Originally posted by SirMike
Sorry, but I cannot buy it. Any truly advanced civilization will leave fingerprints on the land that will unmistakable. Although buildings facades may crumble, stone masonry work, foundations, metal implements, radioactive, and synthetics will survive in some recognizable matter for 10,000’s of years.

maybe they were not a paper/metal/plastic based society like we are

Originally posted by metaldemon2000
I think the carving in stone came after the fall of the last civilization. Most of the carvings we see today are only a few thousand years old. The last ice age ending roughly 12000 years ago.

If we had a mass extiction event tomorrow the only survivors would be rural folk or those who.escaped the cities with the clothing on their backs. Most of our history is recorded electronically or on paper. Both which wouldn't last more than 100 years if not properly cared for. Rural people are not the record keepers in society and many are not as up on world events. Our efforts would be shifted into survival mode leaving education and record keeping at the lowest of priorities. Technology that does survive wouldn't last long due to lack of replacement parts and know how to keep running. We would be back to pioneer standards in under a generation.

thanx for your comment...very well said...this is exactly what i think happened to us, we threw ourselves back ino a stone age state!

Originally posted by miniatus
Interesting timing, I was just having a conversation with a friend of mine about this over the weekend.. I personally believe technologically advanced societies have lived here before and either have fallen, or left the planet.

He cites our digital capabilities and the fact no other civilization has had that technology as proof that we're the most advanced our planet has seen and my response was that it's really just our perception of technology.. I think the reliance on "digital" and "electronic" will ultimately be more of a problem than a benefit.. plus I suggested what if this technology, or something like it, did exist? what do you think would happen after millions of years.. we're becoming a green society, slowly.. and as we do .. the less likely it will be for remnants of our existence to stand the tests of time.. digital media won't last millions of years, the magnetics that contain your data will become weak and be unreadable over time.. what if that's already happened before..

I told him - imagine that tomorrow a large magnetic storm hits the planet and wipes out our electric grid, destroys the satellites in orbit and blanks the digital media on the planet? square one.. many would die off as food production ground to a halt, many would die off from violence, disease and famine.. the shift would be away from technological advancement and directly to agriculture as a need.. it would reset us essentially to the beginning and would take generations to even have a semblance of recovery if the disaster was big enough to wipe out all of the electronics on the planet.. think very hard about technology you own that doesn't have some sort of computer involved? .. even your car has a computer.. gas pumps.. water systems..

It's quite easy to imagine that another civilization as advanced, if not more advanced.. was once here.

thanx for your comment....if we were reverted back into a prehistoric state, all our concerns would be focused around food,shelter and clothing...we would be cave men once again and the world we left behind would drift and fade into myths and legends!!!

I personaly believe that we have been through all of this before to some extent, and perhaps a number of times. It does pose many questions about technologies and where their traces are. I just don't know the liklihood of the old ones using plastics or anything like that.
Maybe there was a species of tree that made resin suitable or comperable to plastics, but was biodegradable. Of course this tree was probably used to extinction.

It is fun to speculate. I've pondered on these lines for many years.

Most of it stems from reading a book when I was 12 y/o. "Cave of the Ancients" by Tuesday Labsang Rhampa.
(spelling might not be right on the authors name)
It was an excellent read that opened a universe of thought for me.

if any of you out there are anywhere in the northern part of the united states or europe right now where you are standing or sitting was not so long ago beneath 1 to 2 miles of ice! <<< think about that!

I believe it's very possible there were past civilizations that were maybe as advanced as say the Roman Empire, but no more. I see claims all the time that plastics will last for literally thousands of years in landfills - so if there have been technically advanced societies, where is all the plastic? They just didn't make plastic? I doubt it.

The Antikytheria mechanism survived a thousand years in very poor condition, but enough that it could be mostly "reconstructed" in 3d and understood, that's a fair statement to make but part of what helped preserve the metals helped destroy the rest of it.. it really has a lot to do with surroundings and construction.

Look at the titanic, it's metal and is mostly deteriorated away now.. they don't think it will last.. and that was only 1912

The Antikytheria mechanism is more the exception than the rule.

Originally posted by LS650
I believe it's very possible there were past civilizations that were maybe as advanced as say the Roman Empire, but no more. I see claims all the time that plastics will last for literally thousands of years in landfills - so if there have been technically advanced societies, where is all the plastic? They just didn't make plastic? I doubt it.

as i said before, maybe they were not a paper/metal/plastic based society like we are...