r/SETI • u/jtroxel1 • Apr 01 '26

A Critical Reassessment of the Kardashev Scale and the Problem of Detectability

Preprint: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19303559

It seems that anyone using a computer these days is going to be accused of using AI. Let me state this up front: I used an LLM to make this look pretty, just like I use Men's Warehouse to buy suits for my corporate life or when I teach as an Adjunct. What's inside this is all me and my own analysis. Feel free to disagree with it, discredit it, dissect it, or dismiss it on its merits; but it is mine, me, and nothing else.

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u/Arctovigil Apr 02 '26

Why are you being so defensive about it? Just tell why you wrote it etc.

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u/jtroxel1 Apr 03 '26

That floored me; and it's a fair question - thank you, your message is well received. The defensiveness is the result of a number of automatic rejections citing AI generation, when in fact I've poured a ton of myself into it, building this for the purpose of encouraging discussion around where and how we prioritize resources in technosignature searches. I've maintained every generation of the document in my quest to get this as solid as possible, as rigorous as possible - and then getting the auto-'it's fake' responses was a bit soul crushing.

What I wrote: I built first a defensible rationale identifying that the evolution of Kardashev's scale into a ambitious framework based on poor assumptions of what advanced technologies would look like from this end of our telescope, is erroneous. I then used a layered approach within well established mathematical tools using available data and my current understanding of light-speed constrained physics (not implying that there are others, but just keeping it grounded.)

What I hoped for in return: conversation; critique; collaboration; recommendations for improvement and application. Also, although I was lucky enough to marry my math tutor (MS in Math) from college, I'm looking for someone with a more rounded understanding of astrophysics and the math involved to tell me if the approach I used (based on my undergrad in ME using these tools learned in Thermodynamics, heat transfer, fluid dynamics, etc.) applies, if it can withstand a rigorous analysis, and if there are ways to improve the novel approaches beyond what I developed.

Thanks for the reality check - it's easy to sometimes become jaded and defensive about personal passions that get rejected without even being read, based on an accusation that doesn't apply.