Chapter 315: Classification of Civilizations
In the eyes of the broader galactic community, k-level societies are entirely unranked. Whether they are primitive tribes or modern cultures, any civilization that has not survived the Great Filter is simply lumped into the k-level bracket.
However, once a civilization reaches the L-level, a rough classification system is applied.
Setting aside the elusive S-level civilizations, L-level civilizations make up the true core of the starry sky. From a technological standpoint, a society must develop a large-scale fusion reactor and build a sub-light-speed spacecraft capable of traveling at roughly 5% the speed of light. Only then do they possess the means for stellar-level interstellar travel, marking their ascent to a true Level 1 civilization.
Faced with Jason’s questions, Blake eagerly began to show off his knowledge. He always felt particularly pleased during these moments. Having chosen to join the Federation, he had to fulfill his duties; he wasn’t one to do things halfway.
"Captain Jason, the benefits of crossing the Great Filter are self-evident. Each L1-level interstellar civilization represents a qualitative leap in evolution, easily crushing the vast majority of k-level societies. Do you understand?"
Jason nodded. "Then what about L2? Discovering dark matter theory isn’t all that difficult, is it?"
To his mind, once humanity achieved nuclear fusion, discovering dark matter was a natural next step, which had seamlessly led to the creation of the warp drive.
"Yes, exactly. As long as a particle collider is powerful enough..." Blake nodded. "But not every interstellar civilization will go through the trouble of building massive particle colliders, so they might not discover dark matter so quickly. Moreover, figuring out the mechanics of a warp bubble is incredibly difficult and takes a considerable amount of time."
That made sense. Humanity had only been exploring warp bubbles for two or three decades, yet they had achieved remarkable results. That was largely because the vast majority of their spatial structures were reverse-engineered from the Viridian Empire, which was effectively a massive shortcut!
Without the data salvaged from the attack on the Viridian vessel, developing the warp drive would have taken significantly longer. Jason couldn’t help but smile; it had been a blessing in disguise.
In summary, Level 2 civilizations are typically defined by the emergence of dark matter theory and the subsequent invention of the warp drive. Dark matter theory is a massive milestone. Even now, the Federation still didn’t fully understand whether certain forms of dark matter acted as zero-point energy or a dynamic field. They were still exploring its ultimate nature. Much like the wave-particle duality of photons, dark matter might possess dual properties. It was entirely possible.
Civilization levels are determined by scientific milestones, not the inherent difficulty of a specific technology. Whether a theory is simple or complex, once it is discovered and implemented, the civilization’s ranking rises by one stage.
Naturally, a difference in classification levels translates to an even wider gap in sheer strength. An L1 civilization can travel at 5% the speed of light, perhaps 10% at most. But an L2 civilization? They can break the light-speed barrier entirely.
"So, what about Level 3? What technology does that involve?" Jason asked.
"Nanotechnology."
"Nanotechnology?" Jason asked, puzzled.
"Yes. To be precise, it’s nanoscale manipulation. But not at your current, superficial level; it’s about achieving true, atomic-level control. This includes a vast array of nanomaterials, nanorobots, and so on." Blake explained. "This technology requires a civilization to have a profound understanding of the microscopic realm, deeply involving the Casimir effect. Unfortunately, my core memory banks don’t contain any detailed information on this. But I do know that these technologies can be used to engineer materials with extraordinary properties, including perfectly frictionless surfaces. They can also tap into vacuum energy and dark energy in minute quantities using the Casimir effect."
Blake added, "As far as I know, truly perfectly controlled nuclear fusion is only perfected at this stage."
A perfectly frictionless material... was that even possible?
Jason paused, a sense of surrealism washing over him. L3-level technology was already sounding incredibly exaggerated. Based on previous theoretical physics, such things were thought to be nearly impossible.
Curious, he pressed on. "What about L4?"
"Genetic dynamics and brain topology. Civilizations at this stage can study the spontaneous generation of intelligence and make fundamental modifications to life at the genetic level. I’ve already provided a lot of data on this," Blake said. "In fact, the neural chips used by the Federation are equivalent to Level 4 technology. That specific tech transcends your current overall civilization level."
"And L5?"
"I don’t know..." Blake shook his head. His original civilization had only ever reached L4. He spoke solemnly, "Captain Jason, let me remind you that the classification of civilizations is a very rough metric. Every technological tree has practically no end. Even my original L4 civilization hadn’t fully unraveled all the mysteries of L2-level dark energy theory. Getting too hung up on civilization tiers is largely meaningless. When two stellar empires make contact, it’s not like they politely exchange their civilization levels."
"Generally speaking, you can’t judge an enemy spaceship’s strength just by its hull design... unless you actually engage them in a firefight! The universe is full of bizarre anomalies. Take the Viridian Empire, for instance; they managed to thoroughly beat down the much more heavily armed Annihilators, didn’t they?" Blake paused. "Vigilance, humility, projecting a friendly front while maintaining a safe distance, these are the golden rules of survival among the stars!"
Jason fell silent for a moment before asking, "Where do you think the Federation stands? L2... or L4?"
Blake considered it for a moment. "Theoretically speaking, you have only scratched the surface of L2, L3, and L4 theories. However, all scientific disciplines within the Federation are advancing in parallel, which is an incredibly rare phenomenon. So, I’d confidently say you won’t hit any major evolutionary bottlenecks before reaching L4. But when you look at your industrial output and raw military power, you are probably sitting at the lower end of the L2 spectrum. You’re far more lethal than an L1 society that has just breached interstellar space, but you couldn’t go toe-to-toe with an established L2 civilization."
Blake’s voice grew urgent. "Your fleet is far too small. If the Deep Space is destroyed, you’ll have nothing left. Captain Jason... you need to expand the shipyards. We must build more ships!"
Faced with Blake’s impassioned plea, Jason found himself agreeing. He made a mental note to personally oversee the expansion of their industrial sectors. There would be no issue docking thousands of smaller frigates along the exterior hull of the Deep Space. The research and development of massive, capital-class weaponry also needed to be fast-tracked.
Still slightly unwilling to let it go, Jason finally asked, "...Is there truly no other advanced technology hidden in your core memory banks?"
Blake spread his hands, offering an apologetic shrug. "I’m sorry, but it’s really gone. My core memory drives are fragmented. To be completely honest, the scientific papers you consider groundbreaking were actually just part of the standard science curriculum for children in my old society. Just like how the Federation teaches relativity and calculus as standard high school and college courses, my previous civilization normalized even higher tiers of knowledge. That’s the only reason I could offer what I did."
"I only skimmed the surface back then, and I can barely recall most of it now. As for the superconducting material technology I provided, that was actually my university graduation thesis... Not too shabby, right?" Blake said with a smug grin.
Jason was secretly blown away. The fact that the mere ’basic knowledge’ of an alien civilization could trigger such a massive scientific renaissance for humanity was truly staggering. He thought for a second and realized he had run out of questions. He waved a hand dismissively, indicating that they were done here.
Blake gave Jason a polite nod and excused himself from the room.
"It seems that Black really is firmly on our side..." Jason muttered to himself. "Honoring our ceasefire and choosing not to execute him back then was the right call."
After watching the alien depart, Jason turned his attention back to his monitor, carefully reviewing the galactic codex Blake had provided.
The Federation was still far too weak. Levels 4 and 5 were distant pipe dreams. The ’advanced’ scientific theories that had their top researchers jumping for joy were essentially the equivalent of middle school science fair projects to an L4 civilization. The gulf between cosmic civilizations was unimaginably vast.
However, looking at it objectively, Blake’s analogy made perfect sense. If an average modern college student was transported back to Isaac Newton’s era, their basic understanding of the world would absolutely terrify the greatest scientific minds of the 17th century! Even if that student wasn’t an expert in calculus, chemistry, or biology, just a few foundational concepts would be enough to trigger a massive leap in progress for the scholars of that era.
Simply put, all a time-traveling student would need to do is recite the periodic table, hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron—or demonstrate the most basic derivative calculus. The era’s Department Heads and Senior Scientists would naturally grab onto those concepts, run with them, and pave an entirely new technological path without needing the student to hold their hands through the process.
Creating brand new knowledge from scratch is always vastly more difficult than simply learning it, and forging an entirely new scientific paradigm is the hardest task of all.
Even looking at the dark matter theories the Federation had discovered on its own, there was still a near-infinite amount of research left to do. The concepts of genetic dynamics and neural topology that Blake presented were staggeringly vast, serving only as a basic framework. The Federation had only scratched the very edge of this field, yet they had already reaped massive rewards, inventing groundbreaking augmentations like the neural chip.
The shadow entity had given the Federation an incredible head start; everything that came next was up to humanity to figure out for themselves.
The power disparity between interstellar civilizations truly was terrifying. The road ahead was long. Just thinking about those ancient leviathans, empires that had existed for millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of years, Jason couldn’t even begin to fathom what kind of god-like entities they had evolved into.
But of course, they had to take things one step at a time. At this moment, while the Federation was far from being the strongest force in the Milky Way, they were already part of the rare class of true interstellar civilizations. Jason wasn’t going to paralyze himself with blind paranoia.
Countless primitive civilizations were still out there, living out their days in blissful ignorance. The Federation was already lightyears ahead of the pack.