Timeline for Plausibility of Materials Lasting Millions of Years
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
22 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 29, 2020 at 17:55 | vote | accept | Sam D. Jones | ||
| Sep 29, 2020 at 17:52 | comment | added | Sam D. Jones | I said any of those conditions apply, not all at once for the same thing. Some things will be buried, other things will not. I see no exclusion here. | |
| Sep 29, 2020 at 6:33 | answer | added | onb | timeline score: 2 | |
| Sep 28, 2020 at 21:35 | comment | added | cowlinator | You say that they must survive weathering, but then you also say that they can be buried. Those are somewhat mutually exclusive. | |
| Sep 24, 2020 at 17:01 | comment | added | Sam D. Jones | Earth as a location is a big one, so is Europa and Titan. Probably some stuff on the moon and asteroids. Debating Mars with myself. As for diamond, now that I think about it, it is a possibility. I should look into that more. I've heard mixed things about diamond in functions we currently use glass for, for example. | |
| Sep 24, 2020 at 15:52 | answer | added | Justin Thyme the Second | timeline score: 2 | |
| Sep 24, 2020 at 14:32 | comment | added | Justin Thyme the Second | Edit clarified question, vote to close retracted. | |
| Sep 24, 2020 at 5:38 | comment | added | Hypnosifl | Are you allowing for artifacts we might find elsewhere in the solar system, like on the Moon? Or is the question specifically about artifacts left on Earth, with whatever natural weathering that would entail? | |
| Sep 24, 2020 at 2:20 | history | edited | Sam D. Jones | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 557 characters in body
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| Sep 24, 2020 at 1:07 | comment | added | Justin Thyme the Second | Do you include cut diamonds as an engineered material? carnegiescience.edu/news/… | |
| Sep 23, 2020 at 23:58 | comment | added | Justin Thyme the Second | I think the question needs clarification. Have these artifacts been maintained? A sufficiently advanced civilization, if it remained continuous and functional, could conceiveably maintain something for millions of years, although it would have to be particularly valuable or particularly significant, so that the cost of replacement did not exceed the cost of upkeep. Are you aware the original axe used by Paul Bunyon is still used? The head has been replaced ten times, the handle twenty, but it is still the original axe. | |
| Sep 23, 2020 at 23:26 | review | Close votes | |||
| Sep 24, 2020 at 0:47 | |||||
| Sep 23, 2020 at 23:07 | comment | added | JBH | I voted to close as a duplicate because any solution to the former question intrinsically answers this one. Also, please note that one VTC reason is "needs focus" because you're only supposed to ask one question - I count at least 6. The question should be edited to focus on asking a single question rather than expressing what is essentially a train-of-thought dialog. Thanks. | |
| Sep 23, 2020 at 23:06 | comment | added | JBH | Does this answer your question? Could written documents last for 3 million years? | |
| Sep 22, 2020 at 19:27 | comment | added | Sam D. Jones | I can see aliens and even future humans making things to last for no other reason than to not do so is wasteful. | |
| Sep 22, 2020 at 18:55 | comment | added | Otkin | @GrumpyYoungMan Are you familiar with those aliens? How do you know that they are not followers of some religion that demands building structures that will last for several billion years? I can easily imagine an alien cult that builts sacrifices for the star gods to consume when they explode/turn into red giants. | |
| Sep 22, 2020 at 18:39 | comment | added | GrumpyYoungMan | Aliens, just like us, would build artifacts for specific purposes, none of which would include "last undamaged for 60+ million years". And it's vanishingly improbable that they accidentally chose specific materials to use that happened to have extreme longevity. | |
| Sep 22, 2020 at 10:29 | answer | added | Jann Poppinga | timeline score: 3 | |
| Sep 22, 2020 at 7:34 | answer | added | Salda007 | timeline score: 6 | |
| Sep 22, 2020 at 4:23 | comment | added | Seallussus | Maybe create half organic half elemental stuff with complicated biology that insures the it is constantly interacting with the environment and stabilizing the core structure. This seems pushing it as even suns die out. But if you have a sort of engineered biology that functions like a living thing with a strong "immunity system" and "intelligent" preservation mechanism then maybe. I mean atoms are always around doing something so maybe engineer stuff from there? | |
| Sep 22, 2020 at 4:15 | answer | added | DKNguyen | timeline score: -1 | |
| Sep 22, 2020 at 3:54 | history | asked | Sam D. Jones | CC BY-SA 4.0 |