"...is laying the groundwork for a Type I economy." When I heard this I had to turn the radio and laugh my ass off in the car. I cannot believe this guys sometimes. I mean, first of all, his civilizational schema seems to assume that history began yesterday. If anyone isn't really familiar he has this theory of the evolution of civilization. According to him, we are now only a Type 0 civilization. This is absurd. We're not living in caves are we? Have we made no progress whatsoever in our history? I mean if I had to I'd say we are a Type II civilization. That is, a Type 0 civilization would be pre-steam, Type I would be the steam era (a.k.a. the industrial revolution), and Type II would be our era which is the age of electronics.
As far as the whole European Union thing, this is obviously a sign that Kaku is a crank in anything other than physics, and maybe even in that. Please discuss. :)
Kaku has some really stupid ideas.
He appears to be muddleheaded through and through, much like Chomsky.
Why anarchy fails
Isnt' Kaku saying that Type 1 civiliizations are "space faring." We've been to the Moon ,but are not yet interplanetary.
Kaku also has said he wants to merge his mind with a machine so he can watch humanity develop; the mindset of a true delusional elitist. It is in the TLC show "2054" or something.
You know academia is in a sorry state when Age of Empires and Civilization IV have better ways to define technological boundaries than a theoretical physicist. Anybody who thinks the Paleo/neolithic is functionally identical to the Renaissance needs to have their head examined, and I don't care if that's by a medicine man or a doctor in a spooky bird costume.
The thing that just got me so riled up was isn't the European Union kind of an economic disaster area at this point? If that's what Type I looks like, maybe we don't want it. That and the fact that they kept pushing countries to vote for their constitution until they approved it. That doesn't sound very enlightened.
The Kardashev scale says we are almost three quarters of the way there.
We are the soldiers for righteousnessAnd we are not sent here by the politicians you drink with - L. Dube, rip
Does this mean we are heading towards a Steam-Punk era?
Type 1 civs harness the power of their planet directly and have a global communicative ability. The point is that if you're talking about potential space-faring civs; the difference between H-G's and modern civs is not important.
In States a fresh law is looked upon as a remedy for evil. Instead of themselves altering what is bad, people begin by demanding a law to alter it. ... In short, a law everywhere and for everything!
~Peter Kropotkin
Kaku is a mouthpiece. Sci-fi society typing does nothing to clarify our future or further our technological or other progress. Real science is study of what is, not what can be dreamt up. Looks like Kaku missed his calling as a sci-fi novelist.
Clayton -
He talks with such certainty about what will be happening in the year 2100 and so on. It's kind of surreal. Why make the standard of civlization based on whether they are space faring or not? That seems utterly arbitrary. Even if you do use that as your standard there is still a huge difference between "H-G's" and modern civilization. That is just asinine to say otherwise.