The Kardeshev Scale; Bitcoin is Type I Money

Introduction

I usually talk about Bitcoin and psychedelics, but today I want to talk about something even trippier. I want to talk about the importance of Bitcoin for the future of human civilization.

My name is Ioni Appleberg. I am a YouTuber, author, and medical doctor, and today we’re exploring this fascinating topic; Bitcoin is Kardashev type 1 money, and why this is a huge, huge deal. Let’s start with some history.

The Kardashev scale

In 1964, a grand measure of civilizations was proposed by Soviet astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev: the Kardashev scale. The Kardashev scale is a three-tiered system that classifies civilizations based on their technological sophistication and energy consumption. So, let’s go through them.

Type I (K1) civilization

A type I civilization is planetary. They control everything from the weather and volcanic activity to tectonic plate movement and the planet’s orbit. The key defining trait is that they harness every single watt of energy that their host star generously bestows upon their planet. They control all of the energy accessible on the planet.

Type II (K2) civilization

A type II civilization is stellar, and it is these civilizations that truly fascinate me. Type II civilizations, in contrast to type I, harness the total energy ouput of their whole star. Not just the energy that reaches their planet, but all of the energy that exists on their planet and that is produced by their star. This will be possible by using technology like Dyson spheres. A Dyson sphere is a theoretical megastructure that encapsulates an entire star, seizing all of its energy, proposed by physicist Freeman Dyson in the 1960s.

When we look for life in the Cosmos, we can either look for bio-signatures or techno-signatures. A bio-signature would be something like oxygen, carbon dioxide, methane; organic molecules in the exoplanet’s atmosphere, or we can look for techno signatures. A techno-signature would be something like a Dyson Sphere, and you can see a proposed design of one in the image below.

Type II civilizations have extended their reach beyond their home planet. They have colonized every planet in their solar system, and have the extraordinary capability to extract energy, data, and raw material, not just from every planet in their solar system, but from multiple star systems. This means that these civilizations can travel between the stars, influence the Universe on a star cluster scale, mastering the art of not just stellar engineering but interstellar travel. Imagine when we can do that! They can also terraform distant planets.

As a techno-optimist, these civilizations give me goosebumps. As a human being, frankly, they terrify me.

Type III (K3) civilization

At the height of the Kardashev scale are the type III civilizations, and they are Galactic. They control an entire galaxy, all of the stars, and all of the planets within. They have enough energy to traverse the galactic space lanes, control black holes, and play with quasars!

Now let me clarify one thing here. When I say that a particular civilization does something like controlling tectonic plate movements (type I civilizations), building Dyson spheres (type II civilizations), or controlling black holes (type III civilizations), I am not saying that these civilizations actually do these things. These civilizations, should they exist, by definition of where they are on the Kardashev scale, should possess enough energy to do these things.

Where does humanity currently sit?

So now to the important part. What about our civilization? Where do we stand on the Kardashev scale?

Well, our civilization still has a considerable journey ahead of it to reach even the status of a type I civilization, but we are gradually advancing. Every civilization rests on two fundamental technologies: energy control and communication. We progress socially, economically, and technologically by advancing our communication tools.

Imagine a world without roads, ships, airplanes, postal services, the internet, and monetary networks. It becomes abundantly clear that our civilization rests on these communication tools. We need roads, ships, and airplanes to move goods, services, and people. We need postal services and the internet to move information, and we need monetary networks to move value.

Our current placement on the Kardashev scale is modest, perhaps even underwhelming. We remain a type 0 civilization, barely scratching the surface with a score of 0.6. The ascent to type I status, despite appearing to be a small leap of just 0.4 points, is deceptively monumental, given the logarithmic nature of the Kardashev scale.

The transition to type I status demands a staggering 10,000-fold amplification of our current energy consumption. Not a doubling, not a tripling, a 10,000-fold amplification!

Ioni Appelberg, bitcoin atlantis 2024

It is hard to imagine, but we are gradually advancing. We have begun to introduce type I Technologies into our world, and we are now on the verge of embarking on a journey up the Kardashev scale. Our first type I technology is the Internet.

The Internet is type I technology

The internet marked a new phase of human civilization, it revolutionized global information and information exchange, a type I technology. Why is the internet a type I technology, whereas a toaster is not?

I am sure super-advanced civilizations enjoy toast just as much as the next one. Well, it is because the internet is fundamentally a planetary technology meant for global [planetary] information exchange. It makes sense that the internet is our first type I technology because of how important information exchange is to the advancement of civilizations. We can’t build a society if we can’t talk, that’s the story of the Tower of Babel. We can’t become a type I civilization if we can’t talk on a planetary scale like a type I civilization.

If you look at this image [below], this is the internet. The internet is a megastructure deployed in the oceans. Some people think the internet exists in the routers, some people think it exists in the air, and some people think it exists in space. But, the internet is a megastructure deployed in the oceans, one of the greatest human endeavors ever undertaken. When we look at this image, it becomes clear that the internet is a planetary technology, a Kardeshev type I technology.

Shortly after the emergence of the internet, we saw the birth of yet another transformative planetary technology; Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is type I money

Bitcoin is our most recent advancement in communication technologies. It is a technology that lets us send value from person to person across the entire globe in cyberspace without the need for a trusted third party. This has never existed before. It is a major leap in the evolution of human civilization.

Why is money important?

Money is the lifeblood of civilization. It [Bitcoin] is a magical technology. It is a technology that lets you store and safeguard the value of your labor in a token that you can move in time and space. This blows my mind.

Bitcoin and the internet elevate these processes. What we have done for information with the internet, we have now done for value with Bitcoin.

Bitcoin elevates these processes to a global scale, to a planetary scale, to the level of a Kardashev type I civilization.

Ioni Appelberg, Bitcoin Atlantis 2024

Pathway to a K1 Civilization

Now, the transition from where we are today to the next stage of civilization, and even beyond perhaps becoming the gods of the cosmos, might appear fantastical.  We could become a type I civilization in a century, we could become a type II civilization in a few millennia, and we could become a type III civilization in just a few hundred thousand years. In the grand theatre of cosmic time, that is but a blink of an eye.

If we can become a type III civilization in a few hundred thousand years – a civilization that controls an entire galaxy, in a few hundred thousand years! That is in less time than we have been around roaming the Earth as Homo sapiens, so who knows what lies beyond? Who knows?

I can tell you this for sure: our destiny is not grounded in the dust of our agrarian past but is instead found among the stars.

Ioni Appelberg, Bitcoin Atlantis 2024

The Future of Human Civilization

Now, Bitcoin is the bridge from where we are today to the next stage of civilization. We are not going to become a type I civilization using dollars and euros – It’s just not going to happen.

To become a type I civilization, a planetary civilization, we need a monetary technology that allows us to coordinate our resources, orchestrate the global workforce, and foster cooperation across continents and generations, like a type I civilization. If you want to become a 2000 ELO-rated chess player, you have to play chess like a 2000 ELO-rated chess player. That is the nature of advancement. We are not going to become a type I civilization unless we develop the technology to do so.

When we use the dollars to cosplay type I money, sending them across our imaginary borders, we are just larping. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is true planetary money because it is network-centric, it is open, it is neutral, and it is fundamentally a planetary technology meant for global information exchange. The dollar, on the other hand, is hierarchically organized, it is closed, it is exclusive, and it is centralized. As such, it would pose more problems to a type I civilization than it would provide opportunities and solutions.

So now that we have Bitcoin, we have a monetary network that is truly planetary. Four billion people are currently excluded from the global economic apparatus, that is half the human population not participating in the global economy. When that other half joins the Internet and the Bitcoin network, it will be the single greatest economic infusion in the history of our species, leading to unprecedented growth in our economy and our technology.

But Bitcoin doesn’t just improve the economy. Bitcoin is an entirely new kind of economy. Hear me clearly when I say this, please: 

Bitcoin is an entirely new kind of economic operating system. A planetary economic operating system with an inbuilt hyper-connectivity that connects the entire human race on a single open and neutral monetary network. That uses money, that cannot be corrupted to spy on you, that cannot be corrupted to steal from you, and that cannot be corrupted to fund Wars. Bitcoin is Kardashev type I money!

Ioni Appelberg, Bitcoin Atlantis 2024

So, zoom out and see how important this is for the future trajectory of humankind.

Thank you

Speaker: Ioni Appelberg
Conference: Bitcoin Atlantis | Day 1 | Open Source Stage
Presentation Date: March 01, 2024 Click to watch original presentation.

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