Humans have reached the second level of civilization in the universe

If someone asks, are humans alone in the universe? I believe that most people will give a negative answer. The scientific community also generally believes that in the vast universe, there should be a large number of intelligent civilizations, some of which may even be far ahead of our human civilization, to better describe the level of technology of intelligent civilizations in the universe, scientists also put forward the concept of "cosmic civilization level".

Looking back at the development of human beings, we can see that the development of an intelligent civilization is always accompanied by energy consumption, and the higher the level of technology, the greater the consumption of energy, so "energy consumption" can be used as an important indicator to measure the level of technology of intelligent civilizations.

As early as 1964, astronomer Nikolai Kardashev divided the possible intelligent civilizations in the universe into three classes, and pointed out that a class I civilization could control planetary-level energy, a class II civilization could control stellar-level energy, and a class III civilization could control galactic-level energy.

In the following years, astrophysicist Carl Sagan proposed the widely used formula of "cosmic civilization index", namely "K = (log10P - 6)/10" ("P" stands for the power of intelligent civilization), according to which we can conclude that the power of the first, second and third civilizations in the universe are 10^16W, 10^26W and 10^36W respectively.

In comparison, the power of our humans is about 2 x 10^humansthat is, our human civilization is only 0.73 level civilization, which is still quite a long distance from the first level civilization, but we still optimistically believe that shortly, shortly the first level civilization, and if we give time, it is not impossible to reach the second level civilization (as for the third level civilization, just (as for the third level civilization, don't think about it for now).

However, the power of the second level of civilization in the universe is as high as 10^26W, which means that the power of human beings has to be increased by 5 trillion times from the existing base to reach the level of civilization. Where does such a huge amount of energy come from? Of course is the most powerful source of energy in the solar system - the sun.

You know that the sun occupies 99.86% of the mass of the entire solar system, and the power of the sun is as high as 3.8 x 10^26W, which means that humans only need to be able to collect and use part of the energy released by the sun, you can reach the standard of a second-class civilization.

This concept was proposed by physicist Freeman Dyson in 1960, who believed that an intelligent civilization with highly developed technology would use a lot of energy from the star, and would use some kind of giant artificial structure to wrap the star and use it to capture most, if not all, of the star's energy. They would encase the star in some kind of giant artificial structure and use it to capture most, if not all, of the star's energy.

This kind of giant artificial structure is called the "Dyson Sphere", which is often used as a symbol of the second level of civilization in the universe, so the question arises when human beings reach the second level of civilization in the universe, will they build "Dyson Sphere"?n Sphere is indeed capable of harnessing the energy of a star with very high efficiency, but the problem is that building a Dyson Sphere is a very difficult task, the first of which is the source of materials, an artificial structure that can wrap around the sun must be larger in diameter than the sun. A man-made structure that can wrap the sun, its diameter must be larger than the sun, which will undoubtedly require a huge amount of material, but the vast majority of the material in the solar system is concentrated in the sun, which is very embarrassing.

Step back, even if humans can find enough materials, the next will also face many difficult problems, such as the strength and durability of the material itself, "Dyson ball" structure stability and high-temperature resistance, the collection, storage temperature of solar energy, routine maintenance, and renewal, etc.

Of course, the so-called, "difficult to sol." is only to the existing level of human technology, perhaps when humans reach the second level of civilization in the universe, its level of technology has been too high, can completely solve the construction of "Dyson ball" may encounter all kinds of problems.

But even if this is true, the future of mankind will not necessarily build the "Dyson sphere", because in the case of technology is strong enough, mankind should be able to get a lot of energy from the sun through a simpler method than the "Dyson sphere".

Consider this: Suppose there is a roaring bonfire, and we want to efficiently collect and use the energy from this bonfire, how should we do it? Is it to build an energy harvesting device next to the campfire? The answer is, of course, no, the correct approach should be: take away the fuel from the campfire, and then take it out to use when needed.