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The article asks about detecting an industrial level civilization. But what about a former civilization which only rose to the level of the Roman Empire lets s

by 21 9y ago

The article asks about detecting an industrial level civilization. But what about a former civilization which only rose to the level of the Roman Empire lets say? Could we detect that?

newsbinator 9y ago
There may be a goldilocks period for detecting civilizations: Too early and they never industrialized at scale, so there's little to detect. Too late and they became a stage n civilisation and are now the substrate of our universe, so there's nothing to detect.
- aalleavitch 9y ago
  They Sublimed, Culture-universe style.
Theodores 9y ago
What about wicker? I imagine there to be a whole world of archaeology out there we miss because everything bio-degraded. If you navigated by river and set up a society based on fishing from the river then you might make everything out of wood, with wicker being the material of choice for seats and other furniture. Such a society could be very sophisticated, as per the people that lived in the Amazon before the white man diseases killed them all for the forest to return to apparently virgin rainforest by the time the white guys got there. So there is your scenario to detect, how would you look out for such a society that had no need for big stone structures? Rivers used to be clear and full of fish, able to service a river dwelling human culture for as long as there are fish. If farming happens the river is no longer clear or full of fish, so a recession of sorts hits rather than some big defining event.
cbHXBY1D 9y ago
Human historical record only goes back ~6,000 years but modern humans have existed for at least ~200,000 years. We don't have historic records of the stone age, but we do have lots of archaeological evidence. And what we have found are Paleolithic stone tools, temporary camps, and some permanent settlements around 12,000 years ago. Nothing close to anything resembling the Roman Empire.

by 21 9y ago

The article asks about detecting an industrial level civilization. But what about a former civilization which only rose to the level of the Roman Empire lets say? Could we detect that?

newsbinator 9y ago

There may be a goldilocks period for detecting civilizations: Too early and they never industrialized at scale, so there's little to detect. Too late and they became a stage n civilisation and are now the substrate of our universe, so there's nothing to detect.

aalleavitch 9y ago
They Sublimed, Culture-universe style.

Theodores 9y ago

What about wicker? I imagine there to be a whole world of archaeology out there we miss because everything bio-degraded. If you navigated by river and set up a society based on fishing from the river then you might make everything out of wood, with wicker being the material of choice for seats and other furniture. Such a society could be very sophisticated, as per the people that lived in the Amazon before the white man diseases killed them all for the forest to return to apparently virgin rainforest by the time the white guys got there. So there is your scenario to detect, how would you look out for such a society that had no need for big stone structures? Rivers used to be clear and full of fish, able to service a river dwelling human culture for as long as there are fish. If farming happens the river is no longer clear or full of fish, so a recession of sorts hits rather than some big defining event.

cbHXBY1D 9y ago

Human historical record only goes back ~6,000 years but modern humans have existed for at least ~200,000 years. We don't have historic records of the stone age, but we do have lots of archaeological evidence. And what we have found are Paleolithic stone tools, temporary camps, and some permanent settlements around 12,000 years ago. Nothing close to anything resembling the Roman Empire.