Model predicts we're the only advanced civilization in the observable universe

Re:Model predicts we're the only advanced civilization in th... by Infernal on Monday June 25, 2018 @03:01PM (#17394799)

I originally saw this proposition on reddit - if all humans died where they stood right now, what archaeological evidence of our civilization would exist in 65 million years? 200 million? 350 million?

The discussion at that time assumed vanishingly little would survive that long - potentially just a thin layer of radiation from atmospheric nuclear testing that would be hard to place in time with accuracy more than +/- a couple million years.

I say this more as a thought experiment than a serious suggestion, but if a "technologically advanced" civilization did previously exist on earth, 100+ million years ago, what evidence of it would we expect to find at this point?

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Re:Model predicts we're the only advanced civilization in th... by mooreds on Monday June 25, 2018 @03:21PM (#17394985)

This is actually the setting for a sci-fi story I want to write. There's no reason to believe that the dinosaurs didn't have some kind of civilization, because we are so far removed from their extinction that any artifacts would be long gone. Unless they went to space, and the issue there is there's a whole lot of territory.

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Re:Model predicts we're the only advanced civilization in th... by saalweachter on Sunday July 01, 2018 @08:35AM (#17435354)

The rapid spread of animal and plant species around the globe when there wasn’t a supercontinent might be visible in the fossil record. We’d be a crank answer to the “How did potatoes spread from the Andes to the rest of world?” problem.

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