Kardashev scale
≈ 0.73
By Sagan's formula, computed from about 600 EJ of global primary energy supply in 2025 (Type I = 1.0).[1][2]
The Kardashev scale →Where are we?
Some measurable frontiers humanity has reached today, and the big questions still open. Every value rests on a source and is reviewed monthly.
Last updated: 2026-09-27
Energy
Global primary energy supply
≈ 600 EJ (2025)
The highest ever; about 86% comes from fossil fuels.[1]
Energy →Fusion target gain
4.13
On 7 April 2025 NIF produced 8.6 MJ of fusion energy from 2.08 MJ of laser energy.[3]
Fusion energy and ignition →Longest tokamak plasma
1,337 s
The WEST tokamak in France sustained a plasma for about 22 minutes in February 2025.[4]
Fusion energy and ignition →Universe and space
Age of the universe (ΛCDM)
13.787 billion years
From Planck satellite data (±0.020); other views are listed on the node page.[5]
The beginning of the universe and the Big Bang →Confirmed exoplanets
> 6,000
NASA's tally passed 6,000 in September 2025; more than 8,000 candidates await confirmation.[6]
Exoplanets →Unknown content
≈ 95%
In the ΛCDM model about 68% of the universe's energy content is dark energy and 27% dark matter; the nature of both is unknown.[5]
Dark matter →Most distant known galaxy
z = 14.44
MoM-z14, confirmed by JWST in 2025, seen about 280 million years after the Big Bang.[16]
The James Webb Space Telescope →Latest crewed trip to the Moon
April 2026
The Artemis II crew flew around the Moon and set the record for the farthest humans have travelled from Earth.[17]
Artemis II, humans around the Moon after 50 years →Potential biosignature on Mars
Potential (2025)
Mineral and organic patterns in a rock found by Perseverance; non-biological explanations could not be ruled out.[18]
A potential biosignature on Mars (Cheyava Falls) →Climate
Global warming (2025)
≈ 1.43 °C
Relative to pre-industrial (1850–1900); 2015–2025 are the 11 warmest years on record.[19]
Present-day global warming and its causes →Atmospheric CO₂
> 420 ppm
About 315 ppm in 1958; between 180 and 300 ppm over the past 800,000 years.[20]
The Keeling curve →Life and health
World population
≈ 8.2 billion
UN World Population Prospects 2024 estimate.[7]
Life expectancy at birth
≈ 73 years
Global average; in 1900 it was about 32 years.[7][8]
Medicine →Human genome
100% sequenced (2022)
The Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) consortium published the first gapless human genome of 3.055 billion base pairs.[9]
The double-helix structure of DNA →Personalised gene editing
1 patient (2025)
A base-editing therapy designed in six months for one baby's mutation.[10]
Personalised in vivo gene-editing therapy →Living languages
7,159
3,193 of them (45%) are endangered. Ethnologue 2025.[21]
Linguistics →Computing and mathematics
Quantum error correction
Below threshold (2024)
On Google Willow a 101-qubit distance-7 code gave about 0.143% logical error per cycle.[11]
Quantum computers →AI and the olympiad
35/42 (2025)
A language model reached gold-medal level at IMO 2025 under official grading.[12]
AI reaching gold-medal level at the International Mathematical Olympiad →Millennium Prize Problems
1 / 7 solved
Only the Poincaré conjecture has been solved (Perelman); six, including the Riemann hypothesis and P = NP, remain open.[13]
The Riemann hypothesis (open) →Big open questions
Consciousness
Open
In a 2025 preregistered experiment some core predictions of both leading theories failed.[14]
Consciousness (open question) →Origin of life
Open
No laboratory has produced a living cell from non-living matter.[15]
The first origin of life (abiogenesis) →Quantum gravity
Open
There is no experimentally tested theory unifying general relativity and quantum mechanics.[22]
Quantum gravity (open question) →Sources
- Report (2026). Statistical Review of World Energy 2026energyinst.orgarchive
- Book (1973). The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective. Doubleday, New York
- Web (2025). Target breakthrough enabled fusion record at NIF. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratorylasers.llnl.govarchive
- Web (2025). WEST sets a new plasma duration record. CEA-IRFMirfm.cea.frarchive
- Article (2020). Planck 2018 results. VI. Cosmological parameters. Astronomy & Astrophysics 641, A6DOI 10.1051/0004-6361/201833910archive
- Web (2025). NASA's tally of planets outside our solar system reaches 6,000. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratoryjpl.nasa.govarchive
- Dataset (2024). World Population Prospects 2024population.un.orgarchive
- DatasetLife Expectancy. Our World in Dataourworldindata.orgarchive
- Article (2022). The complete sequence of a human genome. Science 376, 44–53DOI 10.1126/science.abj6987archive
- Article (2025). Patient-specific in vivo gene editing to treat a rare genetic disease. New England Journal of MedicineDOI 10.1056/NEJMoa2504747archive
- Article (2025). Quantum error correction below the surface code threshold. Nature 638, 920–926DOI 10.1038/s41586-024-08449-yarchive
- Web (2025). Advanced version of Gemini with Deep Think officially achieves gold-medal standard at the International Mathematical Olympiad. Google DeepMinddeepmind.googlearchive
- WebThe Millennium Prize Problems. Clay Mathematics Instituteclaymath.orgarchive
- Article (2025). Adversarial testing of global neuronal workspace and integrated information theories of consciousness. Nature 642, 133–142DOI 10.1038/s41586-025-08888-1archive
- Article (2006). Small molecule interactions were central to the origin of life. The Quarterly Review of Biology 81(2), 105–125DOI 10.1086/506024archive
- Article (2025). A cosmic miracle: a remarkably luminous galaxy at z_spec = 14.44 confirmed with JWST. The Open Journal of AstrophysicsarXiv:2505.11263archive
- Web (2026). NASA welcomes record-setting Artemis II moonfarers back to Earth. NASAnasa.govarchive
- Article (2025). Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars. Nature 645, 332–340DOI 10.1038/s41586-025-09413-0archive
- Report (2026). State of the Global Climate 2025. WMO-No. 1391, Genevawmo.intarchive
- DatasetTrends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (Mauna Loa)gml.noaa.govarchive
- Dataset (2025). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 28th edition. SIL International, Dallasethnologue.comarchive
- Book (2006). The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next. Houghton Mifflin, Boston