Poll: Ancent intelegent life, is it possable?

[Fetzenfisch]

In the "The Science of Discworld" Trilogy there are some pretty awesome examples of nonhuman civilizations

 

[Vrik]

Not dead which eternal lies, strange eons death may die.

No no no! It goes like this:
That is not dead, which can eternal lie
And with strange aeons, even death may die

 

[Marcosn]

this thread reminds me WAY too much of the TV show Fringe, as far as it has shown (or I remember) there were civilizations on earth before and they died out etc but they left a few things behind such as the vacuum and other technology. ahhh i love fringe and how i never question it :') but on topic i think it COULD be possible and i hope they just left for abit and come back

 

[phantasmalWordsmith]

I'm gonna say it's possible but didn't actually happen. To me, intelligence breeds all of the problems with humanity (greed and all that) so I doubt anyone would have just "left" an planet full of breathable air, life supporting factors and resources to let us grow as a species, they would have done to us what we do to chimps (I'm not talking testing cosmetics and such I'm talking about intelligence tests, y'know, they put a chimp in front of a touch screen and give them maths problems, they get it right, they get a chunk of apple, they get it wrong, no apple) And we would see MUCH more evidense of their prescence.

If anything, WE'RE the intelligent ones who came before and wiped ourselves out with greed, polution and all that jazz and what the chimpanzees or other great apes evolve into will be the people to pick up the pieces.

If we were to take things up scale and talk about the entire galaxy, then I very much believe we weren't the first ones here

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Well lots of people have said that we would have found evidence if they were here and that's fair enough, however it sort of relies on them being technologically advanced to the point where they can create things that would endure like plastics and such things. What if they were the type of society that eschewed that sort of technology for a more organic type i.e bio degradable things or things that would not survive in a recognizable form.

Also to define 'intelligence' for the purpose of this thread is something that would be comparable to the level of humans plus or minus one standard deviation. Yeah i know that's a bit on the vague side bit i cba to get into a debate as to what exactly 'intelligence' is

That would mean they couldn't have reached victorian levels of tech advancement. If we are looking at neolithic levels of technology, then I suppose its "possible" but even at neolithic levels you have the use of stone(it's kinda in the name), which is why we have stone tools over 2M years old. So, maybe some sort of primitive hunter gatherer species in a jungle environment so plant material was used instead, but then where is the evidence of their development? How did they disappear completely and show no trace of their evolution? Forget their tools, where are they?

Stick enough caveats onto anything and you can make it "possible". Spend enough time on it and I'm sure you could come up with some theory as to how a simple intelligent life form might have had all traces wiped away but it would be a very contrived answer.

 

[beniki]

Ok so this is my first thread so go easy on me )

Be mindful of spelling, some of us are very... stickler-ish of that.

As for ancient intelligents, yeah. Underwater pyramids off the coast of Japan.

There is one guy (and a few supporters) that claim it's not a natural formation, a few people interested in exploring the area more, and then everyone else thinks it's a natural formation - including the Japanese goverment that has no interest in the site.

Even if it is the ruins of a city, it's at the most 5,000 years old. Ancient, but not exactly pre humans. As well as the fact that even the top supporter of it being inhabited doesn't think it was built by humans. He thinks it was a mostly natural formation that was shaped by humans. They have found some 1,600 year old evidence of habitation on the continuation of the formation on the shore.

Is this based off satellite pictures or someone going down in a sub? I know there was a guy who claimed there were structures on Mars from looking at 2-d probe images, but was later discredited when someone produce 3-d ones showing them to just be random natural formations.

O.T: I remember an episode of Voyager where the premise was some dinosaurs developed to the point of star ships, and left Earth to begin a nomadic life amongst the stars.

Sure, all things are possible and nothing is ever true forever.

The formations they are talking about are actually all over the coast of the pacific rim. It's a neat part of the geology of the area, and there are actually sunken walls and other structures which have been modified by humans over the years in places like China and Taiwan. These particular structures actually start on the cost and, according to one very outspoken scientist, show signs of human habitation. Not just built on the site either. He thinks there was a thriving population there that carved statues, built roads and walkways, religious sites, and more.

Like I said before, back on land there are signs of habitation dating back 1,600 years, but even then no where near to the level that the professor claims of the sunken city.

His pictures are misleading as well often taken at the perfect angle to look artificial. What I find the oddest of all is that he claims to have found caricatures and paintings, but has yet to produce any pictures, the only pictures he has on his site even are the same ones he has been showing around since the 90s.

Ooh, nifty!

I know that area of the world underwent a relatively quick flooding. It would be cool to get some dating samples done to see if it correlates to the geological evidence of the sinking. But I guess if they were already there and just further shaped by humans that wouldn't give us much information. And presumably and paintings would have been sucked off by fish anyway.

Still, it might be pretty fun to layer the sites over the predicted flooded lands. If they match up with normal settlement patterns (e.g. next to a bit of trench that might have been a river). I wonder how far they go out into the sea.

That whole area is particularly prone to volcanoes though... might have lost some sites or ancient features from under sea eruptions.

Ah well, some good fodder for Atlantis based fantasy fiction anyway. If there's any authors out there, get cracking.

Gosh I sound nerdy there...

 

[Daedalus1942]

Yes. Humans have no idea of those whom have been calling this planet home.

It is better you do not know. For your own good.

The greys or the little bio-mechanical drones?
Or are you drawing from the hollow-Earth theory? With the "Deros"
-Tabs<3-

 

[Tarmon'gaidin]

It's possible but I find it highly unlikely because there is no indication that something like that has happened.

By the way English is not my first language and I really hope it isn't yours either because I might make a mistake now and then but you are not very proficient at this at all.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Do I take a cue from Assassins Creed and believe that The "Gods of Antiquity", the divine beings that could single-handedly carve the elements and control the destinies of lesser humans, were actually a long lost/forgotten/illusive civilization of Incredibly powerful individuals?

No. But i don't think its impossible.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

It's possible but I find it highly unlikely because there is no indication that something like that has happened.

By the way English is not my first language and I really hope it isn't yours either because I might make a mistake now and then but you are not very proficient at this at all.

Was that directed at me?

As long as humans spell like this:

Ancent intelegent life, is it possable?

We can be certain that there is more intelligent life out there, quite likely before us

Well since i'm a bit dyslexic spelling is not my strong point and there's nothing i can do about it. Tell me though, does being a sarcastic dick to people over the internet make you feel good?

If so how very sad, i pity you.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

It's possible, but unlikely. As you yourself said, if there had been, we'd probably have found some evidence by now. Time wouldn't have been able to remove all traces.

 

[Jonluw]

Asking whether it's possible is sort of redundant; because the question has a definite answer: Yes.

It is indeed possible. Whether it is likely is a more interesting question, and it's one I can't answer. I do not believe it is likely though.

 

[Redingold]

Well, considering vertebrates have existed for 525 million years, and humankind started to evolve a mere 500,000 years ago, and human civilisation reached today's level in a tiny few thousand years, I'd say it's perfectly possible. While there's no signs that they got anything into space or onto the moon, time would've washed over their earthly achievements like the tide washes away a sand castle, meaning they'd be very hard to spot.

 

[Fraught]

Wel i beleiv it's certanly a possabilaty.

Though I think it's improbable. had they been here before us, why did they go extinct? If they died due to some ancient apocalyptic end-of-the-world natural disaster, then why did they die out completely, when we have survived some pretty rough disasters? And why didn't they leave anything behind? And if they didn't die out, then why did they go into hiding? They were the dominant race before us, they'd have no reason to.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility. Think about it.

Let's say hypothetical race existed and lived in the age of Rodinia around 800 million years ago. Let's also say that this race began to evolve and followed a similar path to us; initially using unsustainable fuels and materials similar to ours. Let's say that this race managed to advance past us, to the point where they had began settling on other worlds; possibly outside of our solar system. So what would happen when Rodinia began to break up? I should imagine that they'd be pretty freaked as their world began to change as the landmass started to separate. So what do they do in the time of crisis? Evacuate.

You can't say that there is absolutely no chance of intelligent life (possible far more advanced than our own) existed previously. Fleeing this planet with as much as they could, billions of years of erosion, deposition and tectonic activity destroying or hiding much of what was left. And there is not a man alive this day that can confidently say that it's impossible; because although as of yet we've found no evidence, we also have only theory and assumptions (as educated as they are) to explain our distant past.

 

[Raven's Nest]

Supposedly Atlantis was a place with highly adavanced human-ish culture. Though no one has found any hard evidence to support it's existence but an awful lot has been written [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis#Ancient] about it over the course of human history. I figure if that amount of specualtion exists then in all probabillity there was a long lost civillisation called Atlantis.

As for combarabley intelligent life existing before humans, i'd consider that highly unlikely as we should have found fossils by now. It's fairly easy to make an assumption of intelligence by looking at fossil remains and comparing them to similar animals which still exist today...

 

[Garrsus]

well i think we probably are the first people to survive enough to become properly sentient but what if we have been "visited" if you know what i mean.
the Egyptians may have met aliens, same for Mayans and of coarse some crazy farmers in the USA. so yeah what if some one was giving us tech we didn't even understand?
or hey maybe we develop time travel in the future and bring technology into the past for a reason.
there is plenty of mysterious things that can be blamed on time travel, for instance...

Spoiler: a Charlie Chaplin film with a phone?

if you look the person on the left is using what looks like a mobile phone!! which were invented long after this video.

Spoiler: or how about a person?

ok this is a guy in clothes,sunglasses and even a backpack in what 1920's?

i find it a bit weird but hey that's just me.

 

[Leadfinger]

Not dead which eternal lies, strange eons death may die.

No no no! It goes like this:
That is not dead, which can eternal lie
And with strange aeons, even death may die

I was quoting Metallica rather than Lovecraft

 

[Vrik]

Not dead which eternal lies, strange eons death may die.

No no no! It goes like this:
That is not dead, which can eternal lie
And with strange aeons, even death may die

I was quoting Metallica rather than Lovecraft

Meta-who? O.O