humanity is not even close to a Type I civilization
Researchers say that our civilization is at a level of development that does not allow contact with alien life.
In searches for alien civilizations, people tend to look for the types of signals that they themselves could broadcast, assuming that aliens would use the same technologies, writes IFLScience.
This conclusion is quite logical, but far from ideal. As the example of humanity itself shows, intelligent civilizations can quickly abandon old discoverable technologies, replacing them with new ones.
For example, people quickly moved from using analog signals to digital signals for communication. At the same time, analog signals were better detectable, but alien civilizations could also abandon them, moving to more advanced technologies.
Scientists have spent a lot of time searching for the type of signal that a more advanced civilization would be able to send, as well as what to say in that message.
“In the 1960s, the idea was put forward to use for messages the well-known frequency at which neutral hydrogen is emitted into interstellar space at a frequency of 1.42 GHz. Because such natural radiation is distributed throughout the galaxy, the idea is that any intelligent civilization would know about it and could target that frequency to transmit its own signals,” says astronomer Brian Brzycki of Berkeley.
Sending signals to every corner of the galaxy or even the universe, especially continuous signals that increase the chances of detection, requires a lot of energy, much more than we can generate.
In 1963, astronomer Nikolai Kardashev tried to calculate what energy could be used to send these kinds of signals. He also suggested the level of development of a civilization that would be capable of sending such signals.
Thus, hypothetical civilizations were divided into 3 types depending on the energy that they are able to obtain from the environment.
Type I civilizations can use all the energy available to them on their planet (about 4×1019 ergs per second), using it for their own purposes. Type II civilizations can harness the energy of their star, for example using a Dyson sphere. It is a megastructure built around a star to generate energy. Type III civilizations can harness the energy of their entire galaxy.
The energy production of type II and III civilizations is very large indeed. It is estimated that, based on an increase in energy production on Earth by 1% per year, humanity will reach the above-mentioned stages only after 3200 years, and then after 5800 years.
New theories also suggest the existence of a Type IV civilization, which is capable of harnessing the energy of the entire observable universe. At the same time, according to scientists, if you look at the current energy consumption of humanity, people are a civilization of type 0.72.
According to experts, the chances of discovering a Type I civilization are extremely low, despite the fact that this type of civilization is far beyond our current capabilities.
But signals from Type II and III civilizations can be detected by less advanced civilizations using instruments similar to our own radio telescopes. True, civilizations like ours are unlikely to be able to respond to the received signal.
