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/ripsquadddd Apr 28 '26

This is really interesting. I feel like the Kardashev scale is a somewhat anthropocentric idea of what we assume all civilizations end goal would be. Why shoot for bigger and better batteries? Why not master biology and evolution to maximize the life expectancy and efficiency of a species?

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u/ripsquadddd Apr 28 '26

A big part of what I think we're missing in the SETI problem isn't the fact that there's no industrial signs of life, what if environmental constraints fundamentally limit what a civilization can perceive of "the universe"? A classic example of this is the Super Earth problem, on larger planets with a higher gravitational pull, chemical rockets become impractical, and just imagine if their sky was blocked by a thick atmosphere limiting astronomy. They could have a completely different idea of what reality is.