indeed features pocket universes full of anitmatter being used as weapons.
* In the ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' verse, it's never revealed specifically if there's an upper limit to just how much power an S2 organ can generate. As shown in ''End of Evangelion'', at least ten of them<ref>the nine MP Evas plus Yui who got hers from Zeruel; Adam surely doesn't have one after being regrown into an embryo</ref> put together has the power to terraform Earth. In fact, Fuyutsuki's monologue about the Fruit of Knowledge (a human mind) plus the Fruit of Life (an S2 organ) equalling what is essentially God sounds like a borderline type I.
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== Multiple: For the upwardly/downwardly mobile. ==
* In the ''[[
** In ''Master of Orion 2'' the weapon ''Stellar Converter'' is capable of destroying planets in matter of seconds (debatable as it takes a turn to do so), meaning their energy output has to be in order of 10<sup>30</sup>J - give or take few magnitudes - in order to overcome the gravitational binding energy of a planet sized object. Also, you can also construct Earth-like planets from asteroid belts and gas giants. This would suggest mid to high Type II power use.
* Civilization in the ''[[Lensman]]'' novels progresses from what's probably a low Type II (a significant portion of the Milky Way colonized, FTL travel, 'super-atomic' and energy weapons) at the beginning of ''Galactic Patrol'' to a probable Type III (two galaxies colonized, travel between parallel universes, faster-than-light planets used as weapons powerful enough to cause supernovas) by the end of ''Children of the Lens''. The Children of the Lens themselves are near-godlike beings.
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** TL 12 -- Age of Miracles. Near total control of time and space. People can buy pocket universes.
* GURPS is also notable among RPGs because it gives rules for mismatched tech levels. An enlightened and peaceful civilization might have figured out bodily immortality (TL 11) yet have no weapons more advanced than "mere" 20th-century nukes (TL 7).
** GURPS also allows fantasy/alternative technology forms, For example, a Steampunk world like ''[[
* [http://www.orbitalvector.com/Essays/TECH%20LEVELS%20OF%20SCIENCE%20FICTION%20GROUPS%20AND%20CULTURES.htm This page] has a list of [[Sci Fi]] civilizations ranked by tech level. You could disagree with at least a few placements, but it's there.
* Human civilization in ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' merits mention here. Humanity's technology level is ''ridiculously'' schizophrenic thanks to tens of millenia of war and upheaval. At its height, humanity had true AI, rapid interstellar travel, controlled the vast majority of the galaxy, is implied to have mastered matter-energy conversion, and bent the laws of the universe to its whim. Twenty thousand years of devastating galactic war later, scraps of technology from that era are worth destroying star systems over. Though the Imperium of Man and Adeptus Mechanicus don't understand how much of their most advanced technology works anymore, they still show hallmarks of a borderline Type III civilization, notably whenever the technologies of war come into question. Meanwhile, any given Imperial planet can range from the Stone Age to high type II. [[Schizo-Tech]] at its finest, folks.
* ''[[
== [[Schizo-Tech]]: For cases that appear contradictory. ==
* ''[[
* Where [[Transformers|the Transformers]] fit on the scale depends on the continuity. But in the Movie-verse, they have devices that can suck the energy from stars, destroying them in the process. Though that would suggest Type III-IV, their on-screen activities look far below Type I. Though other continuities aren't necessarily entirely consistent, they do better than an apparent forty orders of magnitude mismatch.
** They also have FTL, warp gates, personal subspace storage and gravity control, portable weapons which interdimensionally draw power from black holes, force fields, invisibility, time travel, and can fall from Earth orbit to the surface without burning up or being killed by the impact. And they fight by punching each other, and can be demobilized by a flat tire. Apparently their Mileage Varies.
** Some features of the Movie-verse (such as the apparent condition of what we see of Cybertron) strongly suggest that the Transformers have destroyed their technology base through the course of their civil war. This means that while they may have individual pieces of tech that are appropriate for Type II+ cultures, they may well be limited to Type I or lower simply because the hardware for better no longer exists.
* The UNSC and Covenant from [[Halo]]. From the scale of the fleets and other combat forces, the development of planets and industry, they look borderline Type I or so. From the usual figures cited for MAC cannons and the efficacy of Covenant ship weapons, they look like maybe a solid Type I. However, the claimed power of the "Super MAC" cannons and the Covenant's ability to "glass" the surface of planets is several orders of magnitude larger than anything else either side does, getting into borderline Type II territory.
** As revealed in the [[Easter Egg|Data Pads]] of [[Halo: Reach]], the ability of the Covenant to 'glass' planets is propaganda devised by a [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness|group of human-created artificial intelligences]]. True, the Covenant COULD turn an entire planet into a hunk of glass...provided they had millennia to do so. However, the thought of an alien empire 'glassing' entire colonies certainly galvanized humanity to fight back.
*** On the other hand, according to Lord Hood in ''Halo 3'' the Heretic Elite supercarrier ''Shadow of Intent'' glassed half the continent of Africa in about an hour... while he watched it happen with his own eyes.
** However, for the Covenant, it should be noted that much of their tech is taken from Forerunner ruins, and is mostly set up by the Engineers, possibly explaining the gaps.
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