Personally, I think that if you took the number of digits pi was calculated to, divided by the number of years it took to get that number from scratch (ie the number of years it took the computer to calculate that result), that would just give you some number that you could compair to your own number (your pi ratio); that would be the best way to determine the civilization of a culture.
This would be a useful number for two reasons: a large number would show that a culture had a lot of excess cash to throw around on expensive machines, it would show taht a culture had enough experts (and therefore many scientists working in many other fields that are much more important) to waste some on the calculation of something that is all but useless (really who needs pi to a gazzillion digits).
Considerate behaviour towards the weak, less gifted, very young, very old, mentally disturbed as well as those afflicted with being bad human beings.
Egalitarianism. Tolerance.
Not being aggressive beyond strict self-defense. Aiming at making friends of enemies.
A long-term outlook.
There are different kinds of advancement. Some ideas:
Sum of scientific knowledge
Magnitude and types of technological achievement
Respect shown by the powerful toward the less-powerful
Average citizen's life-span (compared to others of the same species, of course)
Extent of territory or resources controlled
Rate of acquisition of NEW territory or resources
Eagerness of outsiders to join the civilization
Population growth rate
Percentage of average citizen's hours available for leisure activities
Artistic achievement (good luck figuring out a way to measure this)
Length of time the civilization has lasted
Eagerness of outsiders to model their own civilizations after the one in question
The moon landings show a pretty clear approximation of our tech level.
Well, our tech level 30 years ago, but in the grand scope of things it’s just like yesterday.
total garbage. I think if the mythical Tristania were to expand and conquer all of it’s neighbors, until we had absorbed all of the world under our iron fist, with a healthy budget towards eugenics, it would have to be said that we were the most advanced and successful civilization.
While lno’s makes me smile, I think Bosda, as usual, nailed it.
Much of what folks here are asking is really politically biased, and has little to do with the real world.
Cultural advancement? Scientific advancement? Military advancement? Civil advancement? As [Civ3 (and to a leser extent civ2) attests (the game lno was referencing), there’s more than one aspect of an empire that needs to be monitored to ensure superiority.
I’d say that one measure of a civilization’s advancement is how free people are to hold harmless “irrational” beliefs (or even harmful ones, so long as they’re harmful in mind only).