What if Humans Are NOT Earth's First Civilization? | Silurian Hypothesis
PBS Space Time1 HN recommender · recommended in 1 month, 2023–2024
explainer · general · evergreen · 2023–2024 on HN
PBS Space Time examines the Silurian hypothesis, the idea that an industrial civilization could have existed on Earth before humans. It looks at what traces such a civilization might leave in the geological record.
HN uses it as an approachable treatment of whether an earlier industrial civilization would be detectable in geology.
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3 comments from Hacker News
▶ this video This youtube video addresses the situation pretty well - I found it very interesting the talk about the earths crust basically recycling.
Relevant PBS Space time video. ▶ this video Apparently most of the tell tale signs of an industrial civilization would be very subtle and ambiguous (they could have other natural explanations) even if said civilization was only a few million years before ours.
There was a study funded by NASA on the topic which made the rounds back in the day. Here is the Scientific American take: [1], here is PBS Space Time YouTube: [2] The topic pops up now and again, most recently called the The Silurian Hypothesis. There are many articles in respectable sources on the subject, it goes beyond science fiction into literal science. For example, you might wonder how long it would take for some large portion of the surface of the earth to subduct. I believe the answer to that question is in the paper discussed in that article. 1. link 2. ▶ this video