Type I

A Type I or K1 civilization has mastered all the energy available to their home planet, available from a neighboring star. It extracts its energy, information, and raw materials from fission and fusion power, and renewable resources; is capable of interplanetary spaceflight and communication; mega-scale planetary engineering; medical breakthroughs to eliminate disease and slow ageing; multiplanetary government and interplanetary trade; species is tech augmented; but is still vulnerable to extinction.

Michio Kaku mentioned in his book Physics of the Future:


 * Type I civilizations harvest planetary power utilizing all the sunlight that strikes their planet. They can, perhaps, harness the power of volcanoes, manipulate the weather, control earthquakes, and build cities on the ocean. All planetary power is within their control.
 * We can see the beginnings of a Type I civilization in the fact that a global language is developing (English), a global communication system is emerging (the Internet), a global economic system is in the making, and even a globalized culture is standardizing humanity (social media).
 * To achieve Type I, humanity must be able to communicate with the rest of the world and to focus on several areas: building infrastructure to facilitate communication and cooperation, education, research and development, and innovation.
 * By studying the evolution of technologies that have changed history (paper, the integrated circuit), Kaku believes that humanity is moving toward a civilization of planetary dimensions, the "starting point" of which is the Internet.
 * An advanced civilization must grow faster than the frequency of occurrence of cosmic catastrophes hostile to life, such as comet or asteroid impacts. A Type I civilization should also be able to master space travel to deflect threatening objects. It would also have to anticipate the onset of ice ages and modify the climate long before they occur to avoid them.

A possible interplanetary future could look like this:


 * Earth is a utopia. Earth’s ecosystems are being repaired after human activity over centuries led to catastrophic damage to natural habitats. Many species went extinct as a result of pollution, climate change, deforestation, mining, the construction of new cities, wars, industrial accidents, genetic and nanotechnology experiments. Now, extinct animals and plants are being recreated and brought back to life using a combination of fossil records, DNA samples, computer models, and molecular engineering. Deserts are being transformed back into forests with the use of artificial rain and other forms of weather control. Toxic lakes and rivers are being cleaned. Oceans are being de-acidified, cooled, and made habitable once again for sea life.
 * Earth's moon is now the most heavily populated of all the space colonies, with millions of permanent inhabitants.
 * Mars has declared its independence from Earth after a massive colonization program. It has become heavily populated with large cities that are connected with an automated rail network. A massive terraforming effort is also under way on Mars, with Venus being considered as well.
 * The asteroid mining sector now generates the most revenues for humans in the inner solar system. Thousands of asteroids are being mined at a time. Advances in nanotechnology and related fields enable these asteroids to be stripped atom-by-atom so that nothing goes to waste. More than several types of precious metals are harvested for use in hi-tech industries. The largest asteroids are being hollowed out and their interiors are converted into enormous power plants, research stations, and settlements for humans.
 * Jupiter is gaining a steady influx of prospectors comprised mostly of heavily-modified transhumans and sentient robots. Jupiter is being siphoned for its vast supply of hydrogen and helium. A number of floating cities and gigantic refineries are beginning to appear in the upper atmosphere of Jupiter as well. Meanwhile, Jupiter’s moons are being exploited for their metals, minerals, and ice.
 * The rings of Saturn now have luxurious hotels orbiting around them, offering magnificent views of this massive gas giant. Guests are able to venture outside of these hotels and drift among the slowly moving ice and rock fragments in Saturn’s rings. Saturn’s largest moon Titan is now home to entire cities. Enceladus is another moon of Saturn, which contains an ocean of liquid saltwater under its icy crust. This serves as a water source for settlements in the outer Solar System.
 * Even the distant planets of Uranus and Neptune have gas miners now and developments there are expected to dramatically increase over the next decades and centuries.
 * Pluto and the Kuiper Belt are being exploited for minerals and ice as well. The Kuiper Belt is a region of the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune, which contains over a trillion comets, asteroids, and other small objects made largely of ice. This is a potential start to become interstellar.
 * Much of the Solar System is being turned into smart material, with neural networks embedded throughout asteroids and on the surface of moons. This is allowing powerful artificial intelligences to handle large-scale scientific experiments and automated mining operations.