Could an industrial civilization have predated humans on Earth?

Post by ekianjo » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 7:25 AM UTC

DannyB2 wrote: post #4

If 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…

Post by dr_dshiv » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 7:29 AM UTC

siriaan wrote: post #146

EdwardDiego wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question, do we know that metal tools were used for those carvings? From what I recall, until iron/steel was invented, it was pretty much abrasion as bronze was not hard enough to chisel nearly every stone.

The bedrock around Göbekli Tepe is apparently limestone, so saith Wikipedia, so no, metal is not required to carve it.

Post by masklinn » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 7:32 AM UTC

mrangle wrote: post #134

tyg13 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To the contrary: the fact that only one ever was found, to me, suggests that it was the work of one brilliant mind whose work was not understood or continued by their culture.

Given the tech that is the product of multiple major breakthroughs, I'd rate that to be doubtful. While I don't think that the following implies that robots existed, to my above point recall that Talos of Greek Myth is a robot. Which does imply that the concept of such tech was shared across the entire culture. Which, in turn, suggests that related tech is less likely to be the product of one mind.

Post by fatuna » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 7:41 AM UTC

jl6 wrote: post #179

All the possibilities seem extremely unlikely, but I’ll add one more just for fun: We currently equate “advanced civilization” with “large scale”. But what if there was a small-scale advanced civilization? Small enough to evade detection using the crude geological tools at our disposal. Imagine a species that was both intelligent (like humans) and immortal (like jellyfish). With unbounded lifespans, they could do wor…

Post by fsloth » Sat, Jul 15, 2023, 8:03 AM UTC

colordrops wrote: post #189

safety1st wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the argument goes that if the civilization was sufficiently old and short-lived, no we probably wouldn't find any fossilized evidence. For example we've only found about one dinosaur fossil per 10,000 years of dinosaur history. The dinosaurs were around for a long time, from 65-250 million years ago. Humans have only been industrialized for around 200 years. If you imagine a dinosaur civilization that's indus…

Another argument goes that they transcending to technology and form beyond what we can comprehend, covered their tracks, and left us be because we aren't interesting or to avoid interfering in our development. Perhaps our perception through the 5 senses and an understanding of reality as a physical universe of spacetime is just a short phase between being an animal and being a multidimension being.