The Cognitive Kardashev Scale: Quantifying the Material Envelope of Civilisational Computation
The paper introduces the Cognitive Kardashev Scale, which quantifies the computational capacity of civilizations based on their energy consumption. It parallels the original Kardashev Scale, which categorizes civilizations by their total power usage. The study suggests that contemporary humanity is nearing Type I status, with significant implications for future AI development and access.
- ▪The Cognitive Kardashev Scale measures how much AI-grade computation a civilization can support based on energy and efficiency.
- ▪Current humanity is approximately 73% of the way to achieving Type I status on this scale.
- ▪The paper discusses projections for frontier compute through 2035, emphasizing the importance of engineering choices and access to resources.
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Physics > Physics and Society arXiv:2605.22840 (physics) [Submitted on 11 May 2026] Title:The Cognitive Kardashev Scale: Quantifying the Material Envelope of Civilisational Computation Authors:Sachin Sharma View a PDF of the paper titled The Cognitive Kardashev Scale: Quantifying the Material Envelope of Civilisational Computation, by Sachin Sharma View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:How much thinking can a civilisation do? Kardashev's (1964) typology ranks civilisations by total power: planetary (Type I, ~10^16 W), stellar (Type II, ~10^26 W), galactic (Type III). This paper builds an analogous Cognitive Kardashev Scale: how much sustained AI-grade computation each tier could support.
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