Index
Type II Civilization
A Type II or K2 civilization has control over their solar system, and may be able to harness the power equivalent of a single star. It extracts fusion energy, information, and raw-materials from multiple solar systems; it is capable of evolutionary intervention, interstellar travel, interstellar communication, stellar engineering, terraforming, and star cluster-scale influence; the resulting proliferation and diversification may negate the probability of extinction. Complete control of the fate of its home planet where threats like ice ages and global warming can be avoided.
A possible utopian outcome on the low to mid end of the K-scale is the Dyson Sphere, a hollow gigantic shell with a surface area equivalent to millions of Earths that can fully enclose the Sun and capture all of its solar energy output. Under the direction of a godlike superintelligence, huge numbers of automated, self-replicating ships can build it using material from the asteroid belt, the Kuiper Belt, and the Oort Cloud. The interior walls will have a gravitational field similar to Earth's and will use magmatter to withstand the immense tensile forces required to maintain structural integrity. Portions of this sphere have stable atmospheres, oceans, and landmasses, and are a habitat for many sapient lifeforms, including biological humans, transhumans, aliens, and androids.
With digital immortality, many humans live in massive, hyper-realistic simulations. Others are using synthetic and biological bodies created for them in the physical world using advanced versions of nanotechnology and programmable matter.
Mars has been terraformed into a planet that's able to support a wide variety of animal and plant life. Biological humans walk on the surface of Mars without spacesuits. Mars is now another home, effectively becoming a backup for mankind.
After Mars, Venus is terraformed. Venus is now a habitable, Earth-like planet. Its entire orbit was shifted further away from the Sun to bring it closer to the Goldilocks Zone where biological life is able to exist at stable temperatures. Comets made of ice were redirected from the Oort Cloud and the Kuiper Belt into the upper atmosphere of Venus, releasing vast quantities of water. Carbon dioxide was captured and removed in Venus's atmosphere by dispersing nanobots to absorb carbon dioxide and other toxic gases and replace them with breathable air.
The high end of the K-scale would be a hybrid galactic culture, with millions of cooperating worlds in a galactic community. Poetically, this would be a mammoth archipelago of solar system societies, a multitude of civilized islands separated by the vastness of the oceans of space.