#SCIENCE: David Kirtley on Humanity’s Path Toward a Kardashev Type 1 Civilization Speaking on the Lex Fridman Podcast, fusion entrepreneur David Kirtley explained the Kardashev scale as a roadmap for humanity’s energy future. A Type 1 civilization, he said, is defined by generating or capturing as much power as the total solar energy reaching Earth, while Type 2 represents harnessing energy on the scale of an entire star. Kirtley challenged the common idea of planetary-scale solar collectors, ar