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> It is often thought that humanity will leave no trace of its existence for the next civilization that will come, say, 20 million years We have pretty good Tr
by airesQ 10y ago
> It is often thought that humanity will leave no trace of its existence for the next civilization that will come, say, 20 million years
We have pretty good Trilobite fossils from 400+ million years ago. Why would they leave a trace and humanity not? (given all the stuff we produce: cities, cars, etc.)
- sp332 10y agoThere were a lot more trilobites than there are humans. And they lived in places more conducive to fossil formation.
- exclusiv 10y agoPerhaps but humans document everything - even the stupid stuff.
- DashRattlesnake 10y agoMany human artifacts don't need to be fossilized and could be preserved for millions of years (e.g. a gold ring, a stone bracelet, concrete). Also humans deliberately bury their dead (and lots of other stuff), which in some cases might help with fossilization and preservation. If humanity were wiped out tomorrow, I think it would leave plenty of traces that could be found and understood in millions of years by a later civilization with paleontologists are as active as ours. It's just that those traces would be relatively small and/or buried, like human fossils with jewelry and caissons (with geometric iron oxide deposits from the rebar!) from the foundations of large buildings. No monuments or cities, but enough to indicate that we were here and had technology.
- roywiggins 10y agoThey'll certainly notice our CO2 contribution to the atmosphere if there are any ice cores left to sample. Also probably all the plastic in the oceans, until something evolves that eats it all.