Kardashev 0.73

What if humanity is running on a broken operating system - and the clock is ticking? In Kardashev 0.73: How One Civilization Can Hack Its Own Operating System, the sixth volume in the acclaimed Coffee Table Conversations with AI series, you are invited into a mind-expanding dialogue that bridges cosmology, systems thinking, existential risk, and practical hope. We stand at Kardashev 0.73 - a planetary civilization that harnesses only a fraction of our world's energy while breaching seven of nine planetary boundaries. Through rigorous exploration of the Kardashev Scale (from planetary mastery to multiversal godhood), the Fermi Paradox, the Great Filter, and Grabby Aliens, this book diagnoses the hidden "Extractive Growth Protocol" infecting our civilization: a self-reinforcing virus of short-term extraction, misaligned incentives, and linear thinking that threatens to turn us into just another failed experiment in the cosmos. Yet this is not another doomsday read. It delivers a complete blueprint for repair: The conceptual Gaia OS - Earth's planetary intelligence dashboard with real-time Kardashev tracking, Monte Carlo simulations, actor network graphs, habitability timelines, and quantum-inspired futures. Step-by-step systemic repair protocols and individual "hack" playbooks. Scenarios for game-changing breakthroughs like ultra-cheap plasma fusion. A working Python prototype of Gaia OS and land division calculations that make our finite world vividly real. Blending cutting-edge science, philosophical depth, and actionable strategy, this conversation turns cosmic loneliness into a cosmic invitation: we may be early, rare, or at the threshold of the Great Filter - and the choices we make in the next few decades will decide whether humanity becomes a stable Type I civilization or a cautionary tale. For readers of Michio Kaku, Robin Hanson, and the Long Now Foundation - this is your operating manual for the future. Part of the Coffee Table Conversations with AI series - where big ideas meet accessible, living dialogue.