I was a bit put off by the 0 rating...without considering the two viking space crafts that have left the solar system and still communicating beyond the sun's helosphere...not to mention robotics all over the place while we solve the problems of living in space...I think before the turn of the century we'll able to give it a shot.

I like your take on doing more on less energy...Kardashev never thought of that...

I would argue that there are different scales from the Kardashev scale which measure total energy available. As technology advances we have the capability to do more with less energy so the total energy available to us might not be the best measurement.

Another measurement might be our reach. At what distance can we affect things? The ability to have rovers on Mars that are taking actions based on our desires indicates that our reach, at least barely, extends to Mars and the other planets that we have sent probes to. We have no probe at another star yet.

Alternatively the question could be how far individuals can personally go. On that scale we are currently limited to low earth orbit, but almost 50 years ago we could go to the moon.

If you invent a warp drive, you could imagine an interstellar civilization with people on multiple star systems freely moving about, trading goods. This could be done without having access to all the power on the planet Earth. So you could have an interstellar civilization without being Kardashev scale 1.

Let’s be honest, we have our fair share of problems on planet Earth: war, floods, disease, poverty, environmental destruction, Justin Bieber (the list goes on and on, really). But we also have a lot of things going for us: the Alcubierre Warp Drive, invisibility cloaks, the Mars rover missions, the discovery of the Higgs (the list goes on and on, really).