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Elon Musk: “Kardashev 1 is, what percentage of a planet's energy are you…”

Featuring: Elon Musk, Senior Advisor to the President, Head of Department of Government Efficiency | National

Elon Musk: A Different Conversation w/ Nikhil Kamath | Full Episode | People by WTF Ep. 16

Published November 30, 2025 | Video Starts at 44:22

So, I mean, I think one way to frame civilizational progress is the percentage completion on the kladashev scale. So Kardashev 1 is, what percentage of a planet's energy are you successfully turning into useful work? And I'm maybe paraphrasing here a little bit, but a Kardashev 2 would be what percentage of the sun's energy are you converting into useful work? (44:22–44:30)

CLAIM

Describes Kardashev 1 as the measure of a civilization's ability to use a planet's energy.

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Elon Musk

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Elon Musk: A Different Conversation w/ Nikhil Kamath | Full Episode | People by WTF Ep. 16 | Uploaded November 30, 2025 | 02:37-02:43
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Elon Musk: A Different Conversation w/ Nikhil Kamath | Full Episode | People by WTF Ep. 16 | Uploaded November 30, 2025 | 23:55-24:03
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“The US debt is insanely high and the interest payments on the debt exceed the entire military budget of the United States.”
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“It used to be that, you know, people would be dropping dead of the plague all the time.”
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“100 years ago, if you got, like, some minor infection, they didn't have antibiotics.”
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“Some of the outsourcing companies have kind of gamed the system on the H1B front.”
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