re: But would we really know if we were in a Kardashev Type 3 Civilization?
Along those lines of humility and ignorance, I think it highly presumptuous for us to dismiss ID or any other wild concept at this stage. That being said using ID as a covert ops for teaching fundie Christianity in schools is an abomination.
For all we know, advanced civs zap off to alternate universes and leave backwaters like this one as nature preserves.
Me, I think we're rare, the only technical civ in the Local Group, at least.
-p (it's turtles all the way down)