In the mid-20th century, while Carl Sagan pioneered the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) in the U.S., eminent Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev did the same in the Soviet Union, which was, at the time, the other great scientific superpower.  From that vantage point, he proposed using the energy demands of an alien civilization as a way to categorize its place on the ladder of technological advancement. This framework became known as the Kardashev scale, and it is one of the oldest and most visionary ideas in SETI, as well as a fixture of science fiction.  It is also profoundly incomplete — and if we want to advance our own civilization, we need to take the whole picture into account.…