Could an industrial civilization have predated humans on Earth?
1–10 of 282 posts
Re: Could an industrial civilization have predated humans on Earth?
#2I hope I'm not the only one that read this as some sort of species hunting humans like the wraith from Stargate
Re: Could an industrial civilization have predated humans on Earth?
#3What I love about this line of thinking is that it highlights the fact that time is as vast as space. Things hundreds of millions or billions of years ago are as far away as distant stars, even if they happened here on our own planet.
Re: Could an industrial civilization have predated humans on Earth?
#4If there were an industrial civilization here before us (modern humans) then it would be astonishing that in all of the fossils we have discovered, we've never yet discovered a single ancient nut, bolt, screwdriver, wrench, etc. Not one single wire or cast metal part.
As per the article, that civilization would have to predate all of the vast history of evolution that we know of. Wouldn't some higher life forms from such an earlier civilization have been in the fossil record?
Re: Could an industrial civilization have predated humans on Earth?
#5Surprised no-one has mentioned Betteridge's Law of Headlines yet.
Re: Could an industrial civilization have predated humans on Earth?
#6What I love about this line of thinking is that it highlights the fact that time is as vast as space. Things hundreds of millions or billions of years ago are as far away as distant stars, even if they happened here on our own planet.
Tyrannosaurus Rex existed closer in time to humans than it did to Stegosaurus.
Time is stupid big.
Re: Could an industrial civilization have predated humans on Earth?
#7If there were an industrial civilization here before us (modern humans) then it would be astonishing that in all of the fossils we have discovered, we've never yet discovered a single ancient nut, bolt, screwdriver, wrench, etc. Not one single wire or cast metal part. As per the article, that civilization would have to predate all of the vast history of evolution that we know of. Wouldn't some higher life forms from…
The article indicated that surface turnover could have removed that evidence.
Re: Could an industrial civilization have predated humans on Earth?
#8What I love about this line of thinking is that it highlights the fact that time is as vast as space. Things hundreds of millions or billions of years ago are as far away as distant stars, even if they happened here on our own planet.
Tyrannosaurus Rex existed closer in time to humans than it did to Stegosaurus. Time is stupid big .
fucking hell, yeah it is.
Re: Could an industrial civilization have predated humans on Earth?
#9If there were an industrial civilization here before us (modern humans) then it would be astonishing that in all of the fossils we have discovered, we've never yet discovered a single ancient nut, bolt, screwdriver, wrench, etc. Not one single wire or cast metal part. As per the article, that civilization would have to predate all of the vast history of evolution that we know of. Wouldn't some higher life forms from…
[deleted]
Re: Could an industrial civilization have predated humans on Earth?
#10I enjoyed this comment on the subject from a few years ago, focusing on a search for carbon cenospheres as a sentinel for an earlier civilization: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16837470