Kardashev Scale

A quite old series of digital paintings visualizing the civilizational stages envisioned by Soviet astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev. The idea is classifying hypothetical advanced civilizations by the amount of energy they use (planetary, stellar, galactic, respectively). This is specifically envisioning the future of human civilization, though of course stages 2 and 3 are well beyond the literal homo sapiens era, even though they're the same people in all the ways that matter, kinda like the Minds in the "Culture" series.