The Reason For Ancient Structures.

Here's yet another one of my crackhead theories, But they make sense, in a way... I got maybe 5 so far?

Anyways....

Ancient structures or even very old writing on stone.

If something was going to happen to the world, and the dominate species knew it was coming and couldn't stop it, they would want to be remembered no? Even if life may never again reclaim that planet.

Would they make records of paper...doubt it, it'd be dust in a relatively short time. (compared to other things), Iron turns to rust and is gone, a cd or some sort of chip? I doubt it, it would deteriorate and also primitive man wouldn't care or know how to use it.

But what is garuanteed to still be around after 2 million years? Stone. If you wanted to be remembered why not build structures out of stone? Or place your writings in stone to be found when nothing else from that civilization exists.

Some people think we are the only advanced civilization to ever inhabit this planet. I highly doubt it. It took us 5 million years to evolve? the planet is how old? Exactly.

Have to stop writing, thought I was going to pass out or vomit...now my head is pounding like crazy. it came out of no-where. I'm not on any drugs at the moment. it came out of no-where. Tumor...dun dun dun.
I am tired.

Do you have any examples of a stone relic built by a pre-man civilization?

I would have to agree with you. Paper wouldn't remain, neither would metals (rust away), plastics (deteriate)... all we would have is legends and stone.

Hey, I got an idea! Check out this ATS thread, "Why are we the only civilization?" It explains a great deal many items pertaining to this subject, and details how a civilization could be lost... even modern ones.

Why are we the only civilization?

Originally posted by _BLiND_
But what is garuanteed to still be around after 2 million years? Stone. If you wanted to be remembered why not build structures out of stone? Or place your writings in stone to be found when nothing else from that civilization exists.

A highly advanced civilization might leave behind some stone tablets built to last. There's no credible evidence that what we have is a result of this, though. Assigning an artifact or structure to a particular time period and culture isn't just guesswork and hocus-pocus. It's a very meticulous process that requires the archaeologist to back up his/her assertions with hard data, and consider any possible correlation with other sites.

A modern civilization would leave behind unmistakable material remains. Things deteriorate, but Manhattan, Chicago, and Tokyo will still be observable features in 2 million years if we all die today. This leaves us with pre-modern civilizations, which begs the question of what would happen and how they would know. Predicting most extinction-causing catastrophes in Earth's history would take some pretty in-depth knowledge of astronomy and climatology. I'm not talking about intimate familiarity with the motions of the stars -- there's a huge leap between astrology and scientific familiarity with the cosmos.

It took us 5 million years to evolve? the planet is how old?

It didn't take humanity 5 million years to evolve from a vacuum. It took 5 million years for the genetic traits of Miocene primates to evolve into those of humans. It took an additional one and a half billion years for Miocene primates and their contemporaries to evolve from complex single-celled life, and an additional two billion years for the Earth to reach a state suitable for complex life to form. Tack on another ~10-12 billion years for this part of the universe to reach a state suitable for the formation of a solar system. The gaps in the record are not nearly large enough to account for the rise an fall of an advanced civilization.

Tack on another ~10-12 billion years for this part of the universe to reach a state suitable for the formation of a solar system

irrelevant.

and an additional two billion years for the Earth to reach a state suitable for complex life to form.

So carbon based life is the only life that can possibly exist? Suitable for our species maybe. Who says the advanced Civ. has to be human? 5 million years taken away from 2 billion, wouldn't even put a dent.

If the timeline of the earth was the CN tower, put a dime on top of that, and the width of dime is how long our species has been around. So tell me again there is no gaps? Scientists and archealogists have made educated guesses but still guesses. There is no way to say exactly this structure was built x years ago. They can make a close guess.

If the world ended, boom life is gone. You honestly think chicago would be around in say 15 million years when life starts over...then tack on a couple more million years for a semi-intelligent species to evolve. Chicago would be rubble. If not rubble buried.

Hmmm, what is the basis for this argument? Dinosaurs roamed the earth 100 million years before primitive man did, and there were many species between the dinos and birth of modern man. As far as I am concerned, we are the first advanced species to inhabit the earth as there simply is no proof other wise. The earth may be billions of years old but for that amount of time how long has life lived on the surface?

Not only is there no proof otherwise, there's no evidence otherwise. Since the argument seems to be that certain ancient structures are older than humanity, I'd say there's mountains of evidence against it.

Originally posted by _BLiND_So carbon based life is the only life that can possibly exist? Suitable for our species maybe. Who says the advanced Civ. has to be human? 5 million years taken away from 2 billion, wouldn't even put a dent.

Nobody said anything about carbon based life, or us being humanity part deux. You said that humans evolved in 5 million years. We did not. The other 13 billion plus years of the universe are not unaccounted for in the development of humans or anything else. The development of a dominant species is a major evolutionary trend that lasts a lot longer than 5 million years. It's a very long process that will leave a lot of fossil records.

If the timeline of the earth was the CN tower, put a dime on top of that, and the width of dime is how long our species has been around. So tell me again there is no gaps? Scientists and archealogists have made educated guesses but still guesses. There is no way to say exactly this structure was built x years ago. They can make a close guess.

I won't tell you again that there aren't gaps, because it's not true and I never said it in the first place. What I did say is that none of the gaps are nearly large enough to fit in the evolution and extinction of a sentient species.

True, ancient structures cannot usually be dated to an exact year in the absence of written records or exceptional evidence. That doesn't mean the process is unreliable. Archaeology isn't a "hard science" like math or chemistry, but conclusions aren't drawn until a wealth of evidence can logically support them. Even if you refuse to believe in the validity of archaeological dating altogether, no structure shows the results of millions (or even hundreds of thousands) of years of weathering.

You honestly think chicago would be around in say 15 million years when life starts over...then tack on a couple more million years for a semi-intelligent species to evolve. Chicago would be rubble. If not rubble buried.

Of course major cities would be rubble. Nobody said they would still be standing, but they're going to be an observable feature. You can learn a lot from rubble, and millions upon millions of cubic feet of cement, steel, and masonry, building foundations, tunnels, etc. are not going to disappear quickly.

Alternately, let's say that's incorrect. Why will the Great Pyramids, Mayan temples, the Ziggurat of Ur, etc. (you didn't mention specific structures, so replace those with whatever you were thinking of) survive millions of years longer than a city like Chicago or Los Angeles? They're made out of similar stuff, just one has a lot more than the other.

i dont really know if this is relevent but i watched a programme recentley (tony robinsons-time team) and they were looking for evidence of the romans in York,UK...they had to dig 8 ft down to find the roads and bases of houses that they had built so in the time scale from their occupation of york to present day 8 ft of earth and junk had accumilated on top.....in not a partcually long time scale compared to other more ancient civilisations....so bearing that in mind i would imagine theres a lot of stuff thats been buried we havent discovered yet?

But what is garuanteed to still be around after 2 million years? Stone.

this could relate to the pics from mars no ?

Yes it could, and it would proove a good explanation, but with a few major flaws!

The reasons for ancient structures seem primarily...

1. Monuments to declare a ruler's greatness.
2. Monuments to inspire religious followers.
3. Defense.

And pretty much in that order...oddly enough.

Why is it that apes can evevole into advanced humans and not other animals. There never has been any real idea of what happened to dinosaurs. Who knows maybe they are the one who evoled first. What if some of the advanced civilizations were descendants of dinosaurs? I know that some of you may have seen the movie annonymous rex which is where i got my theory but i have a different perspective. There have been evidence of advanced civilizations but there also have been primitive civilizations i. e. humans. I think that the dinosaurs have brought on their own destruction with nuclear weaponry and now we are about to become the architects of our own destruction (and yes i got that from the animatrix).

Originally posted by _BLiND_If something was going to happen to the world, and the dominate species knew it was coming and couldn't stop it, they would want to be remembered no? Even if life may never again reclaim that planet.

But what is garuanteed to still be around after 2 million years?

Stone. If you wanted to be remembered why not build structures out of stone? Or place your writings in stone to be found when nothing else from that civilization exists.

Plastic and ceramics are better. And you could easily make a fairly indestructable book, even with our modern technology.


Some people think we are the only advanced civilization to ever inhabit this planet. I highly doubt it. It took us 5 million years to evolve? the planet is how old? Exactly.

I think your timelines are a bit goobered up, there. And maybe your definitions. "Civilizations" means "living in permanent cities" and we really haven't been living in big cities (because our technology couldn't support large populations (efficient transport, large areas to grow food)) for all that long.