We'll probably be extinct in few million years, but Queen Elizabeth will be there to tell our stories.

Joe: nothing today will be around in 10,000 years Twinkies: challenge accepted

There is evidence that there was once an extremely advanced civilization eons before us. It's covered in a documentary called Battlestar Galactica.

I think the idea of a future human civilisation discovering Mount Rushmore and how they'd interpret it is a fascinating one. Makes you think about whether we've misinterpreted discoveries of ancient civilisations or even just historical artefacts. Who's to say we got it all right? We probably haven't, we can only assume. It's an interesting idea.

This is my favorite definition: Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Margaret Mead’s summary: helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts.

Humans: build all their first cities on fertile floodplains that get wiped out in flash floods every few decades Also humans: "Why were our ancestors obsessed with floods?!"

Joe is way too addictive. I can’t watch in the mornings because I end up watching the whole day.

Could you do a video on the number of rivers around the world that have dried up? Even the Euphrates and the Mississippi Rivers have dried significantly. China has 66 majors rivers that have dried up. Shanghai, a massive city, is having power issues because of the lack of hydroelectric power levels dropping off. Kinda scary😬

Me: "Yay! It's time for some Answers" Joe: "Every thing is doomed to fail" Me: "Yay! Answers!"

I'm on board with this, as there was plenty of time to start and end. Consider: T-Rex is closer to us in time than it was to Stegosaurus.

I try to watch your channel whenever I can. Really enjoy this one. Thank you for taking the time to explain!!

There have been new studies recently that point towards a flood at around 12,000 BC, due to a meteorite hit in Greenland. I think they found the crate very recently. Maybe a good topic to touch on…

The age of elves has long since passed, only a few of us remain, and even then only in hidden places long forgotten. There is still Internet access though.

“Imagine the deep future, long after we’re long and forgotten and nobody even knows we were here” like damn 2100 isn’t even that long away

The problem with the Seuss effect is that the assumption is that the way we use/create energy is the same as civilizations of the past. There is so much technology that has been lost and we have no idea how certain things happened.

I'd like to see archaeological evidence from places currently underwater.

There's a probable reason why so many cultures have flood myths. Floods fall into a sort of Goldilocks zone when it comes to disasters. Unlike volcanoes and earthquakes, they are relatively common. They are more common than plagues (present situation notwithstanding) and they leave enough survivors to pass on tales to the next generation. Yet they cause enough hardship to leave significant trauma behind. Unlike fires, they cannot be fought or controlled too easily. To ancient people, floods must have been the most terrifying common disaster they'd encounter in their lifetimes. Let's not forget that their cosmologies were different from ours -- deep waters like seas were usually the limits of their world and smacked strongly of the unknown ("Here be monsters"). Enough people would have been familiar with floods for cultures to frame myths and stories around them. Not very different from how we have so many stories of nuclear armageddon in the 60s and 70s when the cold war was at its height and nuclear arms race rampant. For many cultures, floods must have been like their ultimate armageddon.

“And on the pedestal, these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.” Gotta love Shelley

I've been watching your videos for the last two days. I just subscribed. So much interesting material. Thanks.

Thank you, you have inspired a science curiosity in my I haven't felt since I was a child! Truly, thank you. I have officially started my blog. Here's to another year where we knew more than we did last year!

"Homo Erectus lasted nine times longer than us." Gotta admire men like that!

This is actually a great perspective to be aware of. As a side note I have always wondered if the tectonic plates would eventually (over enough time) have completely changed their original surface - meaning everything that was once on the earth would end up being recycled within it leaving no trace of what there was.

On your comments, regarding what would be found in the future. When you said Mt Rushmore, I was also thinking about the seed and oreo "vaults" that are claimed to be build into mountains. Generally speaking wouldn't other human structures built into stone or cave systems likely survive in some capacity? Albeit maybe weathered.

Wait a second?! No mention of gobekli tepe in this episode of all episodes 🧐

Since Mt. Rushmore will be the only thing left after 20k years, future civilizations will think of us as a stone age civilization

"It's not like I'm saying it's aliens or something..." No; you gotta have *the hairstyle* to talk about aliens.

I’d love to take a one semester history class from this guy.

This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers; Gnaws iron, bites steel; Grinds hard stones to meal; Slays king, ruins town, And beats high mountain down.

The interesting thing about the models discussed here is that they leave plenty of room for pre-industrial civilizations to rise and fall without trace.

"Imagine the deep future, long after we're all gone" So next Thursday?

and the crazy part is that mount rushmore has nothing to do with the REST of civilization, being from portugal i didnt know what mount rush was

Man im glad the youtube algorythm put this channel in my recommended today, i subscribed after watching the first video. Really interesting topics, a great way of explaining them and the cherry on top is this guy humor sense.

Millions of years from now, historians will say that the faces on mount rushmore were former hokages.

JMG had Jason Wright on Event Horizon last week and they discussed this same topic. My favorite takeaway from it was the idea that we could discover a prior technological species by recovering their derelict space probes just outside the solar system.

That first creature looks more like a Sleestak from the original "Land of the Lost" TV show than like a Silurian.

At 7:00 you mentioned the oldest tools found. I actually know the archaeologist who first spotted them on that dig! Could have been a different one but similar, but I think that's the very one. So amazing.

Some graffiti on the moon's surface would be the perfect "Idiots were here, and there, before you".

Consider the fact that Homo Erectus developed a stone tool, the triangular double-edged handaxe, which was a wonderful complex tool, great for all kinds of chopping tasks, and they made it the same way with no innovation, for 1M years. These are people who mastered fire, and left Africa to spread around the globe - never changed the design of the handaxe. To us it is astonishing that a fundamental technology could be static that long, but it was.

I think an update might be due, lots of new theories based on good evidence. Great videos Joe!

Great Channel! U da man brother! U know your stuff. Plus you just give us the facts supported by graphics. Plus Your delivery proves that you are well read and confident of your knowledge. Thanks bro! So cool.🙌💪👊

"All this has happened before, and all this will happen again"

I've always had issues with this huge assumption that progress is some sort of linear graph that heads upwards over time. What if it was a lot more "bumpy"? Good video, well explained and suitably caveated throughout! ...but it was Aliens right?

Absolutely entertaining and informative, got me hooked; thank you! I should of been subscribed..

i have enjoyed this videp much more than most and you have done so many entertaining and educational videos i love your channels.

"And the award for best transition to sponsor goes to...." 😂😂😂😂

Ah. . . the Lizard People episode. Finally.

Better than the whole series on Netflix. And way shorter. Great video man!

Joe, you are an amazing speaker!! You really draw your watchers in!!

"But....how could you know?" "I'm an archaeologist from the future. I dug you up."

Yes, Silurians existed. I saw it on the show, "Land of the Lost" when I was a child every Saturday morning. They couldn't and wouldn't lie to CHILDREN!

Bro, I see your Dune book in the background. I'm reading it right now, most amazing story I've ever found. I just started watching your channel a week ago. Coincidence?

I question whether Mount Rushmore would be the big key. The reason I say that is because of how long it takes for silicates, silicon, ceramics, and glasses to decompose. From what I can gather, it might take up to 2 million years for a modern CPU to decompose to a state which would leave it unidentifiable. Borosilicate glasses seem to be even more stable for the LONG HAUL. So...between a Pyrex measuring glass, pressed ceramic body armors, and PC components, I think this hypothetical future archaeologist might have a better idea of just how advanced we are than stonework. Plastics would be another key as mentioned, but much of their actual structure would have broken down within such a long time. Also...it also just seems like anything with silicon in its structure (short of silane) is pretty much guaranteed to last.

The Doctor once complained that the Silurians had, in fact, been named after the wrong era. They should have been called the Eocenes. Coincidence? Yes. Also, we’re one singing frog in a time capsule from proving today’s hypothesis. Call back!

I feel like we know 5% of human history.

Hey man, I wrote an article about this very subject. I notice you are using one of the exact same graphics as my blogger site too. Did you read my article? If so, I think that's cool. I enjoy your videos and it's a very interesting subject matter and I am happy to contribute to the discussion. But since so few people have read my article, it would make this quite neat for me!

You used on of my favorite words ever - jagoff! Love it!

As all things die eventually, it looks like the time has come for Joe's microphone. That constant hiss must be it's death knell!

Hunter gatherer: "I can't find any game or berries, I'll starve". Modern human: "I've only got three kinds of cheese in the fridge, I'll starve"

That ''isth-MUS'' bit got me dying, totally did not expect that lmao Honestly I'm so glad I recently discovered this channel

Your half-hearted joke at 2:45 was pure genius!

The ancient civilization in question are called The Voth and they're currently located in the Delta Quadrant. According to the Doctor on Star Trek Voyager.

"Rome wasn't built in a day, in fact it took hundreds of years to steal all those ideas from the greeks." -Joe This is my new favorite quote. I'm gonna use it forever now.

It is a common misconception that before agriculture the hunter-gatherers struggled from day-to-day to get food to survive. Game of all descriptions abounded, trees, bushes and plants covered the lands where these peoples dwelled, bearing fruits and nuts. Roots and tubers of every description grew under the earth. For most people it was a time of plenty interspersed with extreme natural disasters that wiped out whole tribes: volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, wildfires, meteor impacts, AND tribal warfare. This was the period when Gobekli Tepe was built by hunter-gatherers 11,000 years ago: no farming, no domesticated animals. Another historical booboo was the Roman time-line. The Roman Empire lasted 500 years but it was preceded by the Roman Republic, which lasted 500-700 years until Julius Caesar became Emperor. That was a continuous period of development and civilisation in which the GOVERNMENT changed halfway through. Interesting as it was, this video was a compilation of outdated, outmoded ideas and information with barely supportable speculation.

Just as you said, in 20,000 years all that would be left of us would be Mt Rushmore. Isn't that what we find with the Pyramids?

It could be that flood myths are so widespread because most advanced agricultural human civilizations formed near rivers, lakes, and seas as opposed to drier inland areas. Once you are close to shore, events like tsunamis or storms could really affect you, and then those small localized floods inspire myth and legend worldwide.

"Will he wonder what happened to us? Or will it be obvious?" We're maniacs. We blew it up.

For that 3 million year old tool, wouldn’t Carbon dating just tell us the rock was 3 million years old, not that it was made into a tool 3 million years ago?

The ancient Greek word we translate into "island" was also used for a peninsula or land that "stuck out" somewhat. The words Atlantis, Atlantic and Atlas have the same root. So the land of Atlantis was probably along the coast of present-day Morocco, west of Gibraltar, close to the Atlas mountains. That's what I think.

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without necessarily accepting it”. Harry Stottle.

I’m expecting Graham Hancock to kick his way through the wall and tear a hole in the shelves behind you at some point. If he doesn’t, I’ll be very upset.

To anyone vaguely interested in anthropology, I HIGHLY recommend the book Sapiens. You’ll look more sceptically at the statement “and you were born here! Look how lucky you are!” To put it shortly, we weren’t made for the way we made ourselves live. Prehistoric humans didn’t quite live in the hellscape we imagine, even if it was far less comfortable. We strive for convenience and comfort, thinking it brings us happiness. Things are more complicated than that. In fact, is brings us problems. Some we know of, some we never even think about. We also can’t go back on any inventions with negative consequences, and we’re advancing faster than we or the earth can adapt to. Also, crops domesticated us more than we domesticated them, even if it was our idea (hard to explain, that one). So basically, those people who first started doing agriculture, they opened Pandora’s Box, and we can never go back. Again, I recommend the book, especially if you think I’m going insane.

Shout out to the aboriginal folks in Australia, whose stories stretch back some 60,000 years (several of which have been scientifically confirmed through geology). Super cool to have a continuous oral tradition that old.

Your narrative structure is actually supreme. These videos feel just right. Congratulations. And thank you.

"The Seuss Effect" *The Cat in the Hat knows a lot about ending civilizations*

Oh, one potential origin that you might have missed for the Flood story: Sumarians. While it's VERY debatable, it's possible that they came up from what is now the Arab Gulf. Which, at the time, would have been a river valley and possibly a lush one. As the water rose through the valley driving people out, it could have sunk a lush and fertile place and sparked the origin of Gilgamesh's flood story. While it's unclear if that was far enough back to spread to all Human corners of the world, it could be a possible candidate for that and the Garden of Eden story. Note this isn't me saying those things existed in the way that theology does. But a fertile river valley that was lost forever does sound like, over many generations, it could become a story of a paradise on Earth that Humans were driven out of by an angry God or Gods. And losing all your civilization had, at the time, known, could seem like a global flood. If you've never encountered it, check out the Fall of Civilization's UKposts channel. While it isn't hard science, so don't take it as such, it is well researched and the author is good to distinguish between religion and history. The episode on the Sumerians was very interesting to me.

When I was a lot younger, I played Half-Life 2 for the first time and was just messing around in the starting level while listening to Dr. Breen give his whole speech about how humanity willingly subjugating themselves to their alien overlords was a good thing, and at one point he says: "Are all the accomplishments of humanity fated to be nothing more than a layer of broken plastic shards thinley strewn across a fossil bed, sandwiched between the Burgess shale and an eon's worth of mud?" The moment he said this line I got goosebumps, it always stuck with me because of its implications, it's a rhetorical question that we all know the answer to. The Earth will greatly outlive us and anything we have built will eventually be lost to time, and if something ever did uncover our remains, all they'd find is some plastic, our legacy for the ages.

“Most historians don’t believe Atlantis actually existed.” Space Shuttle Atlantis: :(

Hey is the thumbnail of those creatures from Land of the Lost?

@Joe Scott : Have you ever done any reading about the ' Dream Time ' stories of the native Australian people?

11,600 years ago, bout the time of the Younger-Dryas impact event... Just saying...

"Unlike you people, I have no illusion as to my usefulness in an actual apocalypse, and believe me, death holds no fear in a world without cappuccinos. No, the most I can hope for is to die in a pose that confuses future archaeologists." - Yahtzee Croshaw

Super interesting as always.

Look into Charles Hapgood's theories on crustal displacement and the research done by Mark Carlotto on ancient sites and pole alignments

A civilization could have gotten to the 18th century tech level without likely leaving evidence behind.

I loved that you broke down the time lines so well! Especially when you were talking about Plato! I knew he wrote it hundred of years later but not that far!

This video is a great example of how quickly our understanding can change. We now KNOW that civilization existed way before 5,000 years ago. At least $10k+

One of the pieces of evidence against this idea that you could point to would be that we had access to metals and oil near the surface of the earth. If we had to start from zero today, we’d have a much harder time finding resources to dig up.

Satellites that can remain in orbit for millenia: am i a joke to you?

I find it interesting that the end of the younger dryas event, when temperatures rose and glaciers started melting, happened about the time Atlantis is said to have been lost in a flood. I don't know that I buy into this theory (not my theory, I'm not that smart), but I do find it interesting.

Great video! But, how can we possibly assume that an ancient civilizations used fossil fuel? Is it that hard to believe that an ancient civilization, especially if they weren't human, could have discovered a completely different way to create energy?

You know what I cant unsee? Pharoahs being credited with the creation of engineering marvels that rival anything we could create, today, because they told someone to scratch their name into something they found. It is much like seeing a spray paint tag on the side of a building and assuming that the building belongs to the graffiti artist.

I actually subscribe to the notion that civilization is considerably longer than we presume and that there could have been prior advanced civilizations that were wiped out by geologic catastrophes like the comet hitting Greenland.

The Silurians in Doctor Who were so named because the human character who discovered them wrongly labelled the era he thought they lived in. The Doctor later reflects in a 1973 story that they should have been called "Eocenes" which is indeed the era of the thermal maximum. The Silurians show us a sculpture of their globe as having a Pangaea landmass and that hasn't existed for 175 million years. So god only knows when they're supposed to be from?! As a species the "Silurians" and their aquatic "Sea Devil" cousins were obsessively eco-conscious. They built their whole civilisation around a concept of harmony with nature. Their technology took on a grown, organic appearance, and they went out of their way not to damage the ecosystem. They were also big on using solar and geothermal energy sources. That would probably have worked to minimise their environmental footprint. However in real life it's almost inconceivable any intelligent civilisation could develop so cleanly. The Silurians were invented for a 1969 story of Doctor Who when the real world Earth Sciences were rather more primitive than they are today. The Silurians supposedly went into their hibernation chambers because they thought a wandering planetoid passing the Earth would severely disrupt the atmosphere. Instead that planetoid was captured into Earth orbit and became the Moon. Today that's a ludicrous tale, but in the 60s that was still a valid hypothesis for the origins of the Moon. It took the Apollo mission and the return of lunar samples to understand the shared origins of the Earth-Moon system. Despite the woeful mess of misunderstood science in the creation of the Silurians, what still bugs me most of all is that in newer Doctor Who stories, the reptilian Silurians are depicted as having boobs. What the actual &%£!? Someone clearly doesn't know what the word "mammal" means!!

One of my favorite episodes!❤

Why do you fail to mention gobekli Tepe which is a megolithic structure dated to be built 9 thousand years ago?

people: Joe yes we like you crazy Joe: LIZZZAAARDDD PEOOOPLLLEEEE

Joe Scott: "It's a tiny 13 mile gap" People who run half marathons: ಠ_ಠ

9:24 Were these flood stories related to the ice melt that happened at the end of the ice age? As a person who lives on land that was covered in ice 10 or so thousand years ago I am very interested in the dramatic global warming that happened to cause the ice to melt. When you are told that the ice was 2000 feet tall in New York at the highest point this is an amount that is difficult for me to comprehend. How much of the water on earth was in this ice? How low were the oceans compared to now?

16:50 You completely misrepresent thr kinetic isotope effect. Plants can and will use C13 and C14 based CO2 without any problems. C12 based CO2 simply reacts faster because it has slightly lower mass. It's purely a kinetic effect. Otherwise they are chemically identical and since the difference in reaction rates is tiny it doesn't dramatically effect the cells metabolism.

There's a cottage in my tiny wee village in Scotland that's older than the USA