User:Wormulon/Types of civilisation

This page is a testing ground for a future SporeWiki article about classifying civilisations. It will supersede the Tier scale, based primarily on technological capability while Ghelæ's class scale works on size and energy consumption. Of course, the scale and advancement of technology generally works on how much energy can be supplied to that civilisation, that is the basic need of technology and would be a fundemental basis for all manipulative-type intelligences in the universe.

Likelyhood of galactic civilisations, Faster-Than-Light travel and the Fermi Paradox (Tech, scale, age)
In the SporeWikiverse, FTL is possible, the limit is not in reality but in imagination. Indeed there are several STL races, such as the Elucaphon. This chart is NOT my invention, it is in the Stephen Baxter interview (0:51 to the end), but I find its useful and we could modify our own version.

∗- Interplanetary + first interstellar expeditions. ∗- Without Vorlon jumpgates. ∗- If the universe turns out to hang in the lower left or right boxes, I think a good candidate for first contact or even UFO's are self-replicating swarms, sent out by civilisations over billions of years and spreading throughout the universe. In short, the universe should be full of them, even making the 10% of unexplained UFO reports likely. ∗- Assuming interstellar travel was done over the age of the universe, perhaps first building stellar |Shkadov thrusters from dyson spheres and that computational processing speed of their minds were slowed to shorten their perception of time for the trip.

Whether a civilisation is STL or FTL is important to this scale, I believe faster-than-light technology is key to unlocking the universe, if civilisations in the lower left develop FTL technology they immediatly become long-lived space opera civilisations, which will quickly develop technology to become godlike engineers of the universe in centuries to a thousand years or so. If it cannot develop FTL for whatever reason it can instead use STL starships, von-nuemann swarms and even in time enclose itself in dyson structures, perhaps developing its technology very slowly into Tier 1, but differently, eventually over many millenia reaching galactic status. The universe might not be old enough for the box on the lower right, if FTL technology is never developed, if the speed of light is taken into account. Conservative estimates suggest Galactic Builders in this box won't exist for a 1000 trillion years, but they will still be able to tap into black holes and stellar ashes, they will perhaps envy us basking in the glorious embers of the Big Bang, as Arthur.C.Clarke said; “They will have time enough, in all those endless aeons, to attempt all things and gather all knowledge... But for all that, they may envy us, basking in the bright afterglow from creation; for we knew the universe when it was young.”

Xenotechnology: How the intelligent species makes leaps in technology
If we take in Truly Alien life into account (basically anything unlike carbon-based life on Earth), the locations for life to exist in the universe rapidally expands beyond what we know of the Goldilocks zone. For a long time, scientists within SETI have speculated that manipulative-type sentients (this is not taking other types of adaptive xenopsychology into account) can only create technology on the surface of planets with atmospheric chemistries that are remarkably unreactive; for example, if free-oxygen was present on Titan, fire, one of the most important sources of energy for early man, but be an impossibly dangerous exploit). Chlorine-dominant atmospheres would also be unsuitable for smelting iron and copper (leading whatever manipulative-type sentient to either find another metal).  In more recent times, hard science fiction writers and some astrobiologists have speculated that Aquatic civilisations, Atmospheric civilisations, stellar-based and many other very alien intelligences and so on can exist. They may all manipulate their environment for different uses to Earth-civilisation, but all share one thing in common, and that is energy.

In the "Star Maker", a world is mentioned who's sentient lifeforms are Swarm Intelligences. These were composite beings who lived on a world swepped by dramatic ocean tides, making flight important, however, its natives coudn't achieve lift with brains as big as human's. This, each flock of birds was a composite conciousness, they created a mental unity based on manipulation of strong electromagnetic fields, this was ultimatly biological, and comparable to the monkey paws of human beings which is the basis of technology for manipulative-sentients. Through this they were able to develop agriculture, and eventually wind-turbine power generation and archictecture based on their own manipulation of the atmosphere. Radio waves, not nuclear power, were the Weapons of Mass Destruction on their world, eventually only two flocks were left dominant, having absorbed the others. A great war occurred with the two flock-civilisation attemping to absorb the other using radio-wave bombardment.

So indeed, not all technological civilisations are the same. This is the basis of the Tier U on the previous scale, although now I feel like all a civilisation needs to do to reach higher tiers of technology is to find ever greater sources of energy and resources to use it; perhaps a star-civilisation exists out there, perhaps it can find ingenious ways to manipulate its environment, but without solid material, it cannot leave its home star, if this civilisation is spread right across it would rate Kardashev-II, yet at the same time, it could not (and probably would not want or need to) create solid objects let alone starships and the other usual tropes of science fiction.

Such limited Tier U Xeno-technolofical civilisations probably fit in the lower-left to lower right boxes for a long time.

Solving the issues with technology
Me and some other users think that the new tier scale should be vague about technology. Technology is an abstract thing, it can be classified by how it works, by energy/mass, by its infinite applications varying in advancement (which as we've seen above also varies) and so on. Some alien technology and hypertechnology is not easy to add to a scale.


 * To expand or not to expand: Generally, civilisations expand, societies which cannot expand due to physical, technical or motivational reasons stay in the lower-right box. Human (abd generally in fiction, many species) civilisations do expand, and the more energy sources it can harness, the more the universe is opened up, perhaps to levels beyond current human understanding nearing the tip of the scale, especially if information-processing rate increases (see transhumanism, abd the sentience quotient).  The Kardeshev scale deals with this quite well, and is the basis for the original Tier scale and the Class scale which this is attempting to bridge the gap.


 * Hypertechnology: However, this scale will have to be vague, for several reasons, some of these make the "Tier U" intelligences impossible to put on a kardeshev scale accuratly. Like with the sentience quotient, if an artifact from a superior intelligence fell on Earth, if humans even recorgnise such a device distinct from the natural world or in our perceptions (perhaps a monolith created for our image) we might project our own beliefs ono it.  As Stephen Baxter mentioned in one interview, we may try to measure information processing and energy readings, not finding its true purpose, just as the apemen in 2001: Space Odyssey may have tried to procreate with the artifacts.


 * Civilisations that don't fit (Tier U): The Nox in Stargate are one of the Four Great Races, refer to humans as young and all that, but for most of the episode appeared as stone-age people. Yet, it turned out they had an invisible civilisation, that was all around that Sg1 didn't notice until shown. In fact the Nox could build better Statgates than the Ancients, they had no unstable vortex for example.  Wormhole-technology, yet no visible energy source.  The technology was either hidden or simply beyond understanding.  Some sci-fi civilisations have advanced technology but are not very large empires, perhaps most having left, or became extinct.  Others swarm, taking resources and never really advancing much, becoming technologically stagnant.  Many fictional civilisations never develop their own technology, simply raiding off others like thieves or parasites.  The Cephalodians in the SporeWikiverse evolved from runaway bionanobots, and never build technology, instead symbiotically "instructing" or "programming" other life (also descended from bionanotechnology) into whatever living form they desire.


 * Conclusion: Because of all this, instead this scale isn't about technology itself but the advance of a civilisation and likelyhood of what those technologies are applied to.

= Tier scale V2 = Remember, this is technological capability only, it is also in general and overall over a broad spectrum.

+? (Omnipotent and infinite)
Obviously anything beyond the multi/universal, whatever thats means. I'm afraid this is a seat I'll reserve for the Xhodocto, although lets not forget Gorf or the Dvotties :3.
 * Ayrai'Shikua (SporeWiki)

Class 10 (IV-V+)
Versus scale and kardashev scale: Energy being harnessed is approaching 1069 joules, the collective of mass-energy in the observable universe, perhaps beyond. In the classical kardashev scale, a type IV/class 10 would need to harness all the mass/energy of the universe, including dark matter and dark energy in order to power cosmological technologies. This implies Tier 0 technologies requires a civilisation with the following attributes: However, I believe this is limited thinking, based purely on what we know of the Fermi paradox and laws of physics. Science fiction writers and visionaries tend to think unconventionally. For example, a Tier 0 civilisation may require type IV power, but it may not need to be type IV in size of the classical sense. If a civilisation or collective intelligence learned how to jump inside a rotating black hole, it might be able to could harness mass inflation, which is thought to exceed Big Bang energies.
 * Lifetime/age (to expand): STL (1000 trillion years)...FTL (age of the universe?)
 * ''Distribution of resources: The entire universe.
 * Of energy across civilisation: STL (local)...FTL (unlimited transportation)
 * Population: Dense.

In a sense you have three types of tier 0 civilisation is coupled with scale and kardashev energy distribution. Classical-type civilisations like the Xeelee which stick to cosmological scales and ages incorporating everything, giving them the benchmarch of baryonic matter. Unconventional-type civilisations that are more flexible and could reach any size and Limited-type civilisations which live extremely long timescales limited by the speed of light and can only operate within the laws of physics, yet still engineer the universe slowly.

Tier 0 - Universal engineers
''If the said godrace has instantanious faster than light travel, they could re-engineer the universe as they please, perhaps violating currently accepted physics of even Tier 1 (though even this might be a limited humanocentric idea). This could be used to do far more than create universes (if certain requisits for the models of those exist for the SporeWikiverse), perhaps inconcievable works, the closest to omnipotence one can get in science. Perhaps such races were born with the universe, expanding and evolving with it...''
 * A Classical


 * Universal:
 * Photino Birds (Xeelee Sequence) - Outmass the Xeelee 8 to 1 in terms of matter available to them, forced the Xeelee to retreat, eventual extinction of baryonic life after they "terraformed" the universe.
 * Xeelee (Xeelee Sequence) - One of the most advanced civilisations ever created; this profile describes details, although there are more things not mentioned there. They are made of spacetime defects and primordial matter.  Several sources suggest they may even be Multiversal (they inhabit a causal time loop which re-runs different timelines of the universe, have a massive cosmological constuct called "The Ring" and created "heaven" universes for all baryonic life, such as a universe of mathematical perfection and infinite stars for the Silver Ghosts).  This is because they "love" life, even if it attacks them.  Much of their technology and projects are above less advanced races but some of their "trash" is prized and fought over by squabbling baryonics.
 * Universal Constructors (The Time Ships) - A "descendant" of Humanity, living quantum replicators where no individual exists, instead they are an information sea of minds merging and dissolving. They darkened the universe with dyson spheres and eventually created time ships to the beginning of the universe and pushed it back (I won't spoil the ending), by transversing imaginary time and created a pool table for the time traveller where the ball knocked itself in a time looping wormhole.


 * B Unconventional


 * Cosmogenic: Alphapoint/Omegapoint "god" - Examples include; "Ultimate Observer" (Xeelee sequence), Monad (Xeelee Sequence), Biocentrism, sentient universe in the Time Ships, and Isaac Asimov's Cosmic AC.
 * Multiversal: Downstreamers (Manifold series), Q (Star Trek), Anti-Spirals (TTGL), The Sublimed and Excession (Culture novels), the Ultraterrestrials in the Sporewikiverse; Big Collective Consciousness, Non-Turing (not causally related to current SporeWikiverse).


 * C Limited

''If FTL travel and other laws of physics are not exceedable, then universe-spanning races won't exist until greater ages of the universes. This could be compensated by extremely slow time perception (subjective time would be unaffected), a slow AI, such beings have been speculated to be the last living forms that survive in the universe. These races may or may not be as godly as those above, but can still do impressive things that shape the future of life or the universe.''
 * Firstborn - an EU of 2001 Space Odyssey aliens, the Firstborn wish to eradicate all life in the universe to slow its end. They preserve record of all extincted races in a basement universe.
 * 2001 Space Odyssey aliens - Evolved in the early universe, spread out with it, perhaps creating life, seeding intelligence and even weeding out others. In the sequel their monolith ignited Jupiter.

Class 9 (kardashev III to IV)
Versus scale and kardashev scale: In order to alter the laws of physics, you need to play around with energies so powerful that the four forces of nature unite, you can either try and generate these energies locally, taking time, or you can use sources of energy in the universe. Most high tier 1 civilisations seem to be true Kardashev III's, either harnessing the total mass/energy output of a galaxy or quasar, or harness dark matter (maybe even short-term energy like gamma-ray burts and colliding supermassive black holes). But this doesn't always hold true, not all are supergalactic (using "clarketech" power sources e.g. hyperspace stars), hence this tier as well has an unconventional category.
 * Lifetime/age (to expand): STL (100,000 years to stationary observers)...FTL (Mere generations)
 * ''Distribution of resources: The entire universe.
 * Of energy across civilisation: STL (Local)...FTL (Universal)

High Tier 1
''Science, perception and knowledge is way beyond 21st century understanding (even biological), perhaps even achieving localised spacetime engineering and the creation of basement universes. Artificial evolution for states of being might even go beyond conciousness at this point and we might be no more able to percieve them as a plant can with us.''
 * A Supergalactic distribution


 * The Junction (at their height SporeWiki) - They have control over dark energy, I speculate they could halt and reverse cosmic expansion once godhood is achieved, and it will again.
 * Cult of the Deathmarch, The Congregation (SporeWiki) - Xhodocto weapons and megascale constructs, possible contact with the 21 races, demons and maybe the Xhodocto. Vast holdings where angels fear to tread...  They could be Tier 0 for all I know, yet they remain mortal, very dangerous...
 * Time Lords (Doctor Who) - Time travel, time locks, mathematics given solid form, dimensionally transcendant objects (like a TARDIS, Doctor's is antique too), simulated universes, artificial black holes and other toys, removed magic from the universe, planned to ascend, destroying time as we know it along with them.
 * Qax (Photino victory era, Xeelee Sequence) - The Qax by this era evolved to live in the guts of physics, their turbulent cells sublimed into the quantum foam, and the gravitational interactions of galaxies, varing in size. They managed to seal the character Paul, an immortal disembodied human of quantum functions into a cage of photons which were so energetic they were almost black holes.  Qax at this point could damage the Photino Birds.
 * The Transcendance/SubXeelee Humanity (Transcendance era, Xeelee Sequence) - Transcended posthumans with godlike intelligence achieving "subXeeelee dominance" across the Local Supercluster. The collective superintelligence was an attempt to make a bridge between mankind and godhood, in a members of it could achieve retro-casual time manipulation with their minds, and reality warping in another plane of existence called configuration space.  Humanity's benchmark fails however, and Humanity's old enemies prepared, including the Xeelee, who scourged Humanity and pushed them back to Sol, million years AD.
 * Nagilum (Star Trek) - Created a hole with no dimension or energy, created illusions of ships and created impossible geometry in one of the illusionary ships. Cannot die as we understand it.  I think other Star Trek Elder beings other than the Q are here too (Sha Ka Ree, Douwd, Armus, Beta (*) entity, Prophets, Organians, Metron, Edo god, Calamarain, 0, The Traveller and other reality-warping non-corporeal races).
 * Alterans (Stargate) - Planted Stargates across the universe, ascended to a higher plane, had several dimensional technologies (e.g. quantum mirrors, interdimensional visibility, dimensional shifting, time loop stargates).
 * Daleks (Doctor Who) - Reality bomb, spacetime weaponry (time travel, captured wormhole bombs), dimensionally transcendant devices, spacetime teleportation of themselves or entire worlds, interuniversal arks.
 * Stronger AI's - The Archailects, in all their power, are still limited by the speed of light and time travel, thus, they do not represent the strongest in this category. CTC processors and the Planck Zero of the Xeelee Sequence outdo them.  Other comparable AI's might include Vger and the Whale Probe (Star Trek), the TechnoCore UI (Hyperion Cantos), some AI's mentioned in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and of course, the AI Netspace of SporeWiki (not so constrained by physics either).  The Eschaton also.
 * Archailects, The Leviathan (AI gods, Orion's Arm) - environment/planet/star/black hole/cluster/wormhole/quantum AI's with minds beyond comprehension, known powers include; voidships/ghosts, access to the Bulk, creating and tailoring universes, tipler oracles, chaos wands, and produce "Clarketech" and artifacts lower clades of Humanity/AI fail to understand (and a primitive version of dimensionally transcendent objects).
 * Interim Coalition of Governence (Late-Assimilation/Exultant/Post-Exultant era Humanity, Xeelee Sequence) - They achieved dominion over the Milky Way. Some of the most advanced sci-fi humans; gravastar shields, shields are strong enough to survive impact with a magnetar, snowflake storage, star-projectiles, CTC's (Closed Timelike Curve) processors which answer a question before being asked.  Wormhole-based time travel, SUSY-drives, wormhole networks, hyperdrives, starbusting handguns, black hole launchers, GUT-projectiles, monopole weapons, neutronium and gravity weapons already ancient technology.  Daring even to engage the Xeelee in quasi-trench warfare in the Galactic Core, and several posthuman groups living on wacky places like neutron stars and black holes, naked in space or swimming through accretion discs. They also dismantled globular clusters, cannonballing planets at FTL speeds into the galaxy, and built artificial worlds that could survive in the galactic center with antigravity cities.
 * Magratheans (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) - Have folded zones of hyperspace where they construct planets as a hobby and built AI's the Archailects of OA would be jealous of.
 * Forerunners (Halo), Gree, Celestials, Kwa and Rakatans (Star Wars), Planet Builders (Stargate) - Seem to be at the same level more or less. The Forerunners built a minature dyson sphere cloaked by a void bubble which was in a state of time dilation, as well as galaxy-wide gridfire.  The Celestials constructed star systems and black holes, while the Kwa and Gree had stargates (though on a tiny scale compared to the Alterans), and had quantum and dimensional shifting.  Rakatans used Celestial tech to build the Star Forge.
 * Dacean Ecumene (SporeWiki) - Living quantum replicators that have expanse on the edge of the universe, held their own against the earlier Xhodocto using very advanced hyperspatial technology.


 * B Unconventional distribution

''Some technological civilisations seem to have capabilities of supergalactic scale civilisations. They may be invisible of course, they may have fallen back, or found even better ways to produce sufficient energy. They might be powerful in different ways to human ambition, as well with specialised technology not useful to humankind, thus are even more mysterios.''
 * Snowmen (Xeelee Sequence) - 13 billion years of age, they created vast fractal artifacts cooled to the microwave background recording all information. The artifact has an interesting defense; it can violate Mach's principle, by making gravito-magnetic currents tugging all objects uniformally in the universe non-uniform instantaniously.
 * Silver Ghosts (Xeelee Sequence) - Created a pocket universe where the planckscale was altered to build the insane AI Planck-Zero, split the wavefunction of electrons to use as a new kind of teleporter, created dark matter soliton stars to create understanding with the Photino Birds, altered stars and pits of spacetime that affected the stability of matter, vacuum-energy weapons, transported star systems in time and hyperdrives that can cross the universe in months. Size and scale is unknown, they seem to be explorers and are not good at warfare.
 * The Catharsis (SporeWiki) - In need of data, but they have interuniversal travel.
 * Iconians, Preservers/Ancient Humanoids, Sphere Builders (Star Trek) - The Iconian Gateways seem to be an example of multiply connected space, rather than wormholes.  If Star Trek Online is to be believed, the Iconians caused a chain reaction of supernovae (Hobus supernova) through subspace, as "demons of the darkness" they could teleport anywhere in the universe.  The Preservers may have created various artifacts like the Guardian of Forever and are responsible for humanoids.  Size/scale is seemingly small for both.  As for the Sphere Builders, they could locally alter physics for their own purposes and had time travel.
 * Vorlon, Shadows, First Ones (Babylon 5) - Most have ascended the universe or left the galaxy, so Class 5 in size. Spacetime manipulation using organic technology is impressive.  Notable Vorlon tech includes; understanding of the soul, voidships, planet busters, quantum drives and interuniversal travel to Thirdspace.  Shadows; hyperspace shifting, hyperspace weapons, deathclouds of nanotech berserkers, superlasers.  Other First Ones have immense sentience, psionics, mindtravel (Great Machine), non-material structural engineering, and hyperspace constructions.
 * Apalapucian (Doctor Who) - The Apalapucians seperated the sick indivuals of their kind in in different time streams (quantum universes?), and had devices that looked like mirrors which could make them visible to each other, something 21st century theories mostly regard as impossibility.
 * Heechee novels, elders of the Humanx Commonwealth
 * Deceptively advanced truly alien races: Environmental minds like Whisperworld (and possibly Pandora), "Dreaming mould" (Xeelee Sequence), alien slimemould which was once an alien civilisation which turned itself into something that percieves timelessness, humans uploaded into "Callisto bugs", bacteria that evolved to absorb quantum numbers and percieve the universe differently.  Humans in it had reality warping powers in "configuration space".  The "Pattern Jugglers", sentient algae that record all information.  Nox, Furlings (Stargate) - The Nox appear Stone Age, but actually are so advanced SG1 simply coudn't see their tech.  Furlings are unknown.

Class 7 and 8 (II-III)
A Class 6 begins to harness stars (II), then creating networks (class 7, II.5) to transport the energy, finishing at class 8 (II/III) when such a civilisation dominates significant areas of a galaxy. They are only limited by their imagination, in time, they could easily achieve high Tier 1.

Low to Mid Tier 1
''Civilisations able astroengineer their galaxy, using high mass/energy technologies, might involve incredibly complex manufacturing using femto-nanotech (like quantum replicators, matter/antimatter conversion), gravitational manipulation (wormhole networks on a large scale), and even hyperspatial technology that can manipulate realspace too. Some of these civilisations can open existing portals to other universes, but not really create them from scratch. Most SporeWikiverse civilisations have advanced this point in the last few in-universe decades, thanks to the SSA and the War of Ages. Some of their technologies and activities might transcend human knowledge completely.''
 * K-III The Culture - I feel like making The Culture higher, they are certainly the strongest Mid-tier 1 in size/scale/tech.  Highest you can get without "impossibly" powerful devices like time travel.
 * Theian Dominion (SporeWikiverse) - At their height in the future, Theians may have maxed out at K-III with many dyson spheres. Turned their homeworld into a globus cassus, and had various "clarketech" devices (and time travel).  They are reduced to Tier 2 now however.
 * The Apalos (With the AI Netspace, SporeWiki) - Spacetime shielding, access to high tier 1 computation, shapeshifting spacecraft, creation of quantum replicators (although based on Elder technology).
 * Galactic Union (Lensman series) - Similar tech to The Culture, enough to turn entire star systems into technology, such as a stellar vacuum tube used to produce a Nicoll-Dyson laser.
 * The Sundrivers, Deep Traveller (Orion's Arm) - Astroengineering on a large scale, and the Deep Traveller is some form of mobile Dyson structure.
 * K-II/III Grox Meta-Empire, Shka'Tun, Delpha Coalition of Planets, Milky Way Cooperative, CoreFed/Emp (SporeWiki) - The five seem to share similar-level technology: degenerate matter mined from stellar remnants, quantum replicators, micro-gridfire, hyperspace missiles, semi-permanent wormholes, stellar lifting/husbandry, matter/antimatter conversion, ghost-phasing, intergalactic presence, interuniversal travel through natural portals, and more.
 * Galactic Empire (Star Wars Expanded Universe) - Size/Scale/Military could level anyone on this scale short of The Culture...Technology: Hyperspatial weapons and power sources, vacuum energy, artificial black holes, qauntum condensates, industrial-scale duplicators, hyperspace-capable artificial planets, dyson rings, experimental stellar lifting, starbusters, planet busting superlasers, hyperspace missiles, multi-terraton/petaton firepower and shielding. Otherspace travel.
 * Systems Commonwealth (Andromeda) - Three galaxies, orbitals, hyperspatial wormholes, tesseracting, quantum-drives, exotic matter cores, relativistic antimatter weapons, mass packets, singularity projectors, sunbusters, artificial suns. One member (Perseids) are mapping the wavefunction of the universe to revolutionise technology.  The rivalling Magog have a World-Ship.
 * Galactic Community of Worlds (Star Maker) - A galactic group mind harnessing nearly all the stars in the Milky Way, capable of terraforming, moving star systems and engineering vast worldlets. They had loosely defined "subatomic physics" which gave them powerful directed energy weapons and even starbusters.  The community was almost destroyed by the stars, as the book described the stars and galaxy too as a sentient community.  After merging they explore the universe, existing until the end of time when they barely percieve the "supreme moment", or the Star Maker (god).  It is astonishing this book was published in the 1930's.
 * Galactic Empire of Cyrannus (SporeWiki) - Type II.5 power is attained not by stellar husbandry but by hypermatter which can achieve similar results of energy. They have several hyperspatial technologies including the creation/or use of wormholes.  They can manipulate particles into creating "matter cannons".
 * Asgard (Stargate) - Degenerate matter, intergalactic travel in minuites (which is good even for this tier), static time dilation, advanced beaming technology that can erase Goa'uld ships, created their own stargates, planet buster, sufficient shielding and beam weapons. Insufficient at simpler tech which was almost their downfall against the Replicators.
 * Others: Great and Bountiful Human Empire (Doctor Who, 3 galaxies), Terran Society (Schlock Mercenary), Hegenomy of Man (Hyperion Cantos), Jurai Empire (Tenchi Muyo), Gunbuster, Xenosaga.

Tier 2
''Tier 2 civilisations are generally smaller cousins of Low-tier 1 civilisations, on a sub-galactic scale. They may be confined to large regions of a the galaxy or have limited intergalactic travel. Some technologies; such as hyperspatial manipulation may not have been developed and wormhole technology not perfected.''
 * Terragen Sphere (Orion's Arm) - Terragen are the base template; Transapient posthumans, computers that can simulate universes, megascale engineering (Dyson swarms, star lifting and black hole industrial zones), stellar weapons, early-metric engineering (permanent wormholes) and experimental physics (Galbydeia Torus, Ynity Gate project).
 * SporeWiki - Cognatus, Sphagarzi, Tokzhalan/Girdo, Vartekians, Krassio Host, Inog Swarm, Human Intergalactic Republic (when you consider milky Way Cooperative megastructures, wormholes, and sunbusters used in the Imperial Civil War, humans suddenly aren't so primitive afterall), UNO, Radeon, Indoctrinative Collective, Imperial Alliance, Magellanic Sovereignty of Planets (upper-level laser-tech, "photonic weapons"), Thal Empire, Draconid Imperium - Wormhole project is now complete, and black hole power sources. United Lanat Empire - They can threaten galactic-scale empires like themselves in other galaxies.  Rambo Nation - Vortex torpedoes, superlaser-battlestations, wormhole keys (intergalactic travel), special class of ships capable of temporal warfare.
 * Sontarans (Doctor Who) - Large scale matter/Antimatter conversion, limited time travel, starbusters.
 * Borg Collective (Star Trek) - Amalgum of random tech.  Transwarp conduits, opening quantum singularities to other subspace realms.
 * Yuuzhan Vong (Star Wars) - Intergalactic travel (generational), planet cracking gravitational weapons, and have Dovin basals, organic technology that seemingly utilises black holes for power and weapons.

Unconventional Tier 2 to 1 civilisations
There are more anomalies, some of these come from universes constraint by physical laws or the Fermi Paradox (Contact), others have developed technology unusually or derived it from others, escaping the Class x Tier classification.
 * Omega, Lost Ones, Guardians of Times Gate, Astrolights (SporeWiki) - Megascale information storage, gravitational manipulation, stellar manipulation, interuniversal travel. Tiny size/scale.
 * Wormhole network building (Tier 2)
 * Reapers (Mass Effect) - Much of their technology seems Tier 4 to me (like kinetic shields), although they have zero-point energy and dark energy-powered mass effect fields used to create networks of krasnikov tubes. It may well be that the Reapers are capable of more but don't need it because they subtly manipulate races into a certain level of advancement.
 * Contact aliens - Wormhole construction, other forms of FTL may still impossible. Created a powerful signal aimed to Earth, and their mathematics use higher dimensions.
 * Use of stolen/reverse engineered/fallen technology (otherwise Tier 4 and 3)
 * Qax (Qax occupation era, Xeelee Sequence) - Travel in sentient "Spline", and have several reverse-engineered alien technologies; Squeem hyperdrives, human wormhole networks, and primitive versions of Xeelee starbreakers. half the species lives on their homeworld.  They are traders.
 * Species 8472 (Star Trek) - Really powerful xeno/clarketechnology, like one shot photonic cannons which can destroy planets.  They are from another universe and could only come through quantum singularities opened by the Borg.
 * Imperium of Man (Warhammer 40,000) - The IoM has the size of a Class 7, scale that is Class 5 (Type II at best) but remnant technology still in possession, from greater times seem to brush here at least; planet cracking weapons, hyperdrives, battle planetoids.
 * Goa'uld System Lords (Stargate) - Most slave worlds are kept in Iron Age development, perhaps not even type I, and still have a fuedal system. The Goa'uld live it up on stolen technologies (mostly Alteran); stargates, hyperspace travel, multi-gigaton turbolaser weaponry and intergalactic capability.  Shields are powerful enough to stay immersed in an O-type star's corona.
 * Kicath (SporeWiki) - Were Tier 3 but have gained early Tier 2 technology from the Milky Way Cooperative. Planet cracking weapons.

Tier 3
''Tier 3 civilisations generally are on a much larger scale than Tier 4 civilisations. They may using simpler structures such as dyson bubbles to start harnessing stellar energy. Achieving Kardashev II, such a civilisation generates 80 times the energy of Humanity's biggest bomb, the Tsar Bomba, a second if hucked up to stars like our Sun (G-type, 1 solar mass). The energy released should be enough to power very advanced technology and synthesize materials impossible before, such as superheavy elements. Negative mass may also be achieved without limit, allowing for technologies beyond understanding or forseeable engineering for less advanced civilisations (e.g. hyperspaterial travel). A Tier 3 may even be able to build it's own temporary wormholes (by bending the output of a star), but it will probably nearing Tier 2. Wars may be fought over possession of the core for the lucky civilisation that is able to harness it will advance ten-fold.
 * Tier 3 - Stellar husbandry (late class 6/7) 


 * Grox Empire (Spore) - If we speculate they use the Galactic core as a source of power. They seem to have FTL propulsion unaffected by gravity wells.
 * Stephen Hawking's imagined aliens & Reckzo (SporeWiki) - Bend starlight to create temporary wormholes.
 * Cheela (Dragon's Egg) - Inhabit a neutron star, and advanced on more of a curved line due to the energy readily available to them, achieving technology comparable to other well established civilisations while remaining interplanetary until the end of the book.
 * Single system "Dyson Sphere Builders" (e.g. in Star Trek, and the Morlocks) - Very ancient Tier 3 civilisations might be able to construct Dyson Spheres. There are engineering problems with Dyson spheres, although it may be possible with materials a Tier 3 could manufacture.  Even so, the cost and time may out-weigh the benefits, but still, there may be justifications.
 * Tkon Empire (Star Trek) - They could move their star systems, perhaps using Shkadov thrusters.
 * Protoss (Starcraft) - Quite unconventional, they have a lot of xeno/clarketech They have hyperspatial travel and warp gates powered from zero-point-energy, which may be equivilient when compared to these others.
 * Ringworld (Known Space)

Tier 4
''Tier 4 civilisations, while lower-end seem to be bulk of science fiction (with the Federation from Star Trek on top almost). Yet it is likely they have a lot of understanding of the universe, and are almost immortal (even war is probably unlikely), many of these become base-technologies for more advanced races. However, the number of higher-energy power sources probably decrease, meaning tech becomes more similar after tier 4. Tier 4 civs can still be limited by their local galactic neighborhood. Technology permits use of FTL travel (warp, early hyperspace jump drives) using negative mass which may also power antigravity and subspace ambisils. Matter to energy conversion (teleportation, replication, antimatter reactors), directed energy weapons and deflector shields, quantum singularities, quantum computing and advanced material sciences. Large-scale geoengineering and terraforming is feasible in less than 1 or 2 generations. Tier 4 and 3 civilisations grouped together can threaten higher scale civilisations.''

I've split Tier 4 into three subgroups:
 * 1) A-type tier 4's are unconventional, with a large prominance over the galactic neighborhood; likely due to their age, stellar density and resources available to them. A-type tier 4's may send automated replicator bots (Von-Nuemann probes) to expand their domain.  A-type civilisations typically are no more advanced than other tier 4 subgroups but on occasion may be given tier 3 or even 2 technology.
 * 2) B-type tier 4's are typical early spacefaring civilisations, most of science fiction comprises on these guys.
 * 3) C-type tier 4's are highly unconventional. They may either be very alien, living in strange environments with strange xenotechnologies, or they are "swarm races".


 * A-type tier 4


 * End-gameplay in Spore - Large-scale antimatter production (presumably enough to create "planet busters"), wormhole keys/return ticket, Staff of Life (replication or bionanotech?), interstellar drives which can cross the galaxy in minuites, one ship that can destroy entire empires in a single sitting, the ability to terraform planets quickly. A size that can reach class 7, Class 5 in scale. Also have gravitational weapons.
 * Earlier Foundation Empire (Foundation series) - Will evolve into a galactic conciousness (Galaxia) utilising every source of energy within.
 * Scions (Infinity The Quest for Earth) - Three cores of human civilisation in the galaxy, spread by hyperdrives and hyperspace jump-points. Possible terraforming.  It is stated there will be no megastructures, except perhaps solar-energy statites.
 * Covenant (Halo)
 * KGGC, Four Races of the Kraw Galaxy (together), Terditlians, Gablinus-Avis, BNSC, Defensive System's Block, Trucinex Imperium, Loron (Pre-UNO).
 * Natrian Empire (Pre-SporeWikiverse) - Hyperspace technology opens up a bit more of the universe.
 * Dominion (Star Trek) - A bit more advanced with military and industrial tech than the Federation, although lag behind at warp science and replicators.
 * Zentradi (Macross) - End Class 5 possibly Class 6 as industry, faster FTL technology (although Transwarp is not outside the UFP's understanding), other tech lags.
 * Humanity in Dune
 * B-type tier 4


 * United Federation of Planets/most other Star Trek civilisations.
 * EVE Online - Wormholes would imply further advancement, although they are temporary and natural. There are also "stargates", but they could be hyperspace jump points.  Other typical Tier 4 tech.
 * UNSC (Halo) - Debatably higher, with overkill weapons, but overall technology in some cases is less advanced than Star Trek.
 * Minbari, Drakh (Babylon 5) - The Minbari seem to be above other B5 nations, e.g. antigravity plates, "shields", and weapons comparable to the best disruptors mounted on Romulan or Klingon ships. Similar case for the Drakh, who use some Shadow-technology like deathclouds.
 * Tau (Warhammer 40k) - Warp/gravitic drives.
 * Starship Troopers (FTL, antigravity, Moon ring construct, laser rifles, planetary destruction, no shields).
 * The Bulk of science fiction, especially in movies and games. Possibly the Independance Day aliens, aliens in The Abyss, Day The Earth Stood Still, Close Encounters, Empire of Man (CoDominium), Prawns (District 9), Predator, X-files, Taken etc.


 * C-type tier 4


 * Sentient xenosophonts (Orions Arm), other truly alien life in certain fiction - Weird alien tech suited for aliens which do not use them for reasons Humanity does or would consider worthless.
 * Tholians (Star Trek) - Crystalline technology that can survive temperatures suited for their body heat, Tholian energy webs, possible ability to contact parallel universes, yet at the same time their ships can be defeated and seem to only have a small empire.
 * WDC'ians (SporeWiki)
 * Cephalodian Life Guardians (SporeWiki) - They have the ability to symbiotically grow their technology from life on their planet, which evolved from run-away nanotechnology on their planets prehistory. Their technology is sufficient enough to send them around the galaxy, and even enter the atmospheres of gas giants.
 * Swarm races - Various "swarms" which scour the galaxy for whatever purpose (The Swarm, Star Trek) they evolved (Flood - Halo; Zerg - Starcraft; Tyranids - 40K; Arachnids - Starship Troopers) or were programmed to do, they may assimilate a large range of low and high technology and even become galactic-scale (Replicators - Stargate; Nanohorde - SporeWikiverse), or destroy all sentient life (Dawn Hunters - Orion's Arm, Wraith - Stargate). They may assimilate all sorts of random technologies.
 * Spaceborne creatures - In some fiction, spaceborne creatures are in fact runaway biotechnology like sentient bioships.

Tier 5
''Usually STL, starting out using relativistic or generational spaceflight and then building warp drives, although FTL travel might be handed to them. Gravity is simulated by rotation, power source is usually nuclear fusion and solar power. As technology increases by development, reverse-engineering or trade can quickly shift a tier. Even at this point, a civilisation may have a "Theory of Everything" and might be able to engineer certain structures like space elevators not possible before.''
 * '''A-type tier 5 (FTL)

These are B-type tier 5 civilisations that benefit from technology given by more advanced uplifters, most typically FTL.
 * Naxridon and Arnodian Command (SporeWiki) - FTL travel.
 * Twelve Colonies, Cylons (Battlestar Galactica) - Cylons are a bit more advanced.
 * Most Babylon 5 powers - Babylon 5 fairs better than most television series at use of feasible technology, although FTL has been distributed by higher races.
 * Mass Effect races - Excluding Reaper technology.
 * Smaller NPC Spore empires - Very little technology in Spore is invented, FTL exists but is derived from reverse-egineered precursor tech that allows FTL.
 * The aliens in Battle: Los Angeles? - They may be Tier 5 or 4, though it seems an important power-source to them is water (fusion reactors?). Despite having armour and firepower not much better than ours, it seems they were able to establish a beachead and build vehicles and other constructs very quickly possibly derived from rubble.  They may be quite advanced, yet lack resources.  According to the main website, they have weapons which make humanity's nuclear weapons puny, advanced bio-engineering (weapon-enfusion) and technological telepathy.
 * Humans in Alien series - Slowest FTL still requires cryogenic freezing. Artificial intelligence, cloning, phased plasma rifles and decades-long terraforming.
 * '''B-type tier 5 (STL)

''Many Ultrahard sci-fi stories involve methods of interplanetary or interstellar travel witout speculative technology, some other science fiction stories also involve concepts of cryogenic freezing and other STL methods. We could be this very soon, with technologies we may see in the next century or so.''
 * Humans in Firefly series.
 * Humans in Avatar.
 * Fithp (Footfall) - STL invaders who attack Earth with low-tech methods.
 * Yotunian Ideom (SporeWiki) - Cold-adapted technologies, STL travel.
 * Alphan civilization, Menzezium, Elucaphon, TAE (Asgord) (SporeWiki) - Weakest SporeWiki races perhaps.
 * Red Dwarf

Tier 6 (end of class 3 to 4)
Most near-future and diamond-hard science fiction, cyberpunk and interplanetary stories included (e.g Sunshine or the Space Odyssey films).
 * Martians (War of the Worlds) - And many other sci-fi stories with sentients in the Sol System.
 * Space Nazis (Iron Sky) - Some of their tech such as computers is more primitive.
 * 21st century Humanity (Real life) - Global Networking and communications, satellite navigation, digital media/computing, super/hypersonic flight, global commerce, nuclear fission, hydrogen power, geophysical manipulation, particle accelerators, human spaceflight, ion drives, laser technology, electromagnetic astronomy and gravity-wave (dev) sensing that can peer into the edge of the known universe. We may or may not be close to a "Theory of Everything" which simplifies the four forces to explain all baryonic matter.  Temperatures cooled to just above Absolute Zero to create Bose-Einstein condensate.
 * Emerging technologies: weather control, nuclear fusion, antimatter production, space and ocean colonisation, space elevators, space mining, solar sails, directed energy weapons, anti-lasers, materials that shrink when stretched, metamaterial cloaking, camouflage, plasma window shields, magnetricity, artificial intelligence, DNA computing, quantum computing, quantum teleportation, magnetic levitation, room-temperature superconductors, wireless energy transfer, nanotech of various fields, programmable matter, 3D printing, holography, immersive virtual reality, restoration of extinct animals. Big list here.