Some extraterrestrials appear to very interested in specific physical and/or biological resources, while others appear to be more interested in macro planetary resources such as seismic and geo-thermal processes, ionospheric activity, etc. The latter often appear to operate under some kind of non-intervention creed, but it may be that they are simply operating at a technological level that we cannot fully fathom in terms of their energy needs. The former group of extraterrestrials, on the other hand, appear to need physical and organic resources for energy consumption.

Kaku's typology was first proposed in 1964 by the Russian physicist Nicolai Kardashev. The typology suggests there are four different levels of energy manipulation by advanced civilizations whose total energy use is separated by a factor of several billion. Type 0 civilizations would be similar to our own in that energy consumption primarily comes from fossil fuels, and organic life. Extraterrestrials operating at this level of energy consumption would be very interested in what humanity has to offer in these areas given the diversity of species and resources around the planet. Such extraterrestrials would find that much of the planet's resources at this energy level are controlled by political elites at the national and global levels.

Consequently, Type 0 extraterrestrials would be interested in trading their more advanced technology for whatever physical and biological resources political elites are willing to exchange.

This is likely the source of agreements with national governments that some whistleblowers claim are based on technology resource exchanges with visiting extraterrestrials.

Extraterrestrials operating at this level would be considered to have advanced negotiating skills for achieving their goals. They might easily appear to be manipulative and unprincipled in their efforts to gain energy sources for their needs from negotiations with political elites that are opaque and not officially disclosed. Phenomena such as cattle mutilations, abductions, underground extraterrestrial bases, etc., might be evidence of Type 0 extraterrestrials fulfilling their energy needs.

Type I civilizations have technologies that work at the level of planetary energies such as seismic and geo-thermal power, ionospheric energy, etc. An example, would be Nikola Tesla's wireless energy transmission that taps into the abundant energy in the ionosphere. Unfortunately, Tesla was curbed in popularizing this form of energy consumption at the beginning of the 20th century, and we still rely on fossil and organic fuel sources. Kaku argues that while humanity displays signs of becoming a Type 1 civilization in terms of a planetary language (English), planetary communications (internet), planetary economy (e.g., European Union), and planetary culture (Hollywood, mass media, etc.). However, based on our total energy output, humanity is estimated to be still up to 200 years from becoming a Type I civilization.