The Kardashev scale ranks a civilization by how much power it commands, not by its technology directly. A Type I civilization commands roughly the total power reaching its home planet from its star (~1016–1017 W for a Sun-like star). A Type II civilization commands the entire output of its star — the classic image is a Dyson swarm of collectors encircling it (~1026 W). A Type III civilization commands the output of an entire galaxy — roughly a hundred billion stars (~1036–1037 W). Nikolai Kardashev proposed the scale in 1964; Carl Sagan later extended it to a continuous number:
K = (log₁₀(P) − 6) / 10
- Power slider — sets log₁₀ of the civilization's total power output in watts. Moving it right grows a Dyson swarm around the star, then spreads an energy-harvesting wave outward through the galaxy.
- Type presets — jump straight to Kardashev's four reference points (present-day Earth runs at roughly K≈0.7, just below Type I).
- Auto-growth rate — when set above zero and "Auto-grow" is toggled on, power output climbs on its own so you can watch the transition unfold rather than dragging the slider by hand.
- Dyson swarm coverage — fraction of the star's surface enclosed by collectors, which fills in across the Type I→II gap (K 1→2).
- Stars harvested — the fraction of the visualized galaxy whose stars have been enclosed by swarms of their own, filling in across the Type II→III gap (K 2→3).
Real-world relevance: no confirmed civilization above Type 0 exists, but the scale is the standard yardstick SETI researchers use when reasoning about detectable "technosignatures" — a Dyson swarm, for instance, would show up as a star with unusual infrared excess and dimmed visible light.