Science fiction that provides unlimited energy to a city, a space station, or a spacecraft is weak. Power is a limited resource and should be treated as such. No matter how advanced the civilization, a scramble for resources always ensues. Nations have risen and fallen over access to energy.

We need energy to survive. This is true for biological systems, plant life, nonbiological machinery, and, ultimately, the universe itself. Energy is the oomph we get from thermal sources such as the sun, chemical sources, mechanical motion, electricity, and nuclear reaction, to name a few.

Think about the time you finally decided to shovel your sidewalk after a blizzard. The energy for this project probably started out as chemical, meaning the Pop-Tart you had for breakfast. This chemical energy is transferred to the mechanical motion of your body shoveling the snow. If this were me, a portion of the food energy would also have been spent on swearing as my back began to ache.

Once humans created fire, we had the energy to stay warm and cook food. Eating cooked food uses less of the body's energy for digestion. More energy is available for the brain and, in the long run, allows more branches to be added to the evolutionary tree.

Speaking of trees, wood was one of our first nonfood power sources. Today, civilizations use combustible fuels such as oil and coal, or they use nuclear reactions. They also use renewable energy such as solar, wind, and water. And most recently, biofuel has been added to the mix.

CIVILIZATION RANKINGS

Now let's get to the fun stuff, rankings. I'm talking about civilization rankings. In 1964, astronomer Nikolai Kardashev created a scale to categorize how technologically advanced a civilization might be based on its energy usage.1 Without further ado, here is the Kardashev scale:

A type I civilization is able to harness all the power available on a single planet. They have complete planetary control. Using Mother Earth for reference, a type I civilization can harness 10¹⁶ to 10¹⁷ watts. That is a one followed by sixteen or seventeen zeros. Our civilization is classified as type 0, at a little more than 70 percent of what it takes to be upgraded to type I. An example of a type I civilization in fiction is Buck Rogers.

A type II civilization is able to harness all the power available from a single star. Using the measured luminosity of our sun for reference, this comes to about 3.86 x 10²⁶ watts. Examples in science fiction are all of the Star Trek mainline races (Federation planets, Klingons, etc.).

At the upper end of the type II range is the Dyson sphere. This megastructure is used a lot in science fiction but is based on science. It is named for mathematician Freeman Dyson who described how an artificial structure could completely encompass a sun and capture its power output.² The first science fiction description of such a structure was made by Olaf Stapledon in his 1937 novel Star Maker.³ In it he describes “worlds constructed of a series of concentric spheres.” In Larry Niven's novel Ringworld a Dyson sphere can be considered a main character. The description of how Ringworld can exist is hard science fiction at its best.

I hope you are ready for something really cool, something that ranks as cocktail conversation. About 1,500 light-years from here in the Cygnus constellation is a star called Tabby's Star (named after Tabetha S. Boyajian, its discoverer) that dims and brightens in odd but repeated patterns.⁴

A lot of speculation surrounds what this might mean. One unproven but fun explanation relevant to this chapter is that it could be a signal from an alien megastructure surrounding a star. The dips in light are too significant to be from a passing planet. A science fiction explanation is that it is a giant structure similar to the Dyson sphere.

A type III civilization is able to harness all the power available from a single galaxy. The measured luminosity of the Milky Way is approximately 1 x 10³⁷ watts.5 In fiction, such civilizations include the Borg from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Asimov's Foundation universe, and the Empire or First Order in the Star Wars franchise.

In the DC Comics universe, an example would be the Guardians of the Universe—the Green Lantern's bosses. But do not consider Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy as an example. These guardians rank only at type II in the ability to use power.

Civilizations at types I through III constitute the original categories of the scale. Those classified greater than type III enter the realm of science fiction, so there isn't complete agreement on the divisions between the post–type III varieties. My presentation of them can be debated. Also, their energy usage is extrapolated.

A type IV civilization is able to harness all the power available from a supercluster. Our local supercluster includes the Milky Way galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy, and the forty-seven thousand much smaller galaxies in the Virgo Supercluster.⁶ The power projection is 10⁴² watts. In fiction, type IV civilizations would be the Ancients in the Stargate SG-1 universe and the First Ones (the Vorlons and the Shadows) in the Babylon 5 universe.

A type V civilization is able to harness all the power available from the observable universe. It might not be possible for us to detect the existence of such a civilization because we are in the universe from which they are drawing energy. We could only perceive their energy usage as laws of physics. Their power usage is projected at 2 x 10⁴⁹ watts.⁷ These would be the Gallifreyans of Doctor Who.

A type VI civilization is able to harness all the power available from multiple universes. This type of civilization would have learned how to alter the laws of physics that apply to different universes. As a bonus, type VI can pack up and move when their universe dies. The death of a universe is the subject of chapter 21. Just for now understand this: it happens.

The power projection for a type VI civilization trends toward infinity. In fiction, I like writing about type VI civilizations when I can. In my short story “Chronology,” published in M-Brane SF, I had a few lost citizens from a type VI civilization interact with us type 0 types. Mayhem ensued.

A type VII civilization is able to create a universe and then harness the power of each universe they create. These civilizations must remain outside the universes they create. This amounts to deity status. This might appear in fiction as mythology.

In the bonus materials for this chapter, I offer an alternative classification of civilizations. Instead of power usage, it considers size. As always in physics, size matters.

ARE THERE QUANTUM ENERGY SOURCES?

Yes, and they are based on two quantum phenomena that are exploited a lot in science fiction: virtual particles and zero-point energy. And guess what? They both owe their existence to our old friend from chapter 2, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle.

Let's make quantum mechanics weirder by bringing energy into our discussion. Because it is a function of wavelengths (the cause of all things fuzzy), its measurement has uncertainties. Like momentum and position, these uncertainties can't be reduced to zero simultaneously. These uncertainties give rise to virtual particles and zero-point energy, both of which have been used liberally in science fiction techno speak for energy.

Virtual particles are little somethings that are allowed to arise from nothing…as long as they promise to return back to nothing after a duration too quick to be observed.⁸ These virtual particles permeate all of space, doing some very helpful things such as regulating particle decay and mediating the exchange of forces between particles.⁹

For example, when two negatively charged electrons repulse each other, they are exchanging virtual photons. These virtual particles are little messages saying, “Hey, you! Back off!” Because these virtual photons exist only for a short time, they can't travel very far, unlike lower-energy photons (let there be light).

This explains why the electric force is stronger at short distances. In fact, all the basic forces described in the first interlude diminish with distance for this reason. The caveat is that, although gravity also diminishes with distance, physicists have yet to reconcile this force with quantum mechanics.

Space is not as empty as you might think. Nature abhors a vacuum, so space seethes with virtual particles winking in and out of existence. Thanks to pesky particles popping up throughout the universe, action occurs at every point in space and time. Everything, everywhere, oscillates. Virtual particles are the quantum white noise of the cosmos. The energy from all that Jell-O-like quivering is called zero-point energy, which, by the way, is always nonzero.10

IS THERE EVIDENCE OF VIRTUAL PARTICLES?

The best-known experimental evidence of zero-point energy is called the Casimir effect. In 1948, Dutch physicist Hendrik Casimir predicted that a dense metal plate in a vacuum (the unlikeliest place to find energy) would be bombarded on both sides by virtual particles.¹¹ If you put two such plates very, very close, there won't be enough space between them for larger virtual particles to pop into existence.

Because the vacuum pressure is now less between the plates than on their outer surfaces, they experience a net force pushing them together. The effect was successfully tested in 1997 by Steve K. Lamoreaux of the Los Alamos National Laboratory.¹²

Another name for zero-point energy you might hear about in either science magazines or in science fiction is vacuum energy.

VIRTUAL PARTICLES AND ZERO-POINT ENERGY IN SCIENCE FICTION

Virtual particles are everywhere, and if they could be harnessed, imagine how advantageous that would be for colonization, war, and all the other ways we like to utilize cool things we discover.

Just as a caveat, remember that zero-point energy is already the lowest possible energy of a system. You have to be a savvy science fiction creator to come up with a plausible way of collecting it without using up more energy than you get out. According to physicists, extracting this energy is unlikely. Not so for the creative fiction writer!

A decrease in zero-point energy is known as negative energy. If a civilization could control this energy, a reduction in zero-point energy in front of a spacecraft would reduce resistance (negative energy would pull) and rapidly accelerate a spacecraft to near the speed of light. If this is a full type III civilization then perhaps with the aid of tachyon particles, the ship's acceleration might exceed the speed of light (temporarily exiting conventional space to do so).

Tachyons are hypothetical particles believed to have never traveled slower than the speed of light. The speed limit rule only applies to mass that started out slower than the speed of light. What is often forgotten is that in special relativity, the rule is symmetrical: anything traveling faster than the speed of light cannot travel slower than the speed of light.

PARTING COMMENTS

A lot of the time, science fiction provides unlimited energy for whatever civilization it describes. We know better. Fuel for energy is a limited resource, even when mining thermal energy from a black hole. Even capturing unlimited zero-point energy consumes limited resources.

The Kardashev scale is a ranking system of societies based on power usage. Do they rely solely on planetary resources? Do they use solar power? Do they mine black holes? How about batteries powered by virtual particles? Zero-point energy? No matter what, the Kardashev system has a ranking for them.

CHAPTER 6 BONUS MATERIALS

BONUS 1: AN INWARD LOOK: AN ALTERNATIVE CLASSIFICATION OF CIVILIZATIONS

Instead of energy usage, the Barrow scale classifies technological civilizations by their ability for inward manipulation, the control of smaller and smaller entities.13 A lot of our -ologies, like biotechnology, nanotechnology, and even information technology, come from our ability to manipulate at small scales. Barrow believed there is more to explore in small scales than large ones. Plus there is no speed of light limit. The Barrow scale lays out the following:¹⁴

A type I-minus is capable of manipulating objects larger than the scale of themselves by mining, building structures, and joining and breaking solids.

A type II-minus is capable of manipulating genes and altering the development of living things, transplanting or replacing parts of themselves, and reading and engineering their genetic code.

A type III-minus is capable of manipulating molecules and molecular bonds to create new materials.

A type IV-minus is capable of manipulating individual atoms, creating nanotechnologies on the atomic scale, and creating complex forms of artificial life.

Our civilization is transitioning between Type III minus and Type IV minus.

A type V-minus is capable of manipulating the atomic nucleus and engineering the nucleons.

A type VI-minus is capable of manipulating the most elementary particles of matter (quarks and leptons) to create organized complexity among populations of elementary particles.

A type Omega-minus is capable of manipulating the basic structure of space and time.

BONUS 2: COMPARING ENERGY SOURCES

In comparing various fuel sources, the energy returned on energy invested (EROEI) ratio is sometimes used. It shows how much energy is released relative to the amount of energy needed to get at the resource.

Resources with the highest EROEI are hydroelectric, coal, and oil. Although coal and oil originally held very high EROEI, the value is declining—it costs more and more to find and dig up these fossil fuels. The EROEI for finding oil went from 1,200 in 1919 to 5 in 2007.15 This means we get five times more energy from fuel than the energy expended to find it. That is still a lot, but it is declining.

The problem with the EROEI metric is that it does not explicitly account for environmental costs. These costs necessarily increase as the difficulty of acquiring fossil fuels increases. Because of falling EROEI, alternatives such as wind, natural gas, solar, and nuclear are being considered more and more.

The sun provides clean energy, but how do we exploit it? We currently use photovoltaic panels made of silicon, but solar panel efficiency is nothing to write home about. The record in 2014 was 46 percent efficiency.¹⁶ The typical solar panel is about 20 percent efficient.¹⁷

Besides panels, the sun's energy can be captured by letting plants do the work for us. Biofuels such as ethanol (from corn) is made from seeds. With this method, however, the hazard is that farmers will plant seeds for fuel instead of food. This can be especially problematic in developing countries.