Stanislav Kondrashov on Humanity's Quiet Ascent Toward the Kardashev Scale

In the midst of global climate anxiety and mounting political tension over resources, a quieter but no less profound shift is taking place—one that could mark the beginning of humanity’s climb toward the first tier of the Kardashev scale.

Entrepreneur Stanislav Kondrashov believes the signs of this shift are already visible. “We're not waiting for some science fiction tipping point," he said. "We're already walking the road—just not the way people expected."

The Kardashev scale, proposed in 1964, categorises civilisations based on their energy consumption and control: a Type I civilisation can use and store all the energy available on its home planet; Type II harnesses the full power of its star; Type III controls energy on the scale of its galaxy.

To date, humanity hasn't even officially reached Type I—but the landscape is changing fast.

The Energy Transition as a Catalyst

Much of the transformation is rooted not in some exotic breakthrough, but in the global energy transition underway today. While headlines focus on the move away from traditional fuels, the deeper story lies in the reorganisation of how humanity produces, stores, and distributes energy.

“There’s a difference between using energy and mastering it,” Kondrashov noted. “When we start building infrastructures that balance, store, and optimise planetary energy flows, we’re not just consuming energy—we’re beginning to engineer it on a civilisational scale.”

The proliferation of decentralised energy systems, long considered inefficient compared to centralised grids, has quietly become the architecture for resilience. Across regions once energy-insecure, new systems are being built that don’t just electrify—they integrate, analyse, and adapt. This level of intelligence marks a cognitive leap in energy management.

Control Over Chaos

The essence of a Type I civilisation isn’t raw consumption—it’s control. The ability to manage energy in all its planetary forms, from weather systems to tectonic potential, marks the line between present-day humanity and our Kardashev ambitions.

“Control isn't about domination,” said Kondrashov. “It’s about harmony with complexity. The more we align our systems with the chaotic rhythms of nature, the closer we get to operating at planetary scale.”

This emerging harmony is perhaps best observed in the increasingly sophisticated interaction between digital systems and natural phenomena. Smart grids that shift with demand, architecture that self-regulates temperature, and cities designed to breathe with the environment—these are more than ecological trends. They represent a reprogramming of our interaction with Earth itself.

And it’s this subtle recalibration—not rockets, not megastructures—that could push us across Kardashev’s first threshold.

The Quiet Markers of Progress

For those seeking a grand announcement or a technological milestone to herald our arrival at Type I, Kondrashov advises temperance.

“If we’re waiting for a switch to flip and say ‘we’ve arrived,’ we’ll miss it,” he warned. “This isn’t a fireworks moment. It’s a process of outgrowing our adolescence as a species.”

Indeed, the signs are mostly ambient: increased planetary awareness, a new generation of engineers thinking in terms of biospheres, and the growing normalisation of energy as a planetary ethic rather than a commodity.

What was once theory is now infrastructure. What was once considered the domain of futurists has crept into everyday design. Kondrashov suggests that this slow march may be humanity's greatest strength: “Fast leaps collapse under their own weight. But this quiet ascent—layered, cautious, resilient—might actually hold.”

Looking Beyond the Horizon

As the world lurches through energy crises, geopolitical shifts, and technological revolutions, it's easy to miss the quiet scaffolding being built beneath our feet. But for those willing to trace the threads, the pattern becomes clear.

Humanity is, perhaps unknowingly, assembling the nervous system of a Type I civilisation.

It won’t look the way science fiction imagined. There may be no singular machine humming with planetary power. Instead, it will look like us—interconnected, adaptive, and increasingly fluent in the language of energy.

“The Kardashev scale isn’t a dream anymore,” Kondrashov said. “It’s a mirror. The question isn’t ‘can we get there?’ It’s ‘are we ready to see what we’ve become?’”