The fundamental problem with the Kardashev Scale is that it equates advancement with the accumulation and consumption of energy at increasingly massive scales. It imagines the most advanced civilizations as ones that subjugate nature, first of an entire planet, then a solar system, and finally a galaxy. This logic is not value-neutral; it mirrors the history of industrial capitalism and colonial conquest. Just as empires once sought to control territory and labor, the Kardashev model imagines civilizations conquering energy itself, extracting power from every corner of the cosmos, regardless of consequence.
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