# SF about a future Earth species discovering our civilization? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 24, 2011, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317 "2011-12-24T23:35:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/1 "2011-12-24T23:35:22Z")
Just curious if anyone has written anything like this. We humans eventually kill ourselves (in any of the usual ways), but leave all sorts of artifacts interesting and mundane laying around (ranging from landfills to various spacecraft, such as the Apollo equipment). Fast forward 200 million years or so, and intelligent elephants/weasels/birds or something evolves a technological civilization which eventually discovers all these artifacts, and has to come to terms with our reasons for failure such as to learn from them, perhaps also including religious angst because there was another “chosen” species long ago. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/2 "2011-12-24T23:48:13Z")
Arthur C. Clarke touched on this theme in four different stories, including [History Lesson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_Lesson_(short_story)). ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/3 "2011-12-24T23:52:34Z")
Well, it doesn’t take millions of years but Andre Norton’s _Breed to Come_ involves the mutated sentient descendants of several animal species living among the ruins of human civilization. And the future Men of Olaf Stapledon’s _Last and First Men_ may count; they may sort of be descended from humans but they aren’t human themselves. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2011, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/4 "2011-12-24T23:53:32Z")
_PLanet of the Apes._ No? ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/5 "2011-12-25T00:34:05Z")
I can think of a couple of time travel novels. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells? The Eloi and Morlocks were future Earth species. A World Out of Time by Larry Niven set three million years in the future. Both of these depict future human evolved species and are probably not what you’re looking for. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/6 "2011-12-25T00:39:55Z")
“Bones of the Earth” by Michael Swanwick ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/7 "2011-12-25T00:52:27Z")
Orson Scott Card’s _Children of Earth_ series is about humans from a distant colony returning to Earth millenia after the native humans had wiped themselves out. The planet is now inhabited by two different native intelligent species, neither descended from the original human inhabitants. I can’t for the life of me remember what the two species were, or how much they remembered about human civilization, because by that point in the series, the books had turned to utter crap. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/8 "2011-12-25T01:25:02Z")
Which is the story about someone finding a Mickey Mouse watch . . . and drawing all sorts of conclusions about us from it? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/9 "2011-12-25T01:31:42Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Which is the story about someone finding a Mickey Mouse watch . . . and drawing all sorts of conclusions about us from it? “History Lesson” mentioned above is about finding a Disney cartoon ([History Lesson - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_Lesson_%28short_story%29)) - not quite the same, but possibly what you’re thinking of ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/10 "2011-12-25T01:34:01Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Which is the story about someone finding a Mickey Mouse watch . . . and drawing all sorts of conclusions about us from it? History Lesson, mentioned above, and it was a Disney film reel. There was _ **The Stone God Awakes** _ by Philip Jose Farmer. A twentieth-century scientist is accidently put into stasis by a time-freezing ray, and it finally wears off twenty million years later. The Earth’s ecology is dominated by a continent-spanning intelligent tree, which hosts multiple sentient species descended from various mammals. Butagain not quite what you’re looking for, a story about a species discovering they weren’t the first intelligent life forms on Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/11 "2011-12-25T02:22:53Z")
Clifford D. Simak’s _City_: > **[City (novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_(novel))** > > City is a 1952 science fiction fix-up novel by American writer Clifford D. Simak. The original version consists of eight linked short stories, all originally published in Astounding Science Fiction under the editorship of John W. Campbell between 1944 and 1951, along with brief "notes" on each of the stories. These notes were specially written for the book, and serve as a bridging story of their own. The book was reprinted as ACE #D-283 in 1958, cover illustration by Ed Valigursky. > Simak publi... ---
**Author:** ![UFC\_Is\_Sux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/46a35a/32.png) [@UFC\_Is\_Sux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UFC_Is_Sux)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/12 "2011-12-25T03:51:54Z")
The last episode of 70s-era _Battlestar Galactica_ dealt with this in a way. Apollo and Starbuck intercept a transmission showing the _Eagle_ approaching Earth’s Moon, but never quite manage to identify the originating point of the broadcast. ---
**Author:** ![audit1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@audit1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/audit1)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/13 "2011-12-25T04:31:07Z")
There is a nice little book by David Macauly called MOTEL OF THE MYSTERIES dealing with what future archeologists discover in the Toot and Come’ On Motel. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/14 "2011-12-25T05:02:55Z")
> [@audit1](#): > > There is a nice little book by David Macauly called MOTEL OF THE MYSTERIES dealing with what future archeologists discover in the Toot and Come’ On Motel. Oh, I have that book! It’s hilarious.😛 When the first room is opened and the discoverer is asked if he sees anything he replies “Wonderful things!” Which is exactly what Howard Carter said of the stuff he saw in Tut’s tomb. And the picture of the woman wearing the “sacred artifacts” is a parody of a photo of Heinrich Schlieman’s wife, when she wore the jewelry taken from the site of Troy. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/15 "2011-12-25T05:59:15Z")
> [@UFC\_Is\_Sux](#): > > The last episode of 70s-era _Battlestar Galactica_ dealt with this in a way. Apollo and Starbuck intercept a transmission showing the _Eagle_ approaching Earth’s Moon, but never quite manage to identify the originating point of the broadcast. And the modern Battlestar Galactica had the group discovering Earth, but it was barren–having been devastated by, presumably, the wars of the long-dead humans. Except… PSYCH! That wasn’t really \*our \*Earth, it just looked a lot like our Earth. :smack: Then in the finale they finally do find our Earth, but it’s not our future it’s our past! And that character over there? She’s actually an angel, and so are he and she over there, and… just don’t think too hard about any of it. > [@Miller](#): > > Orson Scott Card’s _Children of Earth_ series is about humans from a distant colony returning to Earth millenia after the native humans had wiped themselves out. The planet is now inhabited by two different native intelligent species, neither descended from the original human inhabitants. > > I can’t for the life of me remember what the two species were, or how much they remembered about human civilization, because by that point in the series, the books had turned to utter crap. - The Homecoming Saga\*, it’s called. IIRC, one of the species is bat-like, having the ability to fly. The other is rat-like, living underground. And, yeah, that series really went south after a promising beginning. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/16 "2011-12-25T06:34:10Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > - > > The Homecoming Saga\*, it’s called. IIRC, one of the species is bat-like, having the ability to fly. The other is rat-like, living underground. And, yeah, that series really went south after a promising beginning. Right. :smack: How I confused an Orson Scott Card series with _Torchwood_, I’ll never know. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/17 "2011-12-25T06:59:00Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Clifford D. Simak’s _City_: > > [City (novel) - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_(novel)) Awesome book! One of my favorites. Hmmmm that reminds me I don’t have a hardcover copy of this. I’ll have to rectify that. ETA: Ddamn! I love the intarwebz! Took me all of 30 seconds to find a very good 1952 hardcover at a reasonable price! ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/18 "2011-12-25T07:38:01Z")
the movie AI - where our artifacts come back to study our artifacts. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/19 "2011-12-25T07:49:20Z")
The Apocolypse Troll, by David Weber sounds like it might fit the mark. Declan ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sf-about-a-future-earth-species-discovering-our-civilization/607317/20 "2011-12-25T14:35:02Z")
Ay plegli ianectu flaggen, tupep like for stahn… Star Trek took shots at this in various episodes -