We are type zero, Type One controls their planet (has harnessed the planets resources and mastered their domain) Type two harnesses the power of their star and all the ramifications of that. Type 3 harnesses space and all the ramifications of that. It isn't a fixation as much as its a tool to determine a civilization's advancement.
Tom, it was more a rhetorical question which missed the target I was aiming for.
The 'types' of civilization are based on a single linear perspective and understanding of reality. Like an LSAT test, which tests ONLY if you think like the persons who are already involved in law, your test of civilization's advancement - while valid - only serves to support the linear design of civilizations as they relate to technology as you know it.
If a civilization deviates from this linear design, with the fact that your civilization is still regarding the multiverse as theory, chances are you would not see nor comprehend deviations from your 'civilization types' as they occurred because you'd be too busy looking for linear evidence in a successive and progressive way.
This is not to say there is anything wrong with your 'tool' to ascertain the progression of a civilization.
But might I suggest putting other tools in your toolbelt?
Yes, I am. Consider that not knowing what happens next is a fundamental part of Chaos. The results of your pushing and knob turning are not predictable.
Tom, the results of my pushing knobs and buttons are not ENTIRELY predictable, but with a great deal of education on the subject and environment, that mitigates the risk and lets me know generally speaking what to expect as a result.
Sure, chaos might occasionally creep into ANY system, so having decent training in how to repair and/or undo the chaos created becomes a necessity to the good scientist and experimenters.
Keep in mind that scientific experimentation, by it's nature, is part chaos part order. Now if you expect the outcome to be totally predictable, this is not experimentation or science, it's marketing to sell a product.
Case in point: I spent a good number of years 'experimenting' with drugs as a mortal. I enjoyed hallucinogenics immensely. When I first 'tried' the experiment, they were highly controlled. Amsterdam, tightly controlled and reliable supply chain, and well documented effects. Then, as time went on, I experimented with other substances and physiological manipulation to enhance the effects - cocaine and a lack of sleep provided often uncontrolled hallucinations - but I ALWAYS KNEW a bad trip was a 6 hour wait away. Now over time, even this grew old, and by then I was ready for riskier experimentation, so I switched over to the - at the time totally unknown bath salts. This was the FIRST what I consider true scientific experiment I had embarked on - I had no idea what to expect - I had spent a great deal of time and number of years training my mind and body to endure the conditions the drugs presented. But to say i wasn't ready for what unfolded with that experiment was an understatement.
But I was at the same time. What I experienced 'woke me up' and made me get off 'drugs' altogether. A part of me awakened and realized - these things that are possible in computer simulations happen for real with hallucinogenics but are dismissed as fiction. But the thing is - it felt absolutely real.
A Terminator world with Smells. Tastes, sights - that embarked me on a quest to understand my life itself.
Now after all this experimentation, I worked with some amazing people - and the US Government - to help get me off my addictions, and I thank the US Government for that assistance. They apparently knew who I was - a very bored God who thought I had experienced everything reality had to offer - and the whole time they were trying to help me 'imagine greater' for my own life.
Was my experimentation out of control? Sure. I had no idea what to expect. And what I saw scared me.
But as things 'settled down', I realized that fiction and hallucinations are merely human developed labels to segment - to protect - our individual minds from the infinity of reality - and as mentioned in Doctor Who - the infinity drives anyone who looks at it insane.
Not everyone, my dearest Doctor.
I have since realized life's infinitely more complex than I previously imagined, and have been in my own rehabilitation program rediscovering my immortal self and mind - free of the artificial substances which I HAD to experiment with - without being able to predict the outcome - to teach myself that these worlds will be accessible without technology (drugs) and this is all my personally created training program.
There will always be a rouge in the programming, a glitch in the matrix. Entertainment is why we all are here. Speculative Fiction offers some an escape, others an adventure and still others a way to be creative. Personally, I like the thought exercises.
Tom. Speak for yourself, please. For me, I enjoy good entertainment, don't get me wrong, but I'm here for a number of reasons beyond that. Most important would probably be to have fun - which isn't necessarily having to be entertained. To relax. To indulge. To play. To sleep. I could go on, but calling it all entertainment is like calling all life sentient when it's clearly not.
Technology is only available to those that can afford it and most of the planet is broke. I think it would be interesting to explore some of the similarities common to all people everywhere.
Technology comes in different forms, and maybe the physical devices you idolize are unaffordable because the only one demanding them is you. Technology can also come in education. In experience. In substance. In belief and faith. I invite you to consider that gadgets and devices are not all that constitute "technology", and this crutch you have on the necessity of devices in the physical realm might be limiting yourself.
People assume that life means something. Death means something. It doesn't. Life and death just is. They walk around thinking life is great or life sucks. Life is just life. There are no requirements or rights associated with life. Requirements and rights are completely made up by the people to try to deal with reality as they comprehend it.
Again, to you. To me, when you're alive, you have every right and privilege for life to become your fantasy when you're ready for it. maybe prior to then it's an education and experience to 'expand your sphere of awareness and what's possible as much as possible before you embark on the flight of fantasy.
Some people can't die. I am one of those. To me life and death are not, but I understand and respect those who choose it for themselves. Hopefully you - whoever you are and whatever your species - comes to respect that just because you can have the same medium of exchange and conversation - does not make you alike. We just happen to have a single method we've developed to share conversation with. That's all.
The only thing that people produce is more life and felgercarb. You might argue that they produce carbon dioxide when they breathe and yes they do but it is that exhale that adds to the plant life. People construct all manner of things but they only produce offspring and waste.
Wow. Tom, i sense you are not the man you purport yourself to be by this statement and you're looking in on humans as an outsider not fully comprehending anything other than what you can directly experience with your own senses, and not believing there's more beyond what you can perceive.
I was that way once.
Then I learned.
I'm unique. And chances are. No one perceives - thinks - feels - like I do.
And so are those I observe.
They and you call them hallucinations and fiction.. Why? To protect yourselves? To control your population? To make things and people predictable and measurable?
And yet. There's so much to be explored in these worlds you're denying exist.
I know better ;-) And I am recruiting others as we speak to explore and experiment with me.
Free of substance.
They are, after all, a construct of thought and mind