One of the most interesting things that I have been reading about is the origins of humans and the fact that there seems to be an early form of writing that was used in many different parts of the world. As an example, Egyptian hieroglyphic writing has also been in South America, as well as Australia, all of which are a long ways apart. The aborigines of Australia don't use that kind of writing; so it had to have come from an earlier civilization, and for it to have been used in so many different parts of the world; it seems like there must have been some kind of a universal language at one time, for some past civilization. One theory is that the continents were all joined at one time, and some kind of cataclysmic event, such as a large asteroid hitting the earth, caused so much damage that the continents actually drifted apart. Earth is the only known planet to have tectonic plates, so it seems to make sense that the continents could have had a massive shift at some time in the distant past.
We also have the meso-American pyramids in Mexico and South America, attributed to the Mayans, Aztecs, and others, which are curiously similar to the Egyptian pyramids. Not wanting to change the subject, I think that this perhaps relates to similarities in language in these regions as well. I am thinking that in various climates that our earth has endured, there have been more than one land bridge, or means for people to have traveled from one place to another. There is also the fact that the American continent would fit nicely into the African continent if we were to push them (back) together, as you mention.
Another interesting thing is housing structures. The Navaho tribe built little roundish homes that they called "hogans". In Mongolia, they have a very similar home, and it is called a yurt. The Mongolians also have something that looks just like a teepee, and it is called a teepee, just like the Indians call it. Pyramids seem to be found all over the world, but some are not recognised as such. We have some here in the United States that are smaller, and they are simpply called "mounds". Whether they were built for the same purpose as the much larger pyramids, is hard to say; but we do know that they are from a much earlier civilization. Some of the videos on youtube show pictures that seem to look like modern day airplanes, helicopters, and even astronauts in spacesuits. These drawings and carvings are also found in many different parts of the world, and seem to point to the earth having been visited by people from some other planet in the far distant past. If so, they may have helped humans everywhere to learn a similar language and writing style .
There was a theory I read a long time ago which hypothesized the Chinese/Mongols crossed to the Americas and were possible predecessors of the native Americans. Originally we all came from Africa anyway - and migrated out due to climate changes. An interesting thing I found out once, that hominids as a species and earlier evolutions takes us back to a squirrel like creature that came from North America - so full circle. Another interesting thing is that hieroglyphs were not always the first written forms in a given civilization either. In Crete Linear A predates and completely overlaps Cretan Hieroglphs, linear B then came after. Linear A is still undeciphered. It has always been curious that no civilization seems to have existed before around 12000BC - but then by 10000BC we have several all starting together and in different parts off the world. This makes it likely that there were earlier decedent civilizations and perhaps a shared heritage - one common theory is that an single large civilization existed (all other settlements being simple villages and not coalescing into civilizations) that suddenly migrated in multiple direction - most likely as the result of a disaster/catastrophe - these became temporarily nomadic, and then resettled elsewhere and rekindled civilization using whatever was still remembered/passed down. Easy to see how this could account for what we see - and the fact that we find nothing earlier than cradle-of-history times.
Richard, I also think that there could easily have been multiple civilization over time on this earth. Since the earth is millions and millions of years old, and some of the ancient structures we have still on the earth seem to come from a time period when people were too primitive to know how to build them; then an earlier civilization seems to make sense. Some scientists have theorized that asteroids could have hit the earth at some time in the past, leaving the deep craters in places like the gulf of Mexico, and causing enough climate change that people didn't survive. The different early forms of writing are often similar enough to make it seem like early civilizations either all started from the same place and migrated elsewhere, or that at one time, everyone had the same language.
There is a disputed impact about 12,900 years ago (which would work very well with the theory of per-dawn-civilization). It was a theory, then it was rejected, but in 2012 it was resurrected after evidence across 3 continents shows evidence for it. The theory is it hit the Laurentide Ice Sheet north of the Great Lake and set fire to America (yes all of it above Mexico to the tip of Canada/Alaska). We have strange things that happened around that time which lend weight too - the end of the ice age is the usual reason given, but it is strange - for example something like 98% of large North American species became extinct in a short time period - include The so called Clovis culture (a disputed stone age people in NA). The fact that there has been little real evolution of man since cro magnon 43,000 years ago - and they were not much different intellectually (i.e. WE are not that much different intellectually) than Homonids as much as 100,000 years ago or so. We know hominids started settling from as much as 2 million years ago (Homo Erectus) lived i communities and used tools including fire and stone knives - and farmed. Yet between 2 million years ago and 10,000 nothing happens - then poof complex civilizations appear across the globe - 10,000 years later we have space ships! The chances of that happening independently at the same time is staggering.
It truly is amazing, and this is something that i have also been reading about . I have read some of Lloyd Pye, and a little bit of Zecharia Stichin about their theories of earth's history. I also started a subject about ancient earth and it is under the conspiracy and paranormal sub-forum. I realize that ancient history is neither one of these; but when I looked for where to start it, then that sub-forum mentioned Atlantis, so I thought it looked like the closest place to put it. If not, I am sure that Ken will find another place for us to talk about ancient earth and astronomy, and such things as that. I am excited to find someone else as interested in early humans and pre-humans as I am ! ! Looking forward to some interesting discussions coming up.
Yes - I am fascinated with it. Its so overtly obvious to me, it astounds me that academia refuse to pay it any mind regardless of the maths - unless they find a carving they can date or a scroll, then it didn't exist. Have you read Dyson's a Short History of Nearly Everything? (http://www.amazon.com/A-Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/076790818X) It's a good read - long though. At one point he is talking about the age of the Earth, rather about how old we thought it was at points in history. Did you know right up until WW1 scientist were still arguing that the Earth could only be at most 5 million years old - even when they had proof, with the discovery of Carbon Dating, to the opposite they still thought it was the maths and science that was wrong! I'll check out that thread - Atlantis is an interesting one. There are myths and legends around the world of lost civilizations - and we know through Krakatoa that islands can just disappear wholesale over night!
I had not heard of this book before(at least that I can recall), but I did look at the link you added, and then looked up Bill Bryson on Youtube. It looks like I can listen to the book there, and then buy it on Amazon if I want to own it. It really does seem to me that there is a good possibility that there is life on other planets. Why would God bother to create all of the galaxies and only put life on one tiny planet that is almost insignifigant ? Even if we leave God out of the question, and just presume that everything wound up being created some other way, then why would there be all kinds of living creatures on only one little speck of the universe ? I think that there is almost certainly life elsewhere; and also a good possibility that they have traveled here to our earth. Our Bible says that God exists in the heavens. The heavens ARE the stars of this universe. We are created in the very IMAGE of that God; so to me , it seems totally conceivable that we have been visited by beings from another planet, and that they helped develop us into what we are now. Here is a link to a short lecture by Bryson, for anyone else who wants to listen to him speak, and there are much longer lectures on Youtube, as well as the book mentioned by Richard.
A universal language if not stemming from dialect would be visual. Seeing that the color spectrum is universal and is relative and interchangeable with a variety of emoticons. As for dialects it would be difficult to learn a foreign or alien language if so is not done telepathically.
Our language is based on sound - this is not even always true on Earth (squid and octopuses can communicate in colour through skin pigment changes fore example - bees through the medium of dance ). If we ever did meet aliens from another world, it would likely be very difficult to find any middle ground. Juan mentions colour, which is interesting - but not all creatures on Earth see the same colour spectrum - flies cannot see red at all (lack the cones), some shrimp can see well into the UV and IR spectra, many animals can only see light and dark and no colour at all. Colours also express emotion based on what we see - aliens from another world would likely see things differently (maybe the gas in their air makes fire burn green or blue - so warmth would be related to those colours and so on). I think simply maths tells us that their must be alien races out there somewhere - problem is that first they would have to know we were here and then travel to find us. Either of these could take million or even billions of years and we may not still be here when they arrive (our solar system may have long since expired even!). We really do not have any concept of the distances involved between galaxies - even if we do know the numbers (it is just too far out of our ken).
I have downloaded Bill Bryson's books onto my MP3 and find them fascinating. The first one was In a Sunburned Country, about his experiences in Australia. And since I wonder at whole tribes walking thousands of miles away from villages of larger populations and settling elsewhere, only to have a continent break and drift so they couldn't get back, I wonder if that could have been a scenario worth considering...
That's an interesting thing to think about. I have heard about that theory but never put much thought into it. I think the idea of a universal language would be an incredible thing. So many barriers would be broken down simply due to the fact that everyone could understand each other. We could make connections with people easier and get more things done.
Very interesting subject. I have heard of, and read several different theories on this subjects. I have little to add as you seem to have covered the different theories so well. But, this subject reminds me of something I've wondered a lot about since I was a child. When I was about seven or eight, my German grandparents came to visit us in Texas for the summer. The family spent most of the days fishing on the family's two shrimp boats. Because of health reasons, I wasn't allowed to join in on those excursions. My grandmother was a small woman of 4'8", with a small frame, and she didn't speak any English, so she was elected to stay at home with me. Now here is my wonder. I didn't speak any German, so how did we communicate? We spent a whole summer together, and she taught me many things. Much of my ability in cooking comes from her, and she taught me fine hand stitching, as well as many other things. I know it didn't all come from visuals, we did a lot of laughing as well. Humour takes a degree of understanding. So how did we communicate? Sorry about getting off the topic, but the subject brings up an old wonder for me.
Ina, that is a very intriguing question, and one that leads to a lot of mental speculation. My guess would be that she maybe pantomimed a lot of things. When children are young, and don't understand a lot of words yet, many times we have to explain something by showing the child what we mean, or at least by using gestures. I remember doing that with my kids when they were little. "Look".....followed by some kind of visual description of what i wanted them to understand. Not speaking the same language would have made it harder; but if she was there for most of the summer, I bet you had learned at least a few German words enough to understand what your grandmother was telling you. Maybe she could also speak just enough English that she could say a few things that couldn't be shown. This is way over the wall; but i do think that we as humans have some innate abilities of mind-reading and mental communication, both with each other, and with animals. There have been many written examples of both types of mental communications happening, although they are mostly laughed off by the general multitude. What I have read about mental communication seems to be that it goes with pictures from one mind to another. I had a friend tell me that she stopped her dog from chasing deer that way. Out in the country, when a dog chases deer, the farmers just shoot the dog, no questions asked; and my friend's dog had started to develop this bad habit. She said she sat down with her dog, held him by the collar, looked into his eyes and first visualized the dog happily chasing a deer. Then she visualized a man with a rifle shooting the dog, and next, the dog laying there bleeding and dying from the gunshot. She told me her dog got all upset and was shaking, and he never chased another deer afterwards. Can we all do that ? I don't know; but I do think that it is at least a possibility.