This Is What Extraterrestrial Life Would Look Like

6. Type III: Space Gods

A Type III civilisation is frankly off the charts, they would basically be a master race of their galaxy. Type III designation would use all of the techniques deployed by Types I and II, but would also be able to make use of the energy from the supermassive black hole at the centre of their galaxy (it's thought that most galaxies have one). As well as this, they would be able to harness the power of gamma-ray bursts, which are the brightest things in the known universe (to us puny humans at least) mainly thought to be caused by incredibly massive stars going hypernova (you'll notice, by the way, that the more we get into this, the more sci-fi the language becomes, but it's all real science). They would be able to capture energy from quasars and even White Holes - a theoretical object that is essentially an inside-out black hole that would boot out a hell of a lot of energy. This practically unlimited energy supply, coupled with their technological prowess, would mean that they would probably think nothing of manipulating the very fabric of the universe, perhaps creating wormholes, nipping between dimensions and god knows what else. As you can imagine, the actual members of this civilisation would be so mind-bogglingly advanced compared to human, that neither of us might actually recognise the other as a life form.They might be cybernetically enhanced, perfect, self-replicating AI, they might be composed of sentient gas, who knows. Even talking to them would be tough. For them, it would be like trying to explain the offside rule to a rabbit, for us, it would be like trying to hold a conversation with thunder. The Kardashev Scale originally stopped here, but there are some who reckon there could be a Type IV civilisation living inside a supermassive black hole somewhere.