Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Silurian Hypothesis

en.wikipedia.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 65 posts

Re: Silurian Hypothesis

#21

Post by zw123456 »

I wrote a novel, I know, every asshole has. About this. My theory, that is, either ridiculous or correct, the Silurians are the ancestors of the dolphin. The dolphin, or OK, the Orca, have a larger cerebral cortex than humans. What if, they were on once land dwellers, could it be? There is some science behind that. And say, they burned a bunch of hydrocarbons and caused a global warming, melted all the ice and they had to evolve to be ocean mammals.

I understand this is a sci-fi fantasy.

But my mind wanders, I think, let's say you understand your fate, once cast, how would you warn the next intelligent species to inhabit Earth?

You cannot simply place an odalisque with an inscription on it, of course, over the millennia or billennia, it will be erased, you send out a sentinel into space.

How would you warn the next iteration of intelligent life?

Perhaps some sort of AI space craft?

What if it turns out, they are the intelligent ones, having learned a lesson we have yet to learn?

Re: Silurian Hypothesis

#22

Post by dghf »

pffft8888 wrote: post #13

They just found stone tools from 3M years ago in Kenya, so I assume they can also find fosilized artifacts from that long ago. But the Wikipedia article says that's not likely. The claim that it is unlikely seems to be inconsistent with the evidence.

Doesn't the hypothesis concern the possibility of civilisations a lot older than three million years, though?

Re: Silurian Hypothesis

#24

Post by wdwvt1 »

If you are looking for an in depth (pop-sci) dive into the mass extinctions in earth's history definitely check out "The Ends of the World" by Peter Brannen. It covers the five mass extinctions with a good mix of scientific detail and entertaining writing. IIRC it discusses the likelier explanations for Silurian extinctions including disruptions to the carbon-silicate cycle (volcanism -> fresh silicate rocks -> weathering removes CO2 from the atmosphere as ultimately insoluble CaCO3 -> global ice age), anoxia/CO2 drawdown caused by increased phosphorous and other nutrient availability, and others.

"The Ends of the World" stands out as a top disaster book along with Simon Winchester's "Krakatoa" and Sebastian Junger's "The Perfect Storm".

Re: Silurian Hypothesis

#25

Post by JoeDaDude »

simonh wrote: post #16

It’s true that only very few individuals would be fossilised and fewer if they found. Nevertheless we do generally find multiple fossils of the same or closely related species. We also find fossils of multiple stages in the evolution of many species. So it seems unlikely to me that we would find zero fossils of a species advanced enough to colonise the entire planet, as we have, nor any of their ancestral species. It…

In my will, I'm going to ask that I be buried in soft mud in a river delta, or some similar place likely to become sedimentary rock in the far future. But I also want to be buried with some relic that proves I was a member of a technically literate civilization. I surmise something like a wooden abacus. The wooden abacus would fossilize along with my remains. I hope my fossil, and the fossilized object I carry, will be found in the far future.

Re: Silurian Hypothesis

#26

Post by drewrv »

simonh wrote: post #16

It’s true that only very few individuals would be fossilised and fewer if they found. Nevertheless we do generally find multiple fossils of the same or closely related species. We also find fossils of multiple stages in the evolution of many species. So it seems unlikely to me that we would find zero fossils of a species advanced enough to colonise the entire planet, as we have, nor any of their ancestral species. It…

I do agree that a society capable of nuclear power or space travel can be considered implausible. A similar thought experiment might be, "how technological could a prior species have become before we'd notice?"

Animals today, from dolphins to chimps, can be found using tools. Is there any reason to believe this didn't happen in the age of the dinosaurs? Then you can expand beyond simple sticks and stones to other primitive technologies. Maybe we weren't the first to figure out fire, or agriculture, or animal husbandry.

Or maybe any brain capable of fire + agriculture + animal husbandry will eventually be so successful that nuclear power and space travel are inevitable.

I'm not arguing in favor of any of this: it's just fun to think about.

Re: Silurian Hypothesis

#27

Post by jiggawatts »

Have these people not seen how much garbage we leave lying around!?

A lot of artificial materials last far longer than natural materials. Pure metals especially can last a very long time, like gold jewellery, or even just aluminium.

Not to mention "forever chemicals", large scale concrete construction, mining, etc...

We'll be finding evidence of our presence on Earth for a billion years or more, whether we like it or not.

Re: Silurian Hypothesis

#28

Post by [deleted] »

mshake2 wrote: post #14
POiNTx wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we were living in a simulation, I think it would be programmed in such a way that it would be emergent. A bit like a mandelbrot set, where the rules are simple but the complexity is infinite. No need to texture anything if the rules define what the texture would look like by a minimal fixed set of rules (laws of nature).

To me, it would be more interesting to design specific scenarios to study.

[deleted]

Re: Silurian Hypothesis

#29

Post by dhosek »

POiNTx wrote: post #8
mshake2 wrote: post #4

If we can't detect previous advanced civilizations, I think it adds more evidence to the simulation hypothesis. Why would simulation designers include ancient nearly-undetectable advanced civilizations? Why don't video game designers fully model and texture areas of the world that aren't accessible?

If we were living in a simulation, I think it would be programmed in such a way that it would be emergent. A bit like a mandelbrot set, where the rules are simple but the complexity is infinite. No need to texture anything if the rules define what the texture would look like by a minimal fixed set of rules (laws of nature).

There’s a part of me that kind of views this as a theological prospect—that God (or however you care to name the supreme being, as such) is constantly upping the challenge for us as humanity.

Re: Silurian Hypothesis

#30

Post by dang »

Related:

Did Advanced Civilizations Exist Before Humans? Silurian Hypothesis [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32837757 - Sept 2022 (1 comment)

Silurian Hypothesis: Were There Civilizations on Earth Before Humans? (2018) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23654393 - June 2020 (138 comments)

The Silurian Hypothesis - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21840320 - Dec 2019 (52 comments)

Silurian hypothesis - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17899478 - Sept 2018 (7 comments)

Post reply on HN