The Cohen Condition for Extinction

It is getting harder and harder to make a name for yourself in the science world.  Harder still, if, like me, you would like it to happen without putting forth much effort.

It seems as though it's all been done.  What's left?  The unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics?  That problem, which has stumped all of the greatest minds over the past half century?  I have an engineering background and teach college-level physics - it ain't gonna happen.

But, I had an epiphany recently.  If getting an equation named after you requires something novel, then maybe rather than try to push the boundaries of knowledge, I should think of something that is extremely simple.  There are probably ideas out there so stunningly obvious that academics didn't bother to point them out.

I'm not looking for a unit named after me, nor an element on the periodic table - just something to hang my hat on.  So, without further ado, let me unveil "The Cohen Condition for Extinction"...

Let N = TB - TD,

where TB is the total number of births for a given species throughout all of history

and TD is the total number of deaths for a given species throughout all of history.

If N = 0, the species in question is currently extinct.

If N = 1, the species in question will soon become extinct.

Again, to reiterate, I am not after the Nobel prize.  Ed Witten can keep his Field Medal.  Just having my name in some textbook will satisfy my ego.

Ascent Towards a Type I Civilization

As a species that is in the midst of more than a century of massive technological evolution, homo sapiens, with all of their blinking gadgets and other paraphernalia, rarely fancy themselves as primitive.  It comes then as a surprise to most to find out that we have still yet to attain a civilization status of Type I.  That's right!  Take that, fragile collective ego of mankind.  Despite all that you may feel your species has accomplished, you presently belong to a Type Zero civilization, as did your cave-dwelling ancestors.

While we do indeed have access to vastly superior technology than homo sapiens have had in their long history, we do not yet qualify as a Type I.  We are, however, well on our way.

So, what is this civilization classification system, and who established it?

The system measures the technological advancement of a civilization by assessing the amount of space it takes up, and the extent to which it utilizes the energy resources within that space.  It is known as the Kardashev scale, and can be expressed in terms of the order of magnitude of power that a civilization extracts for its personal use.  This very forward-thinking and pragmatic scale was proposed in 1964 by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev.  A civilization that has attained a certain level of technological development is described as follows: