In a few million years the pyramids will be weathered to less than hillocks; iron, even stainless steel, will oxidize to dust; micro-organisms will have eaten rubber and plastic; glass will have been smoothed to pebbles; little recognizable as an artifact will remain. For example not too long ago, it seems that a couple of Ford Truck sparkplugs from the 1920's were initially misidentified as "geoids". The earth's crust is very active, and the biosphere even more so.
-----Original Message----- >From: Bob Sullivan <rf.sulli...@gmail.com> >Sent: Jan 19, 2009 6:55 AM >To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List <pdml@pdml.net> >Subject: Re: PESO - attempt at B/W conversion > >Jostein, >Our garbage dumps will be a treasure trove for future records of our existance. >Regards, Bob S. > >On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 4:03 AM, AlunFoto <alunf...@gmail.com> wrote: >> While human bodies stand little chance of fossilising, many of our >> cultural artefacts do. Structures such as pyramids, concrete, cast >> iron, shipwrecks in mud, etc, etc. We started out pondering whether a >> civilisation could have existed before the emergence of humans. I >> would argue that any such civilisation would have been discovered by >> fossilised remains of their artefacts. It is of course possible to >> imagine an intelligent species not building anything to support their >> existence, but that defies the definition of civilisation, doesn't it. >> >> On an eerie sidenote, I suspect human civilisation's largest >> contribution to a future fossil record will be fossilised garbage... >> :-( >> >> Jostein >> >> 2009/1/19 Luiz Felipe <luiz.fel...@techmit.com.br>: >>> Peter, I saw "Stan" (a T-Rex fossil) at Disney's Animal Kingdom and the >>> folks at the exibition told me how few specimens existed. It's a very >>> difficult puzzle indeed. >>> >>> There are lots of unexplained artifacts from pre-historic ages that suggest >>> mankind did have a former civilization that vanished in some global >>> catastrophe, leaving scattered groups with tales of destruction by flood and >>> fire. We usually regard our achievements as important, but if mankind >>> disappeared the next tenants would have little to remember us. >>> >>> LF >>> >>> Peter Alling escreveu: >>>> >>>> On a serious note, most people don't realize how little of the fossil >>>> record actually exists. I think the entire T-Rex species is known from >>>> fewer than 100 individuals with only a half a dozen considered "nearly >>>> complete", representing several hundred thousand years of the species' >>>> existence. The amount of time that hominids an entire group of mammalian >>>> species have been on earth is less time than the existence of that one >>>> species of dinosaur was. If the same amount of time elapsed between the >>>> rise of a new intelligent creature and our demise, as between us and the >>>> dinosaurs, I doubt enough would exist of our works to show that we were >>>> tool >>>> users. In fact though there are an awful lot of us, I doubt there would be >>>> many surviving fossils, as most of us live in areas not conducive to fossil >>>> formation. >>>> >>>> -----Original Message----- >>>> >>>>> >>>>> From: AlunFoto <alunf...@gmail.com> >>>>> Sent: Jan 17, 2009 3:45 PM >>>>> To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List <pdml@pdml.net> >>>>> Subject: Re: PESO - attempt at B/W conversion >>>>> >>>>> 2009/1/17 Peter Alling <webste...@mindspring.com>: >>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> If birds are related to dinosaurs maybe they did. >>>>>> Not much would be left of our civilization after a few million years. >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> True enough. But since there are fossilised remains of early hominids >>>>> like Lucy, then one has to wonder how a previous civilisation of >>>>> another species could have come and gone without as much as a trace in >>>>> the fossil record. >>>>> >>>>> Unless, of course, the fossil record is a hoax planted by the previous >>>>> civilisation. >>>>> >>>>> No, wait! That doesn't hold with the fact that Noah's flood caused all >>>>> the fossils. >>>>> >>>>> <g, d & r> >>>>> Jostein >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> http://www.alunfoto.no/galleri/ >>>>> http://alunfoto.blogspot.com >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >>>>> PDML@pdml.net >>>>> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >>>>> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >>>>> follow the directions. >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >>>> PDML@pdml.net >>>> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >>>> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >>>> follow the directions. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> -- >>> Luiz Felipe >>> luiz.felipe at techmit.com.br >>> http://techmit.com.br/luizfelipe/ >>> >>> -- >>> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >>> PDML@pdml.net >>> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >>> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >>> follow the directions. >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> http://www.alunfoto.no/galleri/ >> http://alunfoto.blogspot.com >> >> -- >> PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> PDML@pdml.net >> http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >> to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and >> follow the directions. >> > >-- >PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List >PDML@pdml.net >http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net >to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow >the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
