Is it possible that another advanced civilization existed on this planet before ours?

The Earth is an ancient place, and we have been here for a fraction of a tenth of a percent of the time it has existed. How do we know that another advanced civilization did not exist HERE before we did?

by Anonymousreply 96September 15, 2023 5:31 PM

We know because there is no fossil record.

by Anonymousreply 2September 9, 2023 1:36 AM

Do you mean another intelligent species capable of building something similar to our civilization? You don’t say.

If so- no. We pretty much know of the evolution of life on earth which is about 4.5 billion years old- in terms of large complex organisms starting with the age of amphibians, then lizards, then dinosaurs and finally mammals. Homo sapiens (modern humans) come at the very recent mammalian age and are the only surviving hominid species that go back several million years.

by Anonymousreply 3September 9, 2023 1:39 AM

I've wondered the same thing. Wouldn't there be some vestige of their existence, though? The oldest remains of human like creatures go back millions of years, but before that Wouldn't the earth still be settling down? It's an interesting thought, though, and I've went down many rabbit holes over the years about ancient civilizations.

by Anonymousreply 4September 9, 2023 1:39 AM

Reverse ‘planet of the apes’

by Anonymousreply 5September 9, 2023 1:41 AM

Among other factually incorrect bullshit in your post, R3, your statement that modern humans go back millions of years is complete horseshit. Try 300,000 years.

by Anonymousreply 6September 9, 2023 1:50 AM

The earth is 4.5 BILLION YEARS old. The fossil record is nothing close to dispositive on this question. The dinosaur fossil record represents, on average, a random animal that came along every 20,000 years or so. It’s not like the fossil record includes everything that ever exist. It’s not even close to that.

by Anonymousreply 7September 9, 2023 1:52 AM

This is called the Silurian Hypothesis and has been discussed to death. There are many videos on YouTube about it, but essentially there is no evidence at all to support it. 🤔

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by Anonymousreply 8September 9, 2023 1:56 AM

Wouldn't the fossil record show some trace of fossils from these ancient civilizations? Not everything but surely there would be something.

by Anonymousreply 9September 9, 2023 1:56 AM

r9 exactly. OP mentioned an ADVANCED civilization. Evidence of such a civilization would exist even if only in small traces.

by Anonymousreply 10September 9, 2023 1:59 AM

Our human ancestors almost died our 900000 years ago.

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by Anonymousreply 11September 9, 2023 2:00 AM

[quote]Evidence of such a civilization would exist even if only in small traces.

Link from a reputable source please.

by Anonymousreply 12September 9, 2023 2:03 AM

No question OP. The earth is so old any trace would be gone. Why are we egotistical to think otherwise? It's not like they had vast cities or space ships but maybe they did?

by Anonymousreply 13September 9, 2023 2:05 AM

[quote]Today less than 3 percent of Earth’s surface is urbanized, and the chance that any of our great cities would remain over tens of millions of years is vanishingly low, says geologist Jan Zalasiewicz of the University of Leicester in England.

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by Anonymousreply 14September 9, 2023 2:07 AM

r12 what does this question even mean? The oldest fossils are 3.7 billion years old. Any 'advanced civilizations' would still exist in the DNA record. Humans have some Neanderthal DNA even today. There is no possibility that an advanced civilization could have evolved on this planet because it didnt have time.

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by Anonymousreply 15September 9, 2023 2:10 AM

Interesting theory but ultimately there isn't any there there. I'm convinced there would be some trace, some random things that survived at least partially, buried or sealed off somehow. That's what I think but who knows?

If the people from Scientific American (or whoever) want to check just to make sure, have at it.

by Anonymousreply 16September 9, 2023 2:12 AM

Is it possible? Sure. But not probable. There's not any evidence for it.

What, OP, have you been reading Rene Noorbergen?

by Anonymousreply 17September 9, 2023 2:13 AM

[quote] Why are we egotistical to think otherwise?

It's not egotistical to want evidence before belief. It's basic science. And really basic truth-seeking.

by Anonymousreply 18September 9, 2023 2:15 AM

Unless the civilization was so advanced they could wipe out every record of them being on earth, we would know.

We have been able to trace very well the history of living organisms over the course of this planet. Things leave record.

And earth is not that old. It's about 4 billion years old. Our galaxy has been around for around 13 billion years.

by Anonymousreply 19September 9, 2023 2:29 AM

It is true that the surface of the planet has undergone so much change over several billion years that nothing is left of anything that occurred before a certain time. But the evolutionary developmental course, informed by the extant fossil record, does not indicate sufficient time for self-aware, tool-making, advanced life, much less technologically savvy life, to have appeared amid what we have found.

The planet's climate has to be considered, too. A lot could have been and was lost but considerable climatic change, with mass extinctions, whether geologically caused or driven initially by extra-planetary events (e.g. meteors), also would have subverted such development. It is hard to imagine such conscious life arising in periods of much higher temperatures and unstable weather conditions. We see no route for such evolutionary lines.

The absence of evidence tells us something, certainly, because of the evidence that [italic]does[/italic] exist.

by Anonymousreply 20September 9, 2023 2:48 AM

The question is will there ever be an advanced civilization…So far I am not impressed!

by Anonymousreply 21September 9, 2023 3:47 AM

There could have been civilizations outside of what we consider as "homegrown," R20

by Anonymousreply 22September 9, 2023 3:58 AM

Where's the evidence of that ever happening, R22?

There isn't any.

by Anonymousreply 23September 9, 2023 4:00 AM

We still don't know how the Giza pyramids were built and what they were for. So maybe, OP.

by Anonymousreply 24September 9, 2023 4:19 AM

Maybe we will find some interesting things once most of the ice sheets at the top and bottom of the planet melts.

by Anonymousreply 25September 9, 2023 4:24 AM

Jebus, r25, thank all gods I'll be dead by then.

by Anonymousreply 26September 9, 2023 4:31 AM

We must keep an open mind and consider that there are other dimensions beyond the third dimension, and many frequencies of light, all of which we cannot see with our eyeballs or process with our brains. We are locked into the third dimension. So perhaps there have been other civilizations or things going on and we don't see the record of it because it exists outside of the visible spectrum.

by Anonymousreply 27September 11, 2023 2:03 AM

Depends what you mean by advanced. We, us humans are terrible judges of this because we mostly think in terms informed by our own experience. Even to say advanced is a box because obviously any “advanced”civilization would leave behind wires and microchips and plastic trash because that’s what we believe it means to be advanced. Just because we ourselves are fast going to leave the earth a heap of trash and horror doesn’t mean we are advanced. Quite the opposite I would argue. To be advanced would include living in a graceful and intimate way with the mechanisms and systems of nature. So yes I think it is entirely possible there were civilizations that were here before us that were very advanced in terms of having a harmonious and sensitive interaction with their environment. Ones that didn’t leave physical evidence of themselves.

by Anonymousreply 28September 11, 2023 2:32 AM

Apparently they weren't advanced enough to invent plastic because if they did, it would have been choking the oceans like ours is.

by Anonymousreply 29September 11, 2023 4:14 AM

I think it’s very possible

by Anonymousreply 30September 11, 2023 4:27 AM

When and from what did these organisms evolve r28? They had to branch off of some evolutionary tree. And what happened to their bodies, how did they manage to be advanced civilization that was the alpha species of their era and left nothing in the fossil record.

by Anonymousreply 31September 11, 2023 5:31 PM

[quote]R24: We still don't know how the Giza pyramids were built and what they were for.

Yes, we do. They were tombs, built during the lifetimes of the pharaohs who commissioned them, by Egyptian laborers who specialized in building them. The first pyramid was built at Saqqara by Djoser, and three more were built by Snofru (the Collapsed Pyramid, the Bent Pyramid, and the Red Pyramid) at Meidum and Dahshur. All of these exhibit a clear line of development before the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza. After that, the projects diminished, became smaller, and less complex. Subsequent pharaohs allocated fewer resources towards them, and eventually stopped building them. In Egypt, there's a total of 118 pyramids. All of the pyramids contain sarcophagi; there's no reasonable dispute as to what they were for.

Who are you? Ben Carson?

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by Anonymousreply 32September 11, 2023 6:11 PM

[quote]any “advanced”civilization would leave behind wires and microchips and plastic trash because that’s what we believe it means to be advanced.

I'd argue that a more dispositive proof would be in the particles we leave behind such as radiation and/or other evidence that doesn't disappear in cosmically-short periods of time. For example, Chernobyl and Fukushima will provide evidence of our existence long after our bones have completely disappeared even considering fossilization, and even that won't be around for that long. After all, when we look into the cosmos for signs of life, we aren't looking for beings or their relatively temporary artifice, but instead for the damage to the atmosphere of their planet(s) as evidence of their existence. And we have to assume that not every species will be as destructive to their environment(s) just because we are.

by Anonymousreply 33September 11, 2023 6:16 PM

More pre-flood ruins are being discovered =

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by Anonymousreply 40September 11, 2023 6:50 PM

Yes, if Before Trump (BT) counts.

by Anonymousreply 42September 11, 2023 7:04 PM

Oh for fuck's sake. As an elderghey I assure you that this "chariots of the gods" secret, advanced civilizations bullshit comes around from time to time. Nothing ever comes of it. People just like weird stories and fantasies.

Those who desperately need to believe this shit will buy into it (again) and the rest of us won't.

by Anonymousreply 43September 11, 2023 7:34 PM

Wouldn't it be easy to just ask Cher about this?

by Anonymousreply 44September 11, 2023 7:39 PM

I doubt it. I do believe though that we've been visited during the time of the pyramids or those funky lines down in South America.

by Anonymousreply 45September 11, 2023 8:07 PM

Yeah the idea that a species from somewhere else in the galaxy visited is not so crazy. It's impossible to know.

The idea that an advanced species evolved on this planet and had a civilization on this planet is against all evidence.

by Anonymousreply 46September 11, 2023 8:15 PM

The Gaia Hypothesis indicates that whatever the living mechanism, it instinctually must feed off of itself and eventually digests, destroys and decomposes to oblivion.

There's no evidence anything preceded modern humanity's path.

by Anonymousreply 47September 11, 2023 10:50 PM

[quote]R45: I do believe though that we've been visited during the time of the pyramids or those funky lines down in South America.

Why? Based upon what evidence?

To think that about either the pyramids or the Plain of Nasca, you would have to have bought into some von Däniken or Tsoukalos bullshit somewhere along the way.

by Anonymousreply 48September 12, 2023 5:47 AM

"We know because there is no fossil record."

Where to start??? First of all, FYI archeologists don't typically look for fossils, they look for non-fossil evidence of human activity, such as shaped stones, ancient metalwork, fired ceramics, and the occasional preserved earthwork or bit of charcoal. And they typically look in places that aren't covered with icecaps, or areas where repeated floods, tropical rot, volcanoes, or abrasive sandstorms haven't destroyed all evidence, and even then they can usually only find evidence of people who've left metal, stone, or ceramic evidence.

Case in point, the "Lost Civilization of the Amazon". Now the first Europeans to explore the Amazon river reported a widespread civilization, with many impressive villages and cities made of wood, connected by a network of roads. Later explorers found nothing but isolated tribes living a Stone Age existence, and assumed the first explorers were lying. But... late in the 20th century deforestation and the invention of LIDAR radar mapping began to reveal that, for real, there had once been a wide network of villages and cities connected by public roads in the Amazon Basin. Archeologists hadn't been able to dig in the rain forest (until the deforestation), and there were few preserved artifacts as the people had made their stuff out of wood and other organic matter and left it in a rain forest. So, I don't know if all of you would call that an "advanced" civilization, but it's an example of what can escape the notice of archeologists for centuries. What else is still out there.

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by Anonymousreply 49September 12, 2023 6:54 AM

[quote] More pre-flood ruins are being discovered

Which flood?

by Anonymousreply 51September 12, 2023 7:16 AM

R48 aren't you on the Christian bullshit?

by Anonymousreply 52September 12, 2023 5:59 PM

Love that stuff r49. There are real lost civilizations that we can explore, all over the globe, and that is more interesting to me than unseen lizard people from a million years ago.

by Anonymousreply 53September 12, 2023 10:04 PM

[quote]R52: aren't you on the Christian bullshit?

Beg pardon? Explain, please.

I'm the antitheist who has consistently argued that Jesus didn't exist.

by Anonymousreply 54September 13, 2023 1:22 AM

Official alien disclosure from Mexican government =

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by Anonymousreply 55September 13, 2023 8:04 PM

Re: R55:

"José Jaime Maussan Flota (born May 31, 1953) is a Mexican journalist, television personality, 𝐡𝐨𝐚𝐱𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭."

R34 / R35 / R36 / R37 / R38 / R40 / R41 / R55 / R56, stop flooding the thread with crap from ufomania.com.

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by Anonymousreply 57September 14, 2023 12:02 AM

𝐔𝐅𝐎 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐚 𝐈𝐬 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥. 𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐩.

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by Anonymousreply 59September 14, 2023 12:04 AM

Most likely no. Evolution is slow.

by Anonymousreply 60September 14, 2023 12:19 AM

It seems that there are two questions on the table. One is the OP's, and the second one which is concerned with have UFO's/ET's ever visited Earth.

I don't think many people doubt that UFOs have visited and had a look-see around.

Advanced civilations developing and then completely disappearing from Earth is a much harder sell.

by Anonymousreply 61September 14, 2023 12:33 AM

"I don't think many people doubt that UFOs have visited and had a look-see around."

No. Every sensible person doubts that alien civilizations have visited the Earth, because doubt is what you feel when you don't know something for certain.

The hard-headed monitories are those who absolutely insist that aliens in spaceships have or have not visited, but the fact is neither of those sides have any hard evidence.

by Anonymousreply 62September 14, 2023 12:44 AM

There's not even an advanced civilization on this planet now

by Anonymousreply 63September 14, 2023 12:47 AM

What to the UFO and ET possess?

by Anonymousreply 64September 14, 2023 12:48 AM

Earthlings are Martians. Or mixed-race Martians. Somehow we came from there, either in a chunk of ice or a spaceship.

Do you know entire civilizations are covered by ocean water? For instance, the North Sea didn't use to exist- there was just land from what is now the UK to Scandinavia.

by Anonymousreply 65September 14, 2023 12:50 AM

They were so advanced that when they left they took everything with them because they didn't want anyone to have their stuff.

by Anonymousreply 66September 14, 2023 12:56 AM

R66, did the have great asses?

by Anonymousreply 67September 14, 2023 12:59 AM

I'm so sorry, R62, I'll just say that among myself and all of the people I have ever known, there is a belief that UFOs have visited the Earth for at least a drive-by. Do we have evidence of it? Nope. Do we believe it anyway, yes we do. It seems so silly to believe that in the vastness of the Universe there is not a single more advanced civilisation than ours Further, it seems silly to believe that none of them have had a look.

Perhaps other advanced life forms don't exist anywhere in the Universe and if they do have never bothered to even have a look at us, R62, but I don't actually believe that.

by Anonymousreply 69September 14, 2023 1:02 AM

[quote] I'll just say that among myself and all of the people I have ever known, there is a belief that UFOs have visited the Earth for at least a drive-by.

Where do you live? Rural Kentucky?

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by Anonymousreply 70September 14, 2023 1:09 AM

"Do we have evidence of it? Nope. Do we believe it anyway, yes we do."

Dude, the difference between being sensible and not being sensible, is right here.

Because there is no proof either way, I think it's possible that UFOs have visited the earth even though there's no proof, and think it highly likely that We Are Not Alone. But you BELIEVE, even though you know damn well you have no proof. Therefore, I am being sensible and open-minded, and you and your crowd are being credulous. And with that, can we end the fucking thread hijack? We were talking about ancient civilizations, which is archology, not "UFOlogy".

by Anonymousreply 71September 14, 2023 1:10 AM

All threads on the Datalounge are open threads. We take them wherever we want to take them and we have no moderators here. I'm so sorry that doesn't suit you. There are millions of websites where you can visit and be moderated to a fare thee well. Bon voyage!

by Anonymousreply 72September 14, 2023 1:35 AM

People who can't fathom that more advanced life forms may exist in the Galaxy are quite puzzling to me.

I suppose it's the inability to look at the Universe and be open-minded about what it may and probably does contain. It's like the flat-earth society in bigger dress but that's just my opinion.

To each his own, I wish you gentlemen the best of luck.

by Anonymousreply 73September 14, 2023 1:41 AM

The aliens came, looked around, took some photos, and our planet ended up on one of their "Tasteful Friends" threads.

Criticisms within that thread included:

"WTF! .. Only one moon!?"

"Those two poles at opposite ends don't match at all !!"

"Round? .. There's no way that circumference is round! .. And who wants to live on a egg? .. A small on at that!"

Well, if you like water ...

"Hard pass. .. Looks fit for lizards."

"No thanks. .. That one HUGE landmass looks totally unstable, like he could break apart at any minute."

"Seriously? .. You can tell it already has termites."

"Any hot fudge in the middle?"

by Anonymousreply 74September 14, 2023 2:02 AM

[quote] we have no moderators here.

Editor! Flames and Freaks!

by Anonymousreply 75September 14, 2023 2:08 AM

We're assuming advanced civilization has a physical form. Think of dandelion puffs. Who's to say there wasn't an advanced civilization of dandelion puffs which dissipated into the air? How do we consider a brain and intellect? I think we're looking at a civilization so deviant from our knowledge and beliefs. Who can prove it either way?

by Anonymousreply 76September 14, 2023 2:25 AM

[quote]R62: The hard-headed monitories are those who absolutely insist that aliens in spaceships have or have not visited, but the fact is neither of those sides have any hard evidence.

'Bothsiding' it the way you're doing, it sounds like you don't quite understand the rules of evidence and the burden of proof. One neither seeks nor requires evidence that 'aliens in spaceships' ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛'𝑡 visited; it's not necessary to demonstrate a negative. The burden of proof is upon those making the positive claim, i.e., aliens ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 visited.

The fact is that there's no evidence that they have, and those "hard-headed monitories" who point that out do not have the same shaky standing that those who claim they have do.

by Anonymousreply 77September 14, 2023 3:02 AM

[quote][R65] = Roddy McDowall

R68, that's a photo of Paul Comi, not Roddy McDowall.

by Anonymousreply 78September 14, 2023 3:06 AM

[quote] that's a photo of Paul Comi, not Roddy McDowall.

R78, it’s a link to the Wikipedia article about the Twilight Zone episode in which Roddy appeared as an Earthling who travels to Mars only to be placed in a zoo by the Martians.

by Anonymousreply 79September 14, 2023 3:20 AM

Yes, R79, I know the episode. Per R65, did anyone in 'People Are Alike All Over' make the claim that Earthlings had originated on Mars? The Martians didn't seem to think so, since they put the surviving human on exhibit in a cage. (What was it with Susan Oliver and cages?)

by Anonymousreply 80September 14, 2023 3:33 AM

Yes, Generation Z: It was called Reality pre-2023. Now log off that Instagram account and from your TikTok page.

by Anonymousreply 81September 14, 2023 3:52 AM

[quote]Wouldn't the fossil record show some trace of fossils from these ancient civilizations?

r9 We still haven't discovered every living organism in the depths of the ocean, yet.

by Anonymousreply 82September 14, 2023 4:00 AM

Okay, we haven't discovered every living organism in the ocean, R82.

Wouldn't there be *some* fossil record of *something*? It doesn't have to be everything but it has to be something.

by Anonymousreply 83September 14, 2023 8:10 AM

It's pretty obvious that at least one highly advanced society existed prior to our own.

One has only to look at the gargantuan megalithic structures around the globe that defy modern explanations as to how and who.

That there was an NE flood but for a few "teacher" survivors who live in legends as Viracocha, Quetzalcoatl, and others also seems evident.

by Anonymousreply 84September 14, 2023 9:48 AM

Oh, and r9/r83? Those megaliths are your "fossils." They exist. They were built. We have no idea how or by whom, but we don't need millennia-old bones to know these structures aren't natural.

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by Anonymousreply 85September 14, 2023 10:06 AM

One of the best episodes of Star Trek Voyager involved a story about the dinosaurs that evolved billions of years before humans emerged and they had attended advance civilization. They were so advanced that they built spaceships and left earth way before humans evolved and they established himself on another planet. That episode was so good it was good as a good episode of Star Trek the next generation.

by Anonymousreply 86September 14, 2023 12:21 PM

R54 of course Jesus existed. Haven’t you seen the fossils? Or the movie ;)

by Anonymousreply 87September 14, 2023 12:51 PM

OP needs to see an Indiana Jones movie. Or at least hear of the Romans, who had sewerage systems "we" didn't have until the 19th century.

by Anonymousreply 88September 14, 2023 1:35 PM

Mexico is talking about it OP =

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by Anonymousreply 89September 14, 2023 2:04 PM

R90, Scorn as you will, but you cannot explain!

by Anonymousreply 91September 14, 2023 4:43 PM

Isn't the guy presenting the "aliens" to the Mexican government an established fraud?

by Anonymousreply 92September 14, 2023 10:09 PM

[quote]R84 /R91: One has only to look at the gargantuan megalithic structures around the globe that defy modern explanations as to how and who.

The explanations are not deficient; believers in ancient aliens scorn the explanations, and refuse to accept them.

by Anonymousreply 93September 15, 2023 3:39 AM

My understanding is that if we went exctinct, in a million years or so you wouldn't see ANY evidence that we were here. Not even plastics. So I think it's one of those things we just couldn't ever know.

by Anonymousreply 94September 15, 2023 3:51 AM

New Scientist has an article on that subject.

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by Anonymousreply 95September 15, 2023 4:06 AM

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