Civilization before Humanity - Could it have existed?
68 replies, posted
Do you think there could have been a Civilization before Humans? I mean Earth is roughly 4.5 billion years old. Human civilization is only 10,000 years old and our species has only been around for 2 million years. People say we should look into outer space for alien civilization but what if Earth had a civilization before us?
Now think about this. Irregardless whether you believe in creationism or evolution, Earth can't just possibly have ONE life form that gets to create civilization in it's lifespan. Being Sentient is a gift. The first animal on Earth to gain Sentience gets to create their own civilization. We humans are lucky to had evolve or been chosen to create civilization.
Now supposedly, there were a race of reptilian people back in the age of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago. The previous civilization might had reach an apex era and either left the Earth or they became extinct through a world war. You could argue that if they had existed , we would had found traces of them years ago but do take note that in theory, it only takes 10 million years for Earth to erase any form of civilization.
Perhaps there were many before us. Many of them might had a time limit of 5 million years each before they expires and a new civilization takes it's place.
Nope.
A hell of a lot of those 4.5 billion years was spent cooling the earth down from a ball of molten rocks and then to develop life. If there was a civilization before humans someone would have found something.
According to exactly what theory does it take 10 million years for earth to erase a civilization? Why are there no traces of them, not necessarily in the form of buildings, but fossils, impacts on past species and ecosystems?
If they had a world war, there would be archaeological evidence, if they went extinct outside of any of the major mass extinctions it would make no sense, if they were advanced enough permanently leave earth (why would they anyway?) there would be traces of them or their culture. This makes no sense.
[editline]21st March 2012[/editline]
And earth being 4,5 billion years old means nothing when complex life has only been here for some hundred million years
Nope, perhaps there were lizardcavemen, but we didn't find shit, and for me that's enough to say that they did not exist.
On Earth? Since we haven't found any artifacts of some kinda "precursors", I have doubts, but then again if we wanna find the truth we need to go deeper. On one hand, there's no evidence against the possibility of pre-human intelligences on Earth, but on the other hand there's no evidence to support any definite claims of such, so far at least. It's a question that can't really be answered until we've searched every cubic inch of the planet, most of it beneath the surface, and I strongly doubt that we could accomplish that, even with advanced tech and a thousand years.
Outside of Earth, it's a no-brainer; there were probably MANY civilisations on other worlds long ago and probably still today, even though there's no actual xenoarchaeological scene yet so we can't find any of them just yet, even if we DID somehow discover FTL.
You couldn't have had a human like civilization in too early stages of our Earth.. I don't think so anyway. There was other life though, being all non-civilized.
Our planet is indeed about 4 billion years old, which is a long time, but you can clearly see what came out of it. Patience for the win, it's evolution after all.
As for humans, our backs got straighter over the period of hundreds of thousands of years! For example..
[editline]21st March 2012[/editline]
So is this even a debate?
OP what the hell are you talking about
I think it has a VERY SMALL chance of being possible, but most of it is in the realm of tinfoil hats and the pseudo. It's possible that the aliens covered up all their stuff, buried it deep underground, or that the natural cycle of Earth buried it, but at that point it's almost like making up excuses. So yeah, probably not.
It's an interesting thought, regardless of its possiblity or impossibility
Lizards can't talk so how could they open up a shopping mall or book store
I think the question should be: Civilized planets before Earth? Could it have existed?
But that's almost like "are there aliens?" and the answer is probably yes.
My opinion is that we havent finished reading the history of the human civilizations, there is still so much to discover and the excavations of today discover more and more ancient structures that are more than 10,000 years old like Goblekli tepe or the The Bimini Road and there is still a debate about the age of the sphinx. so we shouldt point to aliens when we find a old structure who predates other civilizations
[QUOTE=BCell;35232388]Do you think there could have been a Civilization before Humans? I mean Earth is roughly 4.5 billion years old. Human civilization is only 10,000 years old and our species has only been around for 2 million years. People say we should look into outer space for alien civilization but what if Earth had a civilization before us?
[i]Now think about this. Irregardless whether you believe in creationism or evolution, Earth can't just possibly have ONE life form that gets to create civilization in it's lifespan. Being Sentient is a gift. The first animal on Earth to gain Sentience gets to create their own civilization. We humans are lucky to had evolve or been chosen to create civilization.[/i]
[b] Now supposedly, there were a race of reptilian people back in the age of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago. The previous civilization might had reach an apex era and either left the Earth or they became extinct through a world war. You could argue that if they had existed , we would had found traces of them years ago but do take note that in theory, it only takes 10 million years for Earth to erase any form of civilization.[/b]
Perhaps there were many before us. Many of them might had a time limit of 5 million years each before they expires and a new civilization takes it's place.[/QUOTE]
At first I was skeptical, you know man it was a little [i]sketchy[/i] but you managed to pull it back with mentioning the reptilian overlords!
oo please quit it with your reptilian lizard overlords who came with UFO's from the sky and thaught us everything we know as civilization today there is no logic in that theory. we hardly know our own ancient history so many cultures to be discovered , so many chapters missing in our human history yet to be discovered
And even if there was some intelligent civilizations before us, on our planet, which is pretty much impossible, it wouldn't matter because here we are and they are not.
I can only assume that the only place that could have harbored ancient civilization, would be the planet Venus. The planet exhibits some signs of post-technological catastrophes.
[QUOTE=Bat-shit;35236523]And even if there was some intelligent civilizations before us, on our planet, which is pretty much impossible, it wouldn't matter because here we are and they are not.[/QUOTE]
No certainly not, look at the ancient sumerians lived in 4000 bc most intelligent civilization to date , they discovered bronze built huge temples with the first known kings first known army's and generals most ancient writers to date and what happened to them? they arent here to doesnt mean its impossible, every civilization , kingdom and empire has its downfall
[QUOTE=Bat-shit;35236523]And even if there was some intelligent civilizations before us, on our planet, which is pretty much impossible, it wouldn't matter because here we are and they are not.[/QUOTE]
... the fuck am i reading?
Im pretty sure that mankind had incredible achievements that are long forgotten, I've seen a few videos about ancient artifacts in africa and all of that jazz
and while you shouldnt believe everything you see: Why shouldnt it be possible?
You guys have to realize that we Humans have some of the core capacities to be civilized. We have larger brains then even the closest of our primate cousins (Thanks Evolution!) and we got rid of air sacks in our throats that would've either prevented us, or heavily limited our ability to speak in sophisticated languages such as today.
That, along with the fact that most of the animals that existed 10+ million years ago didn't really have the capability to interact and modify their environment nearly as well as we can.
[QUOTE=Knuffelbeer;35236730]No certainly not, look at the ancient sumerians lived in 4000 bc most intelligent civilization to date , they discovered bronze built huge temples with the first known kings first known army's and generals most ancient writers to date and what happened to them? they arent here to doesnt mean its impossible, every civilization , kingdom and empire has its downfall[/QUOTE]
I know people have been around for quite some time before our current generation, but not like billion years bc, which OP seem to have suggested..
But fuck it then.
[QUOTE=BloodYScar;35236959]... the fuck am i reading?
Im pretty sure that mankind had incredible achievements that are long forgotten, I've seen a few videos about ancient artifacts in africa and all of that jazz
and while you shouldnt believe everything you see: Why shouldnt it be possible?[/QUOTE]
Sort of like how the Romans discovered the method of making concrete, but then it was lost in medieval times.
there was probably some crazy shit that went down during the early stages of humanity that was way ahead of its time then got lost, but i doubt there was a whole civilization before humanity.
[QUOTE=Megafan;35246685]Sort of like how the Romans discovered the method of making concrete, but then it was lost in medieval times.[/QUOTE]
Yeah we lost a lot of technology when the Empire fell. And empire's collapse all the time. That explains all those gaps in our history, where we go in dumb as fuck and end up with some relatively advanced technology, with a blank space in the middle.
[QUOTE=Megafan;35246685]Sort of like how the Romans discovered the method of making concrete, but then it was lost in medieval times.[/QUOTE]
It wasn't necessarily lost, but mostly forgotten about and used in limited examples when people knew how to make it and use it, much like with all other technologies. I think widespread use of concrete itself started in the mid to late 17th century.
[QUOTE=Bobie;35246720]there was probably some crazy shit that went down during the early stages of humanity that was way ahead of its time then got lost, but i doubt there was a whole civilization before humanity.[/QUOTE]
There have been various example of several civilisations collapsing throughout history. The Indus, Roman Empire, various reincarnations of empires in Persia/Egypt/China. However the further back you go, the less technologically advanced they tended to be.
The people who lived after the Bronze age collaspe actually started to see things improve, as iron began to come into widespread use and vastly change peoples lives.
[QUOTE=BCell;35232388]Do you think there could have been a Civilization before Humans? I mean Earth is roughly 4.5 billion years old. Human civilization is only 10,000 years old and our species has only been around for 2 million years. People say we should look into outer space for alien civilization but what if Earth had a civilization before us?
Now think about this. Irregardless whether you believe in creationism or evolution, Earth can't just possibly have ONE life form that gets to create civilization in it's lifespan. Being Sentient is a gift. The first animal on Earth to gain Sentience gets to create their own civilization. We humans are lucky to had evolve or been chosen to create civilization.
Now supposedly, there were a race of reptilian people back in the age of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago. The previous civilization might had reach an apex era and either left the Earth or they became extinct through a world war. You could argue that if they had existed , we would had found traces of them years ago but do take note that in theory, it only takes 10 million years for Earth to erase any form of civilization.
Perhaps there were many before us. Many of them might had a time limit of 5 million years each before they expires and a new civilization takes it's place.[/QUOTE]
Sentience is far off from civilization. Many probably agree that Dolphins are sentient. However, they've never really had a need for cities or poetry or whatever we consider the pinnacle of brilliance because they're perfectly suited to their environment unlike humans.
[QUOTE=chipset;35232486]Nope.
A hell of a lot of those 4.5 billion years was spent cooling the earth down from a ball of molten rocks and then to develop life. If there was a civilization before humans someone would have found something.[/QUOTE]
For all we know there could be an intelligent species composed of billions of plankton attached together into a goop that results in neural connections in the deepest depths of the ocean. But yeah, not civilization.
[QUOTE=Zezibesh;35247387]Sentience is far off from civilization. Many probably agree that Dolphins are sentient. However, they've never really had a need for cities or poetry or whatever we consider the pinnacle of brilliance because they're perfectly suited to their environment unlike humans.
For all we know there could be an intelligent species composed of billions of plankton attached together into a goop that results in neural connections in the deepest depths of the ocean. But yeah, not civilization.[/QUOTE]
or they just havent made cities because they dont have opposable thumbs
or hands for that matter
Or there could be a civilization dwelling deep beneath the surface of the Earth, just waiting to wipe us out or something.
[editline]22nd March 2012[/editline]
(Just because humans can't go deep into the surface of Earth, doesn't mean that some sort of evolved Trilobite wouldn't)
[QUOTE=dije;35248441]Or there could be a civilization dwelling deep beneath the surface of the Earth, just waiting to wipe us out or something.
[editline]22nd March 2012[/editline]
(Just because humans can't go deep into the surface of Earth, doesn't mean that some sort of evolved Trilobite wouldn't)[/QUOTE]
If the pressures and heat down there is enough to turn carbon into diamond then I doubt that any form of life could survive there.
OP has been playing too much Crysis.
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;35249508]If the pressures and heat down there is enough to turn carbon into diamond then I doubt that any form of life could survive there.[/QUOTE]As I said, just because any life form we know today can't survive down there under pressure, some sort of creature could be able to.
More likely would be that they lived in colonies, like termites, and our current means of archaeology doesn't cover that.
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