Imagine if we had destroyed the world during the cold war

[Lancer]

Space aliens come along and look at the trashed planet, what they would think of us. How stupid can a species get? Well check out THIS planet...

Survivors living in the rubble wondering what the hell happened. Eventually after a few thousand of years mankind would have recovered somewhat, what would be the history they would write of the generation that destroyed civilization?

Still, we don't have to nuke civilzation, the loss of the world's coastal cities will get them wondering why we didn't drasticly reduce greenhouse gasses. I think they won't treat us very well in the history books.

[Aeson]

Perhaps we are actually overachievers though...

"Wow! Look what these puny humans were able to accomplish without telepathic powers! I can't even make myself coffee without telepathy!"

[Nugog]

Originally posted by Aeson
"Wow! Look what these puny humans were able to accomplish without telepathic powers! I can't even make myself coffee without telepathy!"

[Shrapnel12]

Hey, maybe we're just the latest in a trend. Maybe that's why we haven't even heard from any aliens. They've already destroyed themselves.

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by Shrapnel12
Hey, maybe we're just the latest in a trend. Maybe that's why we haven't even heard from any aliens. They've already destroyed themselves.

You actually just touched on one of the major "theories" regarding extraterrestrial intelligent life.

[Dauphin]

It would be interesting to be able to see the end of the proverbial tape should the human species become extinct and a completely different species developed on Earth afterwards that could understand what and who we were.

Forget aliens, how different would our lives be on a psychological level if we found evidence of a now extinct species from 10 or 20 or 65 etc million years ago that had a comparable level of technological sophistication to our own.

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by Dauphin
Forget aliens, how different would our lives be on a psychological level if we found evidence of a now extinct species from 10 or 20 or 65 etc million years ago that had a comparable level of technological sophistication to our own.

I think most people would go, "Oh, that's pretty cool," before taking another bite our of their sandwich and moving on to the next article.

[Dauphin]

I think it could be used for far better leverage in religious, political and scientific discussions.

e.g. Religious: Man was not God's first sentient creation as we were taught.
e.g Political: The species was technologically advanced and they destroyed themselves. Stop it with the bombs and the wars and the all things nasty.
e.g Scientific: They could not save themselves, that is why we must develop space and diversify our living locations.

[Lorizael]

e.g Political: The species was technologically advanced and they destroyed themselves. Stop it with the bombs and the wars and the all things nasty.
e.g Scientific: They could not save themselves, that is why we must develop space and diversify our living locations.

This stuff is just more propaganda.

e.g. Religious: Man was not God's first sentient creation as we were taught.

This would change a lot of people's beliefs, I think.

Edit: Though I'm sure many would be skeptical for a long time. Because clearly, the remnants of the ancient civilization were put there by the devil to tempt you in to abandoning your faith, etc.

[BeBMan]

Originally posted by Lorizael


This stuff is just more propaganda.

Well, the "was technologically advanced and destroyed themselves" thing is not an unknown topic in scifi.

[MikeH]

Imagine if I'd eaten all my curry last night and hadn't had any left over for lunch!

[Shrapnel12]

[QUOTE]You actually just touched on one of the major "theories" regarding extraterrestrial intelligent life.[QUOTE] Story of my life. Coming up with interesting ideas after somebody else already did.

[QUOTE]e.g. Religious: Man was not God's first sentient creation as we were taught.[QUOTE]

That could throw a monkey wrench into the works of a lot of people's thinking, not just religious. The evolution theorists would have a fun time explaining this race and we'd have to see if there is a link between this first species and us. Religious people might not have that hard of a time as you think explaining it away though. People would probably say this is merely the first tribes of man, that Adam is probably from this race. Maybe claim these are the people who didn't survive the flood. "oh ya, we've know about these people all along. It's in the Bible ya know. You scientists can't teach us anything new." Of course this is assuming the previous species looks anything remotely like us. It'd be a bit tougher if they are like lizard people or blobs.

[QUOTE]It would be interesting to be able to see the end of the proverbial tape should the human species become extinct and a completely different species developed on Earth afterwards that could understand what and who we were.[QUOTE]

Have you seen that show on the Discovery channel? Can't remember the name but its about how they think evolution will progress into the future. Man is extinct and a new intelligent species does evolve ... from the octopus.

[Lorizael]

Originally posted by Shrapnel12
Story of my life. Coming up with interesting ideas after somebody else already did.

This happens to me, too. My theory is that time travelers from the future take my famous ideas, travel into the past, and give those ideas to other people before I come up with them in order to make sure I never become famous. I'm still working out the why on this, though...

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Shrapnel12
People would probably say this is merely the first tribes of man, that Adam is probably from this race. Maybe claim these are the people who didn't survive the flood. "oh ya, we've know about these people all along. It's in the Bible ya know. You scientists can't teach us anything new." Of course this is assuming the previous species looks anything remotely like us. It'd be a bit tougher if they are like lizard people or blobs.

Well, it is a well known fact that j00s are lizard people.

[Patroklos]

You can tell by the scales and beady eyes