Kardashev, Dyson sphere, and zero-point energy

[dannyflint]

Hi,

In my first book ( im 22,000 words in ! woohoo ) One of my characters talks about a piece of alien technology that uses a zero-point energy generator.

I would like this character to refer to the alien race that created it as being ( something like) ' a Kardashev level II civilization.'

However, as far as I know, the Kardashev scale is about harnessing the power of the sun, or the galaxy, and therefore isnt exactly the right term for my alien race, who have instead harnessed zero-point.

Hope this makes sense.

Are there any other scales similar to the kardashev that my character could use to describe the alien race?

Or any other advise regarding this.

Thanks

Danny

 

[polymath]

Maybe call them a Casimir-level, or Planck-level civilisation? Or perhaps in terms of energy input - they have achieved a zero-input civilisation level?
I'm sure others will have something a bit more technical, but maybe it's a start.

 

[PERCON]

A few years ago the speed of gravity was measured to be that of the speed of light. So you could say it is a 'Quanta-level' civilisation, since zero-point is to do with energy and quantum physics is about the movement of energy.
Or to use a wider class for the civilisation you could use 'c-level' where c is the speed of light.

 

[Green]

Sorry, can't really help with your main question (Planck sounds about right when talking about ZPE, but Planck sounds too basic, since we've known about his work for yonks ), but just wanted to ask about this bit:

One of my characters talks about a piece of alien technology that uses a zero-point energy generator.

How do they generate ZPE? I'm just asking because everything has ZPE built into it already. Do you mean that they just use the ZPE that's already present? Out of curiosity... what happens to the fuel/energy source when they do use it? I'm a chemist, so I'd actually be very interested in how you utilise this idea - I'm not just trying to nitpick