There's this fascinating way to measure how far we've come as a civilization—through something called the Kardashev scale.

Think about it. Type I? That's all about how much of our planet's raw energy we're actually harnessing and putting to work. Not just generating it—turning it into something useful.

Then there's Type II. Picture this: what fraction of the sun's entire output could we capture? We're talking stellar-scale energy here.

It's a mind-bending framework. Most people don't realize we're not even a full Type I civilization yet. We're somewhere around 0.7 on that scale—still burning fossil fuels, still figuring out fusion, still decades away from mastering planetary energy flows.

But here's the thing: every breakthrough in energy tech—whether it's solar efficiency, nuclear innovation, or even decentralized power grids—pushes that percentage higher. Progress isn't always obvious until you zoom out.