Billion year old civilizations?

On other planets there could be Civilizations far older. The oldest known planet is 12.7 billion years old link. Even if on that planet it took as long as earth to produce technologically advanced species some 4.5 Billion years. There could exist out there intelligent civilizations 8.2 billion years more advanced then us

It hard to imagine aliens a million years more advanced then us. Mind boggling to think what we humans could do in a few billion years if we survive that long.

Getting to earth the root of the thread. If humans were all wiped out today 50 million years from now there wouldnt be much of anything left of our great civilization. Every structure on the surface would be long gone. All our cities, and greatest structures would be long gone even the mighty Pyramids of Egypt would have been dust for millions of years " Time fears the Pyramids" HA.

So if there was a modestly advanced civilization during say the middle of the reign of the dinosaurs evidence would be hard to find.

Originally posted by Desert Dawg
Other things that make me wonder are tools and fasteners (nails, screws) comparable to modern ones have been unearthed in seams of coal far underground.
Once upon a time I was talking to a gentleman who'd done quite a bit of tunneling work.
One story he told was finding archeological evidence far inside a mountain about 4500' under the peak.
And like many construction companies, they kept quiet and kept digging.
Using our modern day calendar, when did the 3rd cycle start?

The Maya, Hopi, and Hindu ancient texts call this the fourth age.


The Great Cycle is a 5,125-year cycle that began at the date 13.0.0.0.0 on the Mayan calendar. On the Gregorian/Julian calendar that date is August 13, 3113 B.C.
The present Kali Yuga cycle of the Hindus began just 11 years later in 3102 B.C.

The first dynasty of Egypt was established circa 3100 B.C.

The Hopi named 9 signs that would signal the 'third shaking', and 8 have come true, 1 to go.

Here is a site with info. on ancient artifacts that don't fit the current story...

www.mcremo.com...

Originally posted by ShadowXIX
It hard to imagine aliens a million years more advanced then us. Mind boggling to think what we humans could do in a few billion years if we survive that long.

Well, that gets into that whole Fermi Paradox again. In a billion years, you can easily imagine that a civilization would be able to travel pretty much anywhere and everywhere in the Universe. So where the hell are they? And if you're an optimist, then where there's one billion-year-old civilization, there ought to be two, or more. Where are they? They could have ships as big as entire galaxies, built by armies of berserker robots. They would harvest stars for fuel. Their ships could be driven by supernovas. They would be hard to miss.

So either there were none, or they advanced so far so fast that they are keeping us in quarantine as an experiment... or something. Who can figure about aliens? And any Earth civilization a billion years old would be as alien to us as if they came from Krypton.

Originally posted by nichole
Throughout history, there has been catastrohic events (i.e. ice ages, extinction, etc.). Could it be possible that with the 4.5 billion year old planet (oldest rocks on Earth date to around that time) we are living on it could have had at one time ancient civilizations, ones that had a superior intelligence like or even greater than our own?

There's no evidence of it.

Technology leaves traces on the face of the earth. You are using pieces of the planet to modify the environment (like stone to create arrowheads or ores from mines to make automobiles.) Even fairly modest environment modifications (nest-building or dam building) can leave traces -- if you know where to look for them and know what you're looking at.

I've given this a lot of thought and it seems that because of the age of the Earth there could possibly have been great civilizations much like our own. Humans or human like peoples could have populated the Earth but because of the amount of time and the events that Earth has succumed to, we are unable to find any evidence of these people.

Remember, homo sapiens has been around for 200,000 years or so... and before that the Australopithecens for several million. What you may not be aware of is that they had technology (stone tools and fire) and they left a lot of these traces. Other cousins of the humans such as the Neanderthals had a very definite culture that included complex burial practices.

They left evidence, and we're still uncovering it.

Even with Evolution, this theory I think could still work. Imagine if you will a terrible catastrophy like Nuclear Winter, many people are killed by the devastation, leaving only a few that move into caves, possibly even de-evolving...

Things evolve, but they don't de-evolve. If they're not successful for a niche, they simply die out. Once evolved, they never become more primitive.

The idea of a civilization after a nuclear holocaust, though, has been the topic of many fine science fiction stories (including a number of my favorites.) But from a science and history standpoint, no, there's no evidence of this at all.

It is quite possible but the 'proof crowd' will want you know what..

I always like the Planet of the Apes series of Sci-Fi films because they not only suggest this kind of thing but show the implications of humans being exposed to it.

I think that many have at one time or another pondered this question. For instance the theory that Atlantis was any more than the subject of a fiction novel. The problems with this idea seem to be insurmountable however. Civilizations, no matter how old, seem to leave unmistakable marks on the lands they occupy. Even if an advanced civilization were to be one that had existed more in harmony with nature than is currently the case the evidence would still be available. Some examples might be:

• Cut or polished gemstones. Many commonly treasured gems are nearly impervious to erosion. In most cases it takes something harder and more durable to break them down. A diamond or a sapphire for instance would survive for many millions if not billions of years under normal conditions. If they were cut or polished it would be obvious they had been worked by an intelligent hand.
• Even if a society were to choose to live in harmony with nature, survival would still be a priority. That means tools and possibly machines and lots of them. Technologically advanced metals used in tools could survive for a great amount of time for the same reasons as the gems would.
• Shelter. Shelter is a must for survival. Wild animals survive adverse conditions pretty much the same way we do. When severe weather hits they seek shelter from the elements. The same would be true of any advanced race of beings. They would be vulnerable to the elements no matter how advanced. Surely some evidence would have been left behind.

It could be argued that through the process of subduction at the plate bounderies that everything that existed billions of years ago has been destroyed. I don’t buy into that theory though. For every new surface being exposed from deep within the crust another is being buried through sedimentation and preserved only to rise again at a later date. The reason we know approximately the age of the earth is that material from that time is constantly being re-exposed for us to find.

Having said all that, who knows???????????????

reply to post by The Vagabond


You couldn't be more wrong. Within 150 thousand years there would be nothing left of our civilization. Look at the documentary Life after people and you will see there could have been a civilization as advance as ours as little as 250,000 years ago and there would be nothing left of them to show they were ever here.