The problem with that theory is that it’s basically impossible to get to nuclear technology without going through an industrial revolution phase, and that’s basically impossible without a coal or oil level of energy source. So, in an old enough civilization (or, more specifically, a young enough planet not to have had a billion+ years of life to form oil and coal reserves), you’re not going to see nuclear technology.
The reason that we haven’t found them yet is because the ancient elders were smart and careful. They buried the Old Ones down deep, way deep, in out-of-the-way places where we wouldn’t accidentally dig them up and disturb their restless slumber.
Ankle deep is far enough. Best not to go further and risk disturbing what lies below. No need to dig boreholes that may incur the wrath of the mind worms.
If I were immortal, I’d invest some in buying up old landfills. Some years back when there was so much talk about peak oil and how we all needed to start recycling right away, it occurred to me how much plastic (and other stuff) we dump in landfills - those places will be like goldmines to future people.
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Octopuppies are weird.
Most highly intelligent species (e.g. parrots, crows, mynahs, humans) are fairly long-lived and hyper-social (e.g. mobbing behaviour). Brains take time to program, and the need to interact and compete with other hyper-intelligent critters is a powerful driver of cognitive evolution.
But Octopodes are an exception to this; they’re extremely short-lived and asocial. So why are they so smart?
Apparently, the marine biology research community is divided into two camps: scientists who study dolphins, and scientists who hate dolphins.
Dolphins are bastards. They’re the chimps of the sea.
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The sociality of octopodes may be changing. Just one more example of rapid evolution of all types during mass extinctions
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Shoggoths. You know it’s all going to end in shoggoths
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That’s one of my problems with the hypothesis. There isn’t any evidence of an ancient version of the Anthropecene.
I would think there would be some fossil evidence left and we would have found it by now.
Exactly, wait until global warming melts the Antarctic.
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I take this statement back. H.P. Lovecraft knew all along. Their fossil evidence is either at the bottom of the sea or buried under the ice in Antarctica.
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I wonder which species would be dominant now if the ancient Cephalopods had not gone extinct:
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As interesting as it would be, I really hope there were no previous global civilizations here on Earth. That’s for the same reason (though to a lesser extent) that I hope we never find extinct non-Earth-originating intelligent civilizations on any other body in the solar system. If we do find such, it means intelligent life can evolve pretty easily, at least on any planet with multicellular life at all, and then the Fermi paradox starts looking a lot more ominous, and I start thinking there’s a Great Filter still in our future, somewhere.
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Surpised so far that there is no mention of Harry Harrison’s “West of Eden” !
A fabulous book about the evolution of life after man becomes extinct.
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I wonder if, had they survived, reigning cephalopods would look like this:
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Rats are super-smart and social but have really short lives. If they lived longer they’d be awesome; except they evolved away from thumbs too. Unlucky guys.
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