"Just over 50 years ago, a Russian astrophysicist named Nikolai Semenovich Kardashev proposed a scale for ranking these hypothetical civilisations based on their energy consumption. The Kardashev scale was intended to help direct searches for signals from intelligent beings. Over the past few decades huge effort has gone in to detecting such signals, some of which have been written about here on Astrobites (see here, here, here, and here). So anything that helps us narrow the search, or understand the target better, is certainly welcome. But the scale is more than just a practical tool. Since its inception it has led to hypothetical new energy consumption mechanisms, inspired generations of science fiction writers, and influenced thinking around our own future energy consumption."