ba4: Do you think that in 2057 germ warfare may not be a threat anymore?
Dr. Kaku: Unfortunately for every advance in science, there are those who would want to misuse that science. In 1972, the US and the former Soviet Union signed a treaty concerning biological weapons, but there were many loopholes because the treaty only banned biological weapons for offensive use. In the age of biotechnology, offense and defense is often the same thing. So we do know that both the United States and the former Soviet Union created designer germs that are quite lethal. Also, the smallpox virus still exists, and is very tightly controlled in Moscow and also Atlanta GA. If it escapes, it could kill millions to billions of people. Also, the 1918 Spanish flu virus which killed perhaps 40 million people (more than WW1) has been reconstructed in the laboratory. The blueprint for the 1918 Spanish Flu virus has even been published on the internet. I personally do not think this was a good idea. However, scientists hope that publishing the blueprint of one of the greatest killers in the history of the human race will accelerate scientific progress. So I personally believe that we need a new treaty to restrict research on designer germ warfare.
Lantean259: Bravo Mr. Kaku, thanks for a glimpse into the future. After seeing this I wondered what technology we might be imagining when we become a Type 2 or Type 3 civilization?
Dr. Kaku: A Type 1 civilization is a planetary civilization that controls all planetary power. A Type 2 civilization controls an entire star, as in Star Trek. A Type 3 civilization controls the power of a galaxy, as in Star Wars.
By contrast, we are a Type 0 civilization. We get our energy from dead plants — oil and coal. However, we are perhaps 100 years away from becoming a Type 1 planetary civilization. For example, English will probably be the language of the future Type 1 civilization. The European Union and NAFTA are prototypes of the Type 1 economy. The internet is the beginning of a Type 1 telephone system. We see the beginning of a Type 1 culture. For example, rock'n'roll, blue jeans, rap music, and youth culture. We even have individuals who don't want to enter a Type 1 civilization, and these are the terrorists. Terrorists instinctively realize that a Type 1 civilization is multicultural, tolerant, and democratic and they feel more comfortable living in a Type 1 civilization.
By the time we become a Type 2 civilization, in several thousand years, we will become immortal as a civilization. Nothing known to science can destroy a Type 2 civilization. Meteors and comets can be deflected. Ice ages can be averted. Even a supernova of their sun is not fatal because they can either flee into outer space, or move their planet or stop their sun from exploding. So a Type 2 civilization would have fantastic technologies that we can only imagine.
A Type 3 civilization would be advanced enough to explore most of the Milky Way galaxy. They would do this not by sending Captain Kirk through all the planets because there are too many planets out there. They would send self-replicating robots on to the moon of the galaxy. These self-replicating robots would create a factory to reproduce themselves by the millions. Moons are quite stable for millions of years, and would make an ideal site for a robot factory. These robots would then travel to other moons to create millions more copies of themselves in the same way that a virus can colonize a human being and give you a cold in one week. This may sound familiar because this is the plot of the movie 2001. So the most realistic encounter with a Type 3 civilization is given by the movie 2001.
