[meteorite-list] SETI, The Silurian Hypothesis, and Defining the Anthropocene

From: Alfredo Petrov <alfredo_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2018 00:12:32 +0900
Message-ID: <CAHy2-pMtEmmh-CMhpswHby-HLXVr-7xcsuee=mznm3ADvLtUaw_at_mail.gmail.com>

There is an interesting modern model for this: We are all familiar with the
Inca civilization, thanks to its enormous stone ruins, but how many people
are familiar with the Inca's contemporaries in the Amazon jungle? The
Amazon culture was magnificently well organized, developed methods for
growing artificial hills to live on out of reach of the yearly floodwaters
in the surrounding swamps, connected these artificial hills with long
straight highways, likewise raised above the swampwaters, but they had no
access to stones or concrete, their organic structures rotted away, and
their existence wasn't even suspected until satellite imagery revealed
their highway network. Now we drill down into what used to be considered
natural hills in the Amazon basin and find ceramic all the way down. Other
than buried ceramic shards and the artificial changes to the landscape,
little evidence remains that here was a civilization that might have
rivalled the Incas in power. Archaeological studies are biased towards
civilizations with lots of stone and/or in arid areas; the rest get
neglected because there are fewer remains left to study. A hypothetical
technological civilization based on components made from organic materials
(or even non-precious metals) would leave nothing to study.

On 22 April 2018 at 23:53, Paul via Meteorite-list <
meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> wrote:

> Was There a Civilization On Earth Before Humans?
> Adam Frank, The Atlantic, April 13, 2018
> https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/are-we-
> earths-only-civilization/557180/
>
> Schmidt, G.A. and Frank, A., 2018. The Silurian
> hypothesis: would it be possible to detect an industrial
> civilization in the geological record? International
> Journal of Astrobiology, pp. 1-9.
> https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.03748
> https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-journa
> l-of-astrobiology/article/silurian-hypothesis-would-it-
> be-possible-to-detect-an-industrial-civilization-in-
> the-geological-record/77818514AA6907750B8F4339F7C70EC6
>
> There are two very good books that discuss
> what a technological civilization, ours, would
> behind in the archaeological ? geological record.
>
> They are;
>
> Weisman, A., 2008. The world without us. Macmillan.
> 0312427905, 9780312427900
>
> and
>
> Zalasiewicz, J. and Freedman, K., 2009. The Earth
> after us: what legacy will humans leave in the rocks?.
> Oxford University Press. 0199214980, 9780199214983
>
> Dr. Zalasiewicz has written a papers about the
> Anthropocene and the signature and traces that
> would survive in the geologic record. Examples are:
>
> Zalasiewicz, J., Waters, C.N. and Williams, M., 2014.
> Human bioturbation, and the subterranean landscape
> of the Anthropocene. Anthropocene, 6, pp. 3-9.
> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264241410_Human_bio
> turbation_and_the_subterranean_landscape_of_the_Anthropocene
>
> and
>
> Zalasiewicz, J., Williams, M., Waters, C.N., Barnosky,
> A.D. and Haff, P., 2014. The technofossil record of
> humans. The Anthropocene Review, 1(1), pp. 34-43.
> https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264461538_The_techn
> ofossil_record_of_humans
>
> Related papers can be found at:
>
> Jan Zalasiewicz, University of Leicester, Department of Geology,
> https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jan_Zalasiewicz
>
> Yours,
>
> Paul H.
>
> "The past is never dead. It's not even past."
> William Faulkner, Act 1, Scene III, Requiem for a Nun (1951)
>
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Received on Sun 22 Apr 2018 11:12:32 AM PDT