Might an intelligent, technologically capable species have previously arisen on and inhabited our planet? How certain can we be that we are the first intelligent species to arise on Earth?
No one has found evidence for any prior, advanced, non-human civilizations on Earth. But how compelling is this lack of evidence?
The answer to that question is tied up with the question of “how long would the evidence of a prior Earth-bound civilization be expected to last?”
The longevity of the evidence depends on the nature of the artifacts left behind. More technologically advanced civilizations might be expected to leave behind more durable artifacts. If we disappeared tomorrow we would leave behind pyramids, towering skyscrapers, steel and concrete bridges, deep pits full of radioactive waste and enormous quantities of resilient plastic detritus. But if we had disappeared from the face of the Earth 10,000 or more years ago evidence of our existence would be far less widespread and much less durable.
But whether we are talking about Stonehenge, pyramids, towering skyscrapers, steel and concrete bridges, radioactive waste or resilient plastic detritus, nothing lasts forever. How much evidence of our civilization will be discernible a billion years after our demise?
The answer is probably “not much!”
If a non-human civilization thrived on the Earth in the distant past and was wiped out during their equivalent of our Bronze Age, little or no evidence might have survived for us to find. Even if a prior, non-human Earthly civilization had become more advanced than we are now before it disappeared, there might still be little or no evidence left for us to find depending on how long ago it disappeared and on the circumstances of its disappearance.
If we disappear in the next 500 years and another intelligent species arises on Earth a billion years from now, it might take them a VERY long time to realize they were not the first technologically capable residents of this planet. Depending on how long their tenure and how good their archeological forensics become, they might never discover that they were not the first.
Our longest lasting legacy may not be found on the Earth at all.
There is an excellent chance that no one or no thing will ever find those footprints before they too are finally erased.
Come now Horny Rev, you have such a narrow view of intelligence. Am I not an super-intelligent lion that enjoys wearing suits, drinking gimlets, and fucking whores?
Your hairless ape “technology” impresses you so much, but is it really worthwhile. I enjoy using my iPad sharing the wisdom of the ricks with the hoi polloi, but is the iPad really proof of intelligence. Just because you apes have dexterous fingers doesn’t make you smarter than me, a lion! In fact, figuring out how to type on an iPad with lion claws requires a certain genius. And don’t get me started with the vulture and crab. The fact that those guys have learned to communicate on your ape internet proves their superiority - their rickness, if you will!
ROAR!!!