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[sq225917]

I have no truck with Brogan et Al. But the geological record don't lie. What came before, who knows, advanced brick layers would be my guess...

 

[Berwhale]

There is also the core premise of such a civilization needing advanced forms of energy beyond simple fire. The obvious answer is oil, but having worked in the oil industry, one thing that was notable about early reservoirs is they were a) initially plentiful, and b) they went FAST once oil's use became widespread. Even reservoirs that are of modest difficulty are being depleted like the ME that are now producing fairly large water cuts. There are still large reserves like the US shale oil and gas, but these did not become viable until fairly recently due to the difficulties in exploiting them. Here's an old operation in West Virginia. Its notable characteristic is there ain't much oil anymore: WV Endless Cable Pumping System

If Paul's thesis was correct, we would expect to see virtually no oil that's easy to get to. Certainly not springs of it welling up from the ground like we had in the 1800's. Much of it would have been depleted, like someone's pack of smokes discarded on the side of the road. And the timescales needed for new reserves to form are much longer, and the conditions may not even exist in the future for the formation of such reserves to be feasible.

Of course, knowing Paul he will invent something to make sure the narrative can be properly produced into short podcasts and the trilogy of books he wants.

I just happened across these books on Amazon (I didn't believe it was the same Paul McGowan at first). I was immediately reminded of The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It covers very similar ground in terms of technological advancement and eventually societal collapse (multiple times for the alien Moties in the book) and what would be left behind for subsequent civilizations to discover.

IIRC - Larry Niven came from a family with quite a bit of wealth from oil, so would have been familiar with the industry. I think a lack of oil deposits (or similar) is mentioned in the book (I could be wrong, it's been 40 years since I read it )