Miniaturized atomic power on every world
0.73Kardashev K, on a 0–3 axis
Humanity’s progress toward a galaxy-scale civilization3 FEED-LINKED INPUTS
GALACTIC INDEX 22 SEP 2026
Galactic Index
A far-future comparison
These scores use imagined endpoints. They do not predict when the future will happen.
24.9/100Editorial comparisonA model, not measured completion.
10TopicsOpen one to see the details.
CompareDifferent endpointsRead how the model works.
Ten domains measured against a speculative galaxy-scale civilization: widespread settlement, abundant energy, autonomous systems and long-term resilience. The targets are editorial benchmarks, not forecasts.
How this number is calculated ↗THE LONG VIEW · 0—100WE ARE HERE · 24.9
0Pre-industrialTodayInterstellar100Galactic civilization
A HIGHER BAR25 million worldsTen domains, including societal forecasting, measured against a speculative galaxy-scale civilization.Explore societal forecasting ↗
10 INTERLOCKING DOMAINS
The tracks
The same domains against a galactic endpoint, with societal forecasting added.
Autonomous systems supporting civilization over long horizons
95%Frontier reasoning benchmark (ARC-AGI-2)
Healthy longevity and planetary ecosystem stewardship
73.3Global life expectancy
Speculative faster-than-light travel; 25 million worlds
1Inhabited worlds
Traders and Merchant Princes; trade as soft power
≈58%World trade as share of GDP
Highly automated settlements and autonomous infrastructure
0.0006Robots per person
Speculative transport, advanced computation and neural interfaces
96Logical qubits
Shared knowledge, universal communication and collective coordination
64MGlobal knowledge network
Spirituality · Arts · Architecture · Heritage ↗Durable institutions and long-term societal resilience
81 yrsAge of the widest human institution
Computational social science and long-term scenario modeling
36%Psychology findings that replicated
donenownextplannedfar
Resilience and the critical path
A civilization depends on several systems working together. The critical path identifies the domain whose next milestone would move the Progress Scale most. Today that domain is Peace & Governance. Dependencies show how a shortfall in one domain can constrain others.
12 TECHNOLOGIES & INSTITUTIONS
The Galactic technology checklist
Global knowledge network
What this means
Wikipedia holds 60M+ articles; language models support search and synthesis, with reliability limits.
Societal forecasting
What this means
Prediction markets, Metaculus forecasters and social simulation; no laws of mass human behavior with error bars.
Civilization modeling systems
What this means
Civilization dashboards and simulation models exist; reliable millennium-scale prediction does not. This site uses a dated snapshot.
Advanced autonomous robot
What this means
Humanoids are in pilots; reliable autonomous stewardship over long horizons remains speculative.
Speculative faster-than-light travel
No FTL; Alcubierre-class concepts need negative energy.
Miniaturized atomic power
What this means
Small modular reactors and fusion ignition; nothing pocket-sized.
Personal force shield
What this means
No practical energy barrier; directed-energy weapons exist, shields do not.
Planet-wide city
What this means
58% of humanity is urban; megacities of 30M+; no planet-wide city.
Galactic civilization
What this means
One inhabited world; permanent presence off-Earth is 11 people.
Interactive knowledge archive
What this means
Interactive archives and AI avatars exist; reliable preservation and contextual interpretation over millennia remain speculative.
Collective planetary intelligence
What this means
A planetary shared mind; the internet is a proto-network, not consciousness.
Speculative direct neural communication
What this means
No brain-to-brain influence; BCIs read 27 patients' motor intent, one way.
Snapshot: 22 Sep 2026. Source dates vary by indicator. See data status ↗
New here? What the labels mean
Reported fact
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Model or score
A way to compare things using chosen rules. Different rules can give different scores.
Future goal or scenario
Something we hope to achieve, or imagine might happen. It is not a measured fact.
- Milestone
- An important step toward a goal.
- Indicator
- A measurement that helps us understand something.
- Dependency
- Something that may need help from something else.
- Biodiversity
- The variety of living things.
- GW
- Gigawatts: a unit of power. Capacity is what equipment can produce at its rated output.