# If we weren’t the first industrial civilization on Earth, would we ever know?

https://blog.cynexia.com/if-we-werent-the-first-industrial-civilization-on-earth-would-we-ever-know

Author: [Rob Aleck](https://blog.cynexia.com/pages/about) · https://github.com/mnbf9rca · https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertaleck/ · https://family-foqos.app/

Published: 2018-04-20
Categories: LinkedIn cross-post


A fascinating insight - what traces would be left of a civilisation which died out 4 million years ago? Certainly nothing on the surface (the oldest is only 1.8m years), and fossils are incredibly rare (only a few thousand dinosaur fossils exist despite their 180m year existence) - but what about chemical traces? [https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610886/if-we-werent-the-first-industrial-civilization-on-earth-would-we-ever-know](<https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610886/if-we-werent-the-first-industrial-civilization-on-earth-would-we-ever-know>)[https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610886/if-we-werent-the-first-industrial-civilization-on-earth-would-we-ever-know/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=technology_review&utm_source=facebook.com](<https://www.technologyreview.com/2018/04/20/143758/if-we-werent-the-first-industrial-civilization-on-earth-would-we-ever-know/>)Fossils and objects are unlikely to survive more than a few million years. Searching for chemical traces of industrialization offers an intriguing alternative.