This is part one of the series Measuring a civilization with an intro to the series and introducing the working general definition of a civilization. If you love the work, please upvote and share with your peers. Engaging in the comments section is more than welcome!
Imagining a galactic community of species and civilizations, how would one policy or decision maker adjust his outlook concerning matters pertaining to one space civilization as opposed to his (its) own civilization, species and/or culture and with regard to the differences, mainly advantages and disadvantages between the two? How exactly would one measure a civilization, and by which criteria?
I had been doing design work for a video game (a clone of Civilization) and precisely this question was my preoccupation. In this series of articles I will present a framework proposal for quantifying the attributes of a civilization that arose from my work.
This is not the first effort to map the differences between hypothetical space civilizations. Nikolai Kardashev introduced a scale to measure the technological development of a civilization based on the levels of energy consumption it achieves. The Kardashev scale was a major inspiration for this series, however I find it extremely lacking in granularity and too techno-centric. There have also been various extensions to the Kardashev scale but none of them have satisfied my needs completely.
Series outline:
- What is a civilization (this part)
- Information
- Energy
- Matter
- Social connectedness and cohesion
- Sustainability units, reach and index
- Progression rate
- Compatibility index
- History
- At rest potential
What is a civilization?
First thing first, forget your associations with the term "civilization" as that term is heavily influenced by the contemporary distinction between the West and the East. For the purposes of establishing a framework for distinguishing the various potential forms of civilization inhabiting our Universe, a more broader general definition of civilization is needed.
This is an excerpt from the Oxford Dictionary entry on civilization:
NOUN
the stage of human social development and organization which is considered most advanced:
"the Victorians equated the railways with progress and civilization"
Having in mind that we are considering the potential various forms of civilization potential various extra-terrestrial life potentially exhibit, dropping the human requirement is obviously necessary.
Also having in mind that an alien species may not have a functioning society (everyone living in isolation, with no economic supply chain connections and no intrapersonal communication) but may nonetheless appear and act toward a different civilization in a holistic, consistent fashion (ie. each isolated individual responding to stimuli and interference in the same way, perhaps by genetically inheriting behaviour), or the fact that an alien species might have decided to organize their society in a less advanced manner than available to them, we will take the condition of existence of a society rather tentatively into consideration.
the process by which a society or place reaches an advanced stage of social development and organization.
On the other hand, we will take into account the process by which the society is organizing and developing itself. Even though a society does not exist, the processes leading to conditions for a society to arise could be in progress. Take note of the equivalency of society and place in the above definition.
the society, culture, and way of life of a particular area:
"the great books of Western civilization" ·
"the early civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt"
The significance of place is also evident in the definition of civilization above. Here the term civilization is also expanded to include culture and way of life.
the comfort and convenience of modern life, regarded as available only in towns and cities:
"in the UK nowhere is very far from civilization"
This last definition is in my opinion a contemporary distortion of the term, mainly used to distinguish the rural from the urban, however the human civilization is both part urban and part rural and there is no benefit in precluding the rural areas from being taken as part of the human civilization when talking comparatively about civilizations on a universal scale.
All this makes the following definition of a civilization:
A society or inhabited place, it's members participating in processes of organization and development, exhibiting a common culture and a common way of life.
Now when we have a working definition of a civilization, stay tuned for the next part: Information, exploring the chaos reducing aspects of organization and it's links to life and civilization. Think I got something wrong? Something's missing or something extra? Do comment.
I'm totally with you on that, it's a very interesting point and the notion of what a civilization is or how the people being part of it interact together is fascinating! I don't know if you are familiar with Isaac Asimov's books but he tackled the issue of civilizations and how the interactions inside of them would be completly different from what we know. For your definition, I have a question which is more philosophical than anything else. Do the members have to be aware that they're sharing a common goal and structure? Or is it something defined by an outsider or later in time when you have some insight about that said civilization? Good job!
Thank you mystis! I'm glad you find my point interesting and civilizations fascinating. I am familiar with some of Asimov's works (Foundation ofc), as for your question the answer is no, the members of the civilization need not declare to be a part of it. I'm building this theoretical framework solely for humans to use as a means to quantify and compare the few key distinctive indicators of prosperity/advancement of a civilization. It is probable that an advanced and different civilization would not even be able to comprehend the notions used to build this framework, or that they would a framework of their own. :)
Edit: The members need only be part of the organizational and development efforts, live in the arbitrary area, and share a cultural and way of life baseline/order
Nice! looking forward to see more of your writing :)
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Well described