07-28-2014, 10:58 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-28-2014, 10:59 PM by radtech497.)
While working in my sandbox (from which I have migrated versions of its inhabitants to OA after making alterations to fit that milieu), it occurred to me that at least one civilization residing there raises a question about the practice of classifying xenosophonts by their energy emissions.
That civilization, the Tleitylwesi, the most technologically advanced in the "Sandbox Volume," would be characterized as a Low Energy Emission Civilization as per the Energy Emissions and Civilization Types page of the EG. However, their civilization ranks in the upper parts of Type II on the Kardashev scale (if one is considering total energy used rather than Kardashev's original criteria of energy available for communication). They possess, among other things, wormholes (for point-to-point exchanges of bulk freight and data, with a minor trade in passenger craft), superluminal spacecraft for traveling outside their wormhole network, Dyson Bubbles surrounding each of their inhabited planetary systems cooled to nearly the cosmic background temperature of 2.77 Kelvin by utilizing the magnetocaloric effect, and a host of other advanced technologies.
The reasons for this apparent contradiction are rooted in the history and culture of the civilization: they do not wish to be discovered by any other civilization. This has led to a relatively small "empire" of less than 100 inhabited systems (enough to ensure their species' survival, but not enough to be particularly noticeable), and a technological bias toward increasing efficiencies in all aspects of their society.
That is not to say they cower within the safety of their Dyson Bubbles in abject fear of the "outer dark." Their civilization has long spent, and continues to expend, a nontrivial part of its resources on deploying small probes designed to detect other sophont civilizations. Once detected, the activities of such civilizations are closely monitored to determine whether or not they might pose a potential threat. If it is determined that a potential threat exists, the monitoring civilization will intervene to eliminate that threat.
BTW, this civilization is aware of Terragens, and their most recent encounter is (somewhat apocryphally) described in this GhostNet article.
Radtech497
That civilization, the Tleitylwesi, the most technologically advanced in the "Sandbox Volume," would be characterized as a Low Energy Emission Civilization as per the Energy Emissions and Civilization Types page of the EG. However, their civilization ranks in the upper parts of Type II on the Kardashev scale (if one is considering total energy used rather than Kardashev's original criteria of energy available for communication). They possess, among other things, wormholes (for point-to-point exchanges of bulk freight and data, with a minor trade in passenger craft), superluminal spacecraft for traveling outside their wormhole network, Dyson Bubbles surrounding each of their inhabited planetary systems cooled to nearly the cosmic background temperature of 2.77 Kelvin by utilizing the magnetocaloric effect, and a host of other advanced technologies.
The reasons for this apparent contradiction are rooted in the history and culture of the civilization: they do not wish to be discovered by any other civilization. This has led to a relatively small "empire" of less than 100 inhabited systems (enough to ensure their species' survival, but not enough to be particularly noticeable), and a technological bias toward increasing efficiencies in all aspects of their society.
That is not to say they cower within the safety of their Dyson Bubbles in abject fear of the "outer dark." Their civilization has long spent, and continues to expend, a nontrivial part of its resources on deploying small probes designed to detect other sophont civilizations. Once detected, the activities of such civilizations are closely monitored to determine whether or not they might pose a potential threat. If it is determined that a potential threat exists, the monitoring civilization will intervene to eliminate that threat.
BTW, this civilization is aware of Terragens, and their most recent encounter is (somewhat apocryphally) described in this GhostNet article.
Radtech497
"I'd much rather see you on my side, than scattered into... atoms." Ming the Merciless, Ruler of the Universe