A new astrophysics and astroinformatics study revisits one of the most famous ideas in the search for advanced civilizations — the Kardashev Scale. Originally proposed in 1964, the scale classifies civilizations by the amount of energy they can use.

The author tests the standard Kardashev assumption that energy use grows at a constant rate of 1% per year. Based only on total energy output of the Sun, it predicts a timescale vastly longer than the age of the Universe.