Silurian Hypothesis- Were we the first industrial species on Earth?

Video Credit- Silurian Hypothesis, PBS Space Time, YouTube

Are humans the first industrial species to inhabit Earth? Have you ever considered that we could have followed a species of creature that inhabited the Earth millions or billions of years ago? This has kept me up at night, and I'm glad to say I feel confident we are the first industrial species on Earth. The evidence points to this, and has been pondered using the Silurian Hypothesis.

The Silurian Hypothesis is a method of detecting prior civilizations of industrial species that have existed prior to human evolution. It is unlikely we can easily locate evidence of ancient civilizations due to the decay of physical evidence and recycling of the surface of the Earth via subduction. While we may not have fossil or structural evidence, other factors can show an industrial species existed on Earth.

We can and do study ice layers on the Arctic and can sample rock layers that are billions of years old and exposed at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. We can also study natural resource prevalence and fossils that exist in regions of the Earth with low surface turnover such as Australia and Greenland. Such studies have not yielded any results suggesting ancient civilizations that had industrial bases similar to us.

Our human civilization record will be erased in full one day. Subduction of the Earth's surface, natural weathering and other processes such as asteroid strikes will reduce our existence to nothing. This is both freeing and terrifying.