Naked Science Forum
General Science => General Science => Topic started by: Eric A. Taylor on 22/05/2010 08:24:33
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Quite a while ago I read to my nephew a book about a group of teenagers who travel back in time 65 million years and discover, along with the dinosaurs two groups of aliens who have colonized Earth. The two groups are fighting each other for control of the planet. At the end of the story the losing group turns a comet so it will collide with Earth destroying it's biosphere. The "winning" group can do nothing to save the planet and decide to evacuate and the teenagers barely get back to their own time before the impact, skipping all the bad days that followed that event.
I know this was just a story, but Earth has been capable of supporting human life (or something very much like it) for at least 500 million years. Though some of this time might not be what we would call "fun", such as dragon flies with a six foot wing span, along with other nasty bugs of that size (like mosquitoes (insects) the size of the great WWII British fighters of the same name) or predictors like T-Rex. Any of these creatures could be lived with given the proper technology.
Given the sparseness of the fossil record, is it possible our planet was home to thousands or even millions or billions of intelligent aliens in the past?
If humans became extinct tomorrow, what evidence of our time here would still exist in 65 million years? I know there would be some stuff on the moon, but what about satellites? Would ANY still be in orbit after all that time? What about our garbage? Would anything be left that a future race could say "Here is PROOF that this planet had somebody here long ago"?
Speaking of the moon. What will the Apollo landing sights look like in 10s of millions of years?
65 million years is a very very long time.
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If they were there then, why are they not here now?
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Eric, Another scenario which leaves no evidence is that the first life-form grew massively developed compared to our current concepts of technology - and when they left they cleared up behind themselves. They would have known that life developed on earth (ie them) and they put the earth back to "initial default settings" to see if it would happen again (ie us). the earth as a giant petri dish. unknowable and probably unverifiable but infinitely ponderable. Matthew
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I suspect that if there had been earlier advanced life on Earth then we would have found traces of synthetic compounds that couldn't occur naturally. To be sure, most of them would have broken down after such a long time but I doubt that all of them would have done so.
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They was 'ere before guvner. Here is the documented proof:
http://www.hexmaster.com/goonscripts/s09e14.pdf
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The fossil evidence [:)] ...
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http://www.show.me.uk/site/news/STO482.html
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If they were there then, why are they not here now?
Very probably extinct. Evolution doesn't stop working. What will your decedents be like 65 million years from now. It's unlikely they would be anything we might call "human". After all, go backwards 65 million years and find your 3.5 million times great grandfather was a mouse! (Possible named Micky?) I myself have traced my ancestors to Mighty Mouse 65 million years ago.
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Another thing to consider is physiology. In Star Trek Mr. Spock, a Vulcan, had copper based hemoglobin rather than iron based (like humans). This would have an important consequence never addressed in the show. Mr. Spock and Captain Kirk would not be able to share food. Copper is toxic to humans because humans evolved on a planet with very little copper. This is why our hemoglobin is iron based instead of copper based. Humans require a lot of iron in their diet to stay healthy, so much iron it would kill a Vulcan. Conversely Vulcans would require quite a lot of copper in their diet to remain healthy.
A more down to earth comparison are sheep and cows. Sheep and cows are two animals that evolved on Earth but require very different diets because sheep evolved in a copper rich part of the world and cows evolved in a copper poor part. Sheep REQUIRE a level of copper in their diet that would be toxic to a cow. These are two animals from the same planet. What would the physiology of someone from a different planet be? Would they be able to eat Earth flora and fauna? Would humans be able to eat flora and fauna from another planet?
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The fossil evidence [:)] ...
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http://www.show.me.uk/site/news/STO482.html
I used to have a cell phone like that!!!
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I suspect that if there had been earlier advanced life on Earth then we would have found traces of synthetic compounds that couldn't occur naturally. To be sure, most of them would have broken down after such a long time but I doubt that all of them would have done so.
The question begs: Why? The Romans didn't clean up their messes when they left for the simple reason...they didn't have the time or the money.
Consider a race of intelligent beings that has reached to the stars. No species is immortal. If nothing else they will evolve into something else. Eventually those smart beings who have populated many worlds will die out. If nothing else they would eventually leave Earth for whatever reason. If you came to Earth 10's of millions of years ago there would be no clue at all that intelligent beings would one day evolve here. Why bother with a clean up? This planet would be one of BILLIONS of other worlds very much like it.
Earth has supported life for nearly 4 billion years, yet that life was only been able to communicate with other worlds for about 60 years. Not 60 million, or thousand, just 60...as in less than one human lifespan!!!
Of that 4 billion years Earth has supported life that has some kind of technology for only about 5 or 6 thousand years (just a few seconds if that 4 billion years were 1 year instead)
That is a very long time for others to move here, live here for generations (perhaps even thousands of generations (ALL of human history, 10,000 years, is only about 500 human generations). Further other beings could be much longer lived and may wait to have children longer. Already that trend is happening in humans.
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I tend to agree with Eric that, because of the likely timespan for the potential development of intelligent life, it is possible that aliens could have been on this planet and we wouldn't know. But I think if they were as populace as humans are today then we may well have detected some trace unless they did a very sophisticated clean up. Maybe they were just renting and the terms of the lease required it. It is hard to see why a large population would live here for a long time then just leave anyway. Earth was not so great when you go back further. You might expect spacefaring people to be able to stop huge meteorite impacts for example but we do have evidence that these occurred.
A small group of visitors may have come to have a look and take a few samples or maybe just have a holiday and bag a few dinosaurs (only on camera of course). We would not know. They may still do this and we wouldn't know either.
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I tend to agree with Eric that, because of the likely timespan for the potential development of intelligent life, it is possible that aliens could have been on this planet and we wouldn't know. But I think if they were as populace as humans are today then we may well have detected some trace unless they did a very sophisticated clean up. Maybe they were just renting and the terms of the lease required it. It is hard to see why a large population would live here for a long time then just leave anyway. Earth was not so great when you go back further. You might expect spacefaring people to be able to stop huge meteorite impacts for example but we do have evidence that these occurred.
A small group of visitors may have come to have a look and take a few samples or maybe just have a holiday and bag a few dinosaurs (only on camera of course). We would not know. They may still do this and we wouldn't know either.
I wonder from whom they would be renting? Do they still hold the deed? Wonder what they would say about they way we've treated the property? We haven't been very good tenants. Hope they don't show up looking to evict us.
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The Zargs from Epsilon4. The own a lot planets in this part of the galaxy. Of course, the reason there is no sign of the last tenants is that they only rent unfurnished and demand that outgoing tenants leave the planet as they found it.
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The Zargs from Epsilon4. The own a lot planets in this part of the galaxy. Of course, the reason there is no sign of the last tenants is that they only rent unfurnished and demand that outgoing tenants leave the planet as they found it.
Nurse! Quick! Get the screens. Graham is having one of his turns.
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Consider a race of intelligent beings that has reached to the stars. No species is immortal. If nothing else they will evolve into something else. Eventually those smart beings who have populated many worlds will die out. If nothing else they would eventually leave Earth for whatever reason.
I'm afraid that none of those assumptions can be justified: there's simply no evidence to support nor refute them and so no conclusions can be drawn.
On occasions, a decision has to made, because immediate action has to be taken. However, this topic/subject isn't one of them, so I think that making such a definitive assertion at this point is unwise.
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definitive assertion [:o)]
The Universe is not absolutely perfect, even though it has absolute infinity, from man's view point.
Since it is not perfect, nothing within it is absolutely perfect.
The concept of perfection isn't something that can be applied to the universe; in what way is it imperfect? In what way is everything within it imperfect?
Outside of abstract mathematics, perfection is subjective.
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Quite a while ago I read to my nephew a book about a group of teenagers who travel back in time 65 million years and discover, along with the dinosaurs two groups of aliens who have colonized Earth. The two groups are fighting each other for control of the planet. At the end of the story the losing group turns a comet so it will collide with Earth destroying it's biosphere. The "winning" group can do nothing to save the planet and decide to evacuate and the teenagers barely get back to their own time before the impact, skipping all the bad days that followed that event.
I know this was just a story, but Earth has been capable of supporting human life (or something very much like it) for at least 500 million years. Though some of this time might not be what we would call "fun", such as dragon flies with a six foot wing span, along with other nasty bugs of that size (like mosquitoes (insects) the size of the great WWII British fighters of the same name) or predictors like T-Rex. Any of these creatures could be lived with given the proper technology.
Given the sparseness of the fossil record, is it possible our planet was home to thousands or even millions or billions of intelligent aliens in the past?
If humans became extinct tomorrow, what evidence of our time here would still exist in 65 million years? I know there would be some stuff on the moon, but what about satellites? Would ANY still be in orbit after all that time? What about our garbage? Would anything be left that a future race could say "Here is PROOF that this planet had somebody here long ago"?
Speaking of the moon. What will the Apollo landing sights look like in 10s of millions of years?
65 million years is a very very long time.
That sounds like an amazing book!! Pls can I have the title??? please??
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Quite a while ago I read to my nephew a book about a group of teenagers who travel back in time 65 million years and discover, along with the dinosaurs two groups of aliens who have colonized Earth. The two groups are fighting each other for control of the planet. At the end of the story the losing group turns a comet so it will collide with Earth destroying it's biosphere. The "winning" group can do nothing to save the planet and decide to evacuate and the teenagers barely get back to their own time before the impact, skipping all the bad days that followed that event.
I know this was just a story, but Earth has been capable of supporting human life (or something very much like it) for at least 500 million years. Though some of this time might not be what we would call "fun", such as dragon flies with a six foot wing span, along with other nasty bugs of that size (like mosquitoes (insects) the size of the great WWII British fighters of the same name) or predictors like T-Rex. Any of these creatures could be lived with given the proper technology.
Given the sparseness of the fossil record, is it possible our planet was home to thousands or even millions or billions of intelligent aliens in the past?
If humans became extinct tomorrow, what evidence of our time here would still exist in 65 million years? I know there would be some stuff on the moon, but what about satellites? Would ANY still be in orbit after all that time? What about our garbage? Would anything be left that a future race could say "Here is PROOF that this planet had somebody here long ago"?
Speaking of the moon. What will the Apollo landing sights look like in 10s of millions of years?
65 million years is a very very long time.
That sounds like an amazing book!! Pls can I have the title??? please??
This book came from 1 of 54 titles. Part of the Animorphs. Sorry can't remember which title. It was over 10 years ago.
From what I remember the book wasn't that great. You might like it if you're 8.
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Quite a while ago I read to my nephew a book about a group of teenagers who travel back in time 65 million years and discover, along with the dinosaurs two groups of aliens who have colonized Earth. The two groups are fighting each other for control of the planet. At the end of the story the losing group turns a comet so it will collide with Earth destroying it's biosphere. The "winning" group can do nothing to save the planet and decide to evacuate and the teenagers barely get back to their own time before the impact, skipping all the bad days that followed that event.
I know this was just a story, but Earth has been capable of supporting human life (or something very much like it) for at least 500 million years. Though some of this time might not be what we would call "fun", such as dragon flies with a six foot wing span, along with other nasty bugs of that size (like mosquitoes (insects) the size of the great WWII British fighters of the same name) or predictors like T-Rex. Any of these creatures could be lived with given the proper technology.
Given the sparseness of the fossil record, is it possible our planet was home to thousands or even millions or billions of intelligent aliens in the past?
If humans became extinct tomorrow, what evidence of our time here would still exist in 65 million years? I know there would be some stuff on the moon, but what about satellites? Would ANY still be in orbit after all that time? What about our garbage? Would anything be left that a future race could say "Here is PROOF that this planet had somebody here long ago"?
Speaking of the moon. What will the Apollo landing sights look like in 10s of millions of years?
65 million years is a very very long time.
That sounds like an amazing book!! Pls can I have the title??? please??
This book came from 1 of 54 titles. Part of the Animorphs. Sorry can't remember which title. It was over 10 years ago.
From what I remember the book wasn't that great. You might like it if you're 8.
haha lol :) thanks :)
Sounds really cool though, but I guess it's not for adult reading :) I love those kind of stories though :)
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Read one a long time ago about a company that took hunting parties back in time to hunt dinosaurs. The hunters were to stay strictly to prescribed paths but one of the hunters strayed and killed a mosquito or something. The party returned to their own time to discover an alternate reality in which Germany won World War II.