THE SILURIAN HYPOTHESIS
A thought experiment
In a way this month’s blog draws a long bow from the blog of last month, which looked at Tic Tac UFOs and the possibility of underwater advanced peoples. After all, if a pre-human civilization occurred on Earth a very long time ago it would likely have suffered wipe out well before the age of the dinosaurs. And maybe, just maybe, they took refuge under water. Let’s have a look at some possibilities involving the presence of pre-human civilizations on Earth.
Recent Opinions
Gavin Schmidt, climate modeler and director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and University of Rochester astrophysicist Adam Frank have discussed the issues and released a paper on the subject. Emanating from the question whether the rise of an alien industrial civilization on an exoplanet might necessarily trigger climate changes similar to those we see during Earth’s own Anthropocene, they brought matters closer to home. “How do you know we’re the only time there’s been a civilization on our own planet?”
Their subsequent attempt to address both questions yielded a provocative paper on the possibility that Earth might have spawned more than one technological society during its 4.5-billion-year history. And if indeed some such culture arose on Earth in the murky depths of geologic time, how might scientists today discern signs of that incredible development? Or, as they put it in the paper: “If an industrial civilization had existed on Earth many millions of years prior to our own era, what traces would it have left and would they be detectable today?”
Is it really possible?
Schmidt and Frank acknowledge that paleontologists haven’t uncovered fossilized evidence of pre-human civilizations—but that’s the point. If a civilization thrived millions of years prior to us, its artifacts could have been destroyed. Geological processes such as tectonic plate subduction and glaciation could easily erase evidence of ancient urbanization.
A second argument asserts that if a terrestrial civilization before humans achieved technology comparable to our own, we would find it in space. A civilization with rocket technology might leave artifacts beyond Earth. To look for evidence of past intelligence on Earth, we might, ironically enough, look to other worlds.
Summary
The Silurian hypothesis is work written up in an entertaining paper. It explores an unusual idea that has the potential to change the way we think about humanity and places our impact in a broader perspective. It also provides a background for astrobiologists studying other planets.
Mars was once much wetter and warmer. If it ever hosted an industrial society, this paper maps out some of the signatures that might show up in the geological record there. Venus, too, was once more hospitable. Then there are the oceans of Europa and, ultimately, planets around other stars.
Nevertheless, our industrial civilization may be unique in the universe. But much more exciting is the possibility that it is just one of many, perhaps millions of others. Schmidt and Frank have set out some of the groundwork for finding them.
This video succinctly summarizes the scenario: https://youtu.be/WhTiyC5-88I
References and Further Reading
Read Next
EXCITING NEW RELEASE ‘THOSE ALIEN SKIES’
Exciting news for this month’s blog with the upcoming release of new book ‘Those Alien Skies’ on Amazon. This novel is a collection of three thrilling novellas where events take place after the happenings of the Milijun Series. They occur in different parts of our universe, but are linked by the principal characters that bless…
Continue Reading