Sentient Life on Earth.

Ok I'm in a particularly nerdy mood today so here's a thread for it. My question is are we the first form of sentient life on earth? Were there others before us? Are there others now? Will there be others in the future? Those are the questions that I've had in my head today. I mean lets look at the history of life on earth. Life has existed on earth since it cooled sufficiently 3 billion years ago. That's a very long history of life. Heck lets go back to before the Permian extinction. Heck lets go to the start of the age. 300 million years ago. A wide array of complex life. From then till now we only know of ourselves as the sole sentient race to ever inhabit earth. But lets look at how long it took us to evolve. The better part of Two million years. A blink of the eye compared to hundreds of millions. So I think it stands to reason that there might very well have been several sentient species with civilization on earth before us over time. When you think about enough time would completely erase all evidence of there existence. Scientist say that if we died out tomorrow it would only take a 100 thousand years before there wasn't anything recognizable from our civilization save for maybe mount Rushmore and only then because it's carved out of the face of a mountain made out of the some good limestone.

Anyway those are my thoughts on it. What do you guys think?

Well, I assume by sentient you mean sapient, right? Sentience only really refers to awareness of self and others, while Sapience usually refers to the ability to form culture (Like Homo Sapiens) However, if anyone tells you sentience is the ability to feel pain, thats BS, its awareness Stupid PETA...not all animals are sentient anyways, only really the more social ones with larger brain mass. In fact, some animals *like dolphins, wolves and elephants* come damn close to being sapient, if only they had opposable thumbs, the ability to build lasting culture, or create language (different from communication). They show proto-cultural behavior, sadly not cultural...yet...

Anyways, I honestly think we probably are the first Sapient species on this planet. I know evidence can be erased, but the way things point out, we were the first to make any civilization.

Yeah I meant Sapience. Sorry for the screw up. Hehe.

I don't believe so because in the past there were advanced cultures that got mysteriously wiped out before, why shouldn't there have been a different species before us that got wiped out as well? Who knows, we could have, in the past, been transformed by some past culture in a science experiment and survived while they got destroyed somehow.

Well I'm a hard core creationist and even wrote an essay about it for a college class explaining the evidence and the small yet crucial diffrence between adaptation and evolution. I actualy plan on posting it on FA someday.

So to put it simply, no, I don't. *shrug*

deltagumon wrote:

Well I'm a hard core creationist and even wrote an essay about it for a college class explaining the evidence and the small yet crucial diffrence between adaptation and evolution. I actualy plan on posting it on FA someday.

So to put it simply, no, I don't. *shrug*

Wow...creationist? I would have some VERY strong words against you my friend, but since you are a fellow babyfur I will spare the insults and simply accept what ypu have to say. Ask any friend of mine, I am the nicest person they met, so I will refrain from causing conflict

Incontinent Wolfhound wrote:

Wow...creationist? I would have some VERY strong words against you my friend, but since you are a fellow babyfur I will spare the insults and simply accept what ypu have to say. Ask any friend of mine, I am the nicest person they met, so I will refrain from causing conflict

Welp thats why I want to get a good sampling of my art out before I go watch and faveing on my FA account. Thanks for being so nice. *snuggles his friend opposing views and all*

Ah. Well I'm a Christian yet a firm believer in evolution. But hey everyone has there own beliefs. So to each there own. ^^ Somehow I get the feeling god laughs just a little bit at the humor of people squabbling about little stuff like that. hehe.

Lets see, where to start... I believe in BOTH creationism and evolution to start off (strange, I know.) But not only the Christian theory, I believe in all religions (predominately Christianity an Buddhism) that preach love, non-violence, and what-not... But thats beside the point!

On to the topic at hand: Are we the first?

I would have to say that more than likely we are. Even though life is billions of years old, for most of that time is was nothing more than stromatolites an cnidarians, and in later years (post-cambrian explosion) any sapient life would have to have terminated before being as old as the human race. For this, I have to point out the construction in Dubai. Currently, three palm Islands, 'world' islands, and waterfront are being constructed. It will be the largest manmade construction once completed. Holland has already made plans to construct a tulip-shaped island on their coastline. So... If another intelligent race were to arose on earth, then it would have more than likely been younger than humanity before it went extinct. Not saying that intelligent life couldn't have existed, but it probably didn't.

In the words of my biology teach "If it happened once, whose to say it couldn't of happened twice."

Incontinent Wolfhound wrote:

Well, I assume by sentient you mean sapient, right? Sentience only really refers to awareness of self and others, while Sapience usually refers to the ability to form culture (Like Homo Sapiens) However, if anyone tells you sentience is the ability to feel pain, thats BS, its awareness Stupid PETA...not all animals are sentient anyways, only really the more social ones with larger brain mass. In fact, some animals *like dolphins, wolves and elephants* come damn close to being sapient, if only they had opposable thumbs, the ability to build lasting culture, or create language (different from communication). They show proto-cultural behavior, sadly not cultural...yet...

Anyways, I honestly think we probably are the first Sapient species on this planet. I know evidence can be erased, but the way things point out, we were the first to make any civilization.

I don't think the definition for sapience requires a lasting culture or opposable thumbs; that seems a tad anthropocentric. I can cite the fact that a lot of human cultures were nomadic and thus didn't have the 'permanent' cultures that your infering. Dolphins have evidence of language and differing cultures; for instance their hunting tactics show variety from place to place. They have been known to surf and play with bubbles and such, and I've even heard that they name themselves. They have learned to use tools as well, though they lack in opposable appendages.

In addition, other animals have shown humanlike capabilities, like the ability to medicate themselves. To get rid of worms, for instance, apes ingest folded leaves that trap the parasites inside. Pikas, a relative of the rabbit, will farm and dry grass in the summer and store it for the winter.

Then there is also the mirror test; an animal has dye applied and is placed in front of a mirror, and their reaction is judged. If it is not the same as though they were approaching another animal, then it is cited as evidence of self awareness. Only 18 animals have passed the test; dolphins, killer whales, magpies, asian elephants, and all of the great apes. But this test's validity has been argued.

Then there is also the fact that there have been billions of species on this planet; out of them I find it hard to believe we are the only ones self aware.