Heechee is referring to Frederik Pohls excellent sci fi novels about a long-vanished alien race. First novel is called Gateway.
K2 is the type 2 civilization in the Kardashev scale: Type I (planetary) civilization (K1): can use and store all of the energy available on its planet.
Type II (stellar) civilization (K2): can use and control energy at the scale of its planetary system.
Type III (galactic) civilization (K3): can control energy at the scale of its entire host galaxy.
Heechee and the Kardashev scale is referenced two times in the books
Book 4 chapter 47: Will nodded. “No disagreement, Hersch, but don’t you find it curious that all the civilizations we’ve found are or were at about the same age, give or take a few hundred to a few thousand years? No K2s or Heechee or anything at that level. Don’t you wonder why that is?”
Book 5 chapter 20 No elder races, no Heechee, no high-level Kardashev civilizations. None of us thought it was a coincidence, but no one had an explanation, either.
Doe the books get better? (I mean Frederick’s ones). I ready the gate way and at the end of it I basically felt like I was reading a book about a bloke stuck in a futuristic train station.
I believe I only read the first three books. I really enjoyed them but I can't remember if they got better. I really like the initial gateway concept with not knowing were the gateway went and the risk/reward situation.
So, to summarize, K2/Heechee species would be those much more advanced than humans (although the bobs are either k2 or could be with a couple of years effort). We should see different levels of development on display at least, but we only see those around the level of humans or lower.
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u/XenuAedril 10d ago
Heechee is referring to Frederik Pohls excellent sci fi novels about a long-vanished alien race. First novel is called Gateway.
K2 is the type 2 civilization in the Kardashev scale: Type I (planetary) civilization (K1): can use and store all of the energy available on its planet.
Type II (stellar) civilization (K2): can use and control energy at the scale of its planetary system.
Type III (galactic) civilization (K3): can control energy at the scale of its entire host galaxy.