Previous civilization

[Thebobo]

I have also wondered about this as well. I was thinking hundreds of millions years ago where any sign would of wiped by a comet or meteorite where the most of the mantle was turned molten.

Let’s say the big one hit us and melted the mantle to several miles deep. Nothing would be left to find? Life would have to start over. Could that be us?

 

[tk149]

H.P. Lovecraft, in one of his horror stories, suggested that the earth has been populated by several dominant intelligent races, each reaching its peak and almost dying out before the next arose. Humans are merely the latest. I've been intrigued by that idea since I first read that story.

If the human race died today, what proof of our existence would survive 100,000 years? 1,000,000 years? 100,000,000? Even if some of our works survived, would they not be buried deep in the earth? And even if these works were found, would the next intelligent species recognize them as works of a long dead intelligence?

Will the next intelligent species believe that humans existed?

 

[Nik]

Interesting. Maybe Earth is like a petri dish in a controlled environment for some other biological evolution that's lightyears ahead of us Maybe they are practicing their genetic manipulation skills by placing a few amino acids into a probe, launched at earth, and are quietly watching our development

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Even though the tower of babel hasn't ever been found? Even though there's no scientific basis in reality for an entire nation literally waking up one morning all speaking different languages that isn't recorded anywhere else in history anywhere on the planet? You'd think something so significant would have been recorded by SOMEBODY.

Except that, if you tolerate a non-literal interpretation of the bible, "different languages" could be, say, political differences ("Bob, we're just not on the same page here, it's like we're speaking a different language...") and "overnight" could have been a relatively short period of time, politically speaking. Perhaps due to economic stresses imposed by a massive public works project.

Also, they won't find the tower if it was 1) leveled 2) burned and 3) somebody else built over it later.

 

[Nik]

The Bible being infallible is about as likely as aliens planting seeds on earth that humans developed from.

The tower was supposed to be the greatest building ever built, at the time, built with the intention of reaching the sky, elevating man above all else (possibly allegorical, I understand, but Christianity cannot exist unless the Bible is accepted as literal and infallible). If we have the Pyramids, where's any evidence that the tower actually existed?

 

[darkxshade]

Not only is it possible, it's also entirely possible said civiliation retreated here from the Pegasus galaxy to escape a vile race that they accidentally created and have since ascended to a higher plane of existence.

 

[airdata]

The planet is only 10,000 years old. If there were such civilizations we'd have proof of them, wouldn't we?

 

[darkxshade]

The planet is only 10,000 years old. If there were such civilizations we'd have proof of them, wouldn't we?

 

[JTsyo]

H.P. Lovecraft, in one of his horror stories, suggested that the earth has been populated by several dominant intelligent races, each reaching its peak and almost dying out before the next arose. Humans are merely the latest. I've been intrigued by that idea since I first read that story.

If the human race died today, what proof of our existence would survive 100,000 years? 1,000,000 years? 100,000,000? Even if some of our works survived, would they not be buried deep in the earth? And even if these works were found, would the next intelligent species recognize them as works of a long dead intelligence?

Will the next intelligent species believe that humans existed?

The only thing I could think of would be nuclear material. If you find isotopes that don't occur naturally but have to be manufactured in breeding reactors, that would point to previous intelligent life.
We have found fossils from millions of years ago, how much more should synthetic material be preserved in similar manner?

 

[TheVrolok]

He almost looks normal in that picture.

 

[Nik]

The planet is only 10,000 years old. If there were such civilizations we'd have proof of them, wouldn't we?

What evidence do you have to believe the world is 10,000 years old? What evidence could possibly be correct to that end when we literally have mountains of evidence pointing to the contrary, that Earth is much older than some measly 10k?

 

[sandorski]

It's doubtful that there has been such a Civilization in the past However, if we were to destroy ourselves through Nukes or some calamity, like extreme Global Warming, were to destroy us, in a few thousand years no trace or extremely little of us may exist. The people of that time would find certain things we made and not know what it is. All our CDs, DVDs, paper, etc that contained information would be so deteriorated that they would know little to nothing about us. Assuming they'd even have understanding of our Language or have knowledge of Technology similar to ours.

After an extreme calamity Knowledge that we have would only take a few generations before it was lost. Some of it would be passed on in the form of Legend/Myth and would likely be so changed over time that even we wouldn't understand what they were talking about.

 

[Nik]

It's doubtful that there has been such a Civilization in the past However, if we were to destroy ourselves through Nukes or some calamity, like extreme Global Warming, were to destroy us, in a few thousand years no trace or extremely little of us may exist. The people of that time would find certain things we made and not know what it is. All our CDs, DVDs, paper, etc that contained information would be so deteriorated that they would know little to nothing about us. Assuming they'd even have understanding of our Language or have knowledge of Technology similar to ours.

After an extreme calamity Knowledge that we have would only take a few generations before it was lost. Some of it would be passed on in the form of Legend/Myth and would likely be so changed over time that even we wouldn't understand what they were talking about.

Of course remnants of our existence would still be around in a few thousand years. We still have the Pyramids and they're just stone. We find silly things like clay pots in caves that are much older than that. Hell, we have mummies in museums that are 5000 years old and older. Consider things like relics from Chinese dynasties that are several thousand years old and still in pristine condition.

If human beings simply POOF disappeared right this very second, there would be all sorts of things left over for many many MANY thousands of years.

 

[TwiceOver]

What evidence do you have to believe the world is 10,000 years old? What evidence could possibly be correct to that end when we literally have mountains of evidence pointing to the contrary, that Earth is much older than some measly 10k?

I think there was a lot of spirituality and sarcasm in his post...

 

[Nik]

Ah, ok. Well, either way, it's a great question that I'd love for religious nuts on this board to answer, but none of them ever do. They just quit posting when they come to logical questions that they can't answer.

Oh well. I tried, yeah?

 

[sandorski]

Of course remnants of our existence would still be around in a few thousand years. We still have the Pyramids and they're just stone. We find silly things like clay pots in caves that are much older than that. Hell, we have mummies in museums that are 5000 years old and older. Consider things like relics from Chinese dynasties that are several thousand years old and still in pristine condition.

If human beings simply POOF disappeared right this very second, there would be all sorts of things left over for many many MANY thousands of years.

Scraps would exist. They would know very little about us and hardly have any information about our Technology, if any.

 

[Nik]

Scraps? They'd have an entire infrastructure to find. Massive cities, even if burried, don't just disappear considering that we've FOUND cities that are several thousand years old when homes were made out of fucking mud huts and stone and shit.

You bet your ass aliens would find our remnants, and a lot of it.

 

[sandorski]

Scraps? They'd have an entire infrastructure to find. Massive cities, even if burried, don't just disappear considering that we've FOUND cities that are several thousand years old when homes were made out of fucking mud huts and stone and shit.

You bet your ass aliens would find our remnants, and a lot of it.

The cities will decay into nothing. You might have some stone here and there, some indication of something having been there, but all the roads, all the Metal/Wood/Cement, and everything else would be rubble. Only the most educated Archeologists would recognize the signs of a city. For many centuries people would have merely found various items of Use or piqued their curiosity, but have not recognized the areas as anything.

There is very little that we have that can go without regular Maintenance. Even our stone buildings need refurbished from time to time as they erode constantly.

 

[Nik]

Your point of view doesn't seem to match the things I watch on TV and read about on the net. There are digs finding entire cities (building foundations, etc) and roads and all kinds of shit that aren't even stone (think mud and wood) that are thousands of years old.

Sorry, but based on things I've learned, even in 10,000 years we'd still have left an extremely obvious footprint.

 

[SunnyD]

/looks around

"Computer, end program..."

 

[airdata]

What evidence do you have to believe the world is 10,000 years old? What evidence could possibly be correct to that end when we literally have mountains of evidence pointing to the contrary, that Earth is much older than some measly 10k?

The Bible.

End of discussion.

 

[Nik]

The Bible.

End of discussion.

See, now that I realize that you're being sarcastic, it's funny :thumbsup:

 

[Gibsons]

Your point of view doesn't seem to match the things I watch on TV and read about on the net. There are digs finding entire cities (building foundations, etc) and roads and all kinds of shit that aren't even stone (think mud and wood) that are thousands of years old.

Sorry, but based on things I've learned, even in 10,000 years we'd still have left an extremely obvious footprint.

The really large and solid structures might break up some, but they'll still be there. A concrete road might get all cracked up, buried in mud, etc. But 10k years from now, someone could dig up part of it, realize it goes for miles in either direction, all at a pretty constant width, the paint might even survive in parts... seems like that would be hard to miss.

 

[sandorski]

Your point of view doesn't seem to match the things I watch on TV and read about on the net. There are digs finding entire cities (building foundations, etc) and roads and all kinds of shit that aren't even stone (think mud and wood) that are thousands of years old.

Sorry, but based on things I've learned, even in 10,000 years we'd still have left an extremely obvious footprint.

In the desert, not in the locations of most modern cities. Most of what you saw is likely Cities that were destroyed by War, buried shortly thereafter, and rebuilt upon the rubble.

 

[sandorski]

The really large and solid structures might break up some, but they'll still be there. A concrete road might get all cracked up, buried in mud, etc. But 10k years from now, someone could dig up part of it, realize it goes for miles in either direction, all at a pretty constant width, the paint might even survive in parts... seems like that would be hard to miss.

Concrete would be sand and pebbles by then.