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A comment on Could an Industrial Civilization Have Predated Humans on Earth?. Parent comment

Re:Could an Industrial Civilization Have Predated Humans on ... by getmeinrn on Friday July 14, 2023 @06:10PM (#36730633)
Random thought, but if we extrapolate the path we're on in terms of biodegradability and sustainability, it's not ridiculous to assume that a very advanced version of us would have developed the technology and legislation to ensure that all products biodegrade safely within X years.
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Re:Could an Industrial Civilization Have Predated Humans on ... by blueflow on Friday July 14, 2023 @06:17PM (#36730702)
This doesn't undo all the stuff that already is in the ground and rivers everywhere.
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Re:Could an Industrial Civilization Have Predated Humans on ... by FredPret on Friday July 14, 2023 @06:41PM (#36730920)
After a long time hanging around, some organism might evolve that eats it though
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Re:Could an Industrial Civilization Have Predated Humans on ... by blueflow on Friday July 14, 2023 @07:05PM (#36731136)
Which happened for all fossils already and they are still there.
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Re:Could an Industrial Civilization Have Predated Humans on ... by FredPret on Friday July 14, 2023 @07:34PM (#36731408)
Fair point, although not all of them, and not all of those that do remain. If styrofoam ever starts rotting, maybe the styro-philes will eat 100% of each cup and poop out only completely normal organic matter. Nobody will ever find it!
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Re:Could an Industrial Civilization Have Predated Humans on ... by hutzlibu on Friday July 14, 2023 @08:32PM (#36731863)
Can we develope such a microorganism please?
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Re:Could an Industrial Civilization Have Predated Humans on ... by InvaderFizz on Saturday July 15, 2023 @12:29AM (#36733497)
Worms were discovered that eat styrofoam. There was a lot about it going on the news last summer[0].

0: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/superworms-eat-an...

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Re:Could an Industrial Civilization Have Predated Humans on ... by hutzlibu on Saturday July 15, 2023 @04:23AM (#36734748)
That is something, but apparently not quite what I want:

"Rinke and his colleagues are not suggesting that superworms should be released into landfills or polluted landscapes to munch through mountains of plastic"

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Re:Could an Industrial Civilization Have Predated Humans on ... by ekianjo on Saturday July 15, 2023 @03:29AM (#36734455)
Still all there compared to what quantity exactly? Ever hard of the gazillions of fossil fuels?
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Re:Could an Industrial Civilization Have Predated Humans on ... by blueflow on Saturday July 15, 2023 @06:54AM (#36735439)
They still are there to detect them. The question was whether our fossil records would be detectable.
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Re:Could an Industrial Civilization Have Predated Humans on ... by TechBro8615 on Friday July 14, 2023 @09:14PM (#36732121)
Or a second industrial civilization would use it to power their cars...
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Re:Could an Industrial Civilization Have Predated Humans on ... by c22 on Friday July 14, 2023 @09:03PM (#36732060)
Perhaps there could follow a movement to undo all prior impacts out of an ethical motivation.
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Re:Could an Industrial Civilization Have Predated Humans on ... by mc32 on Friday July 14, 2023 @08:22PM (#36731795)
And retroactively apply that technology to all the previous garbage they produced and their predecessors produced too?

Sounds like they invented the magic wand.

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