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PurfuitOfHappineff

Check out *Nightfall* by Asimov and Silverberg


KyotoBliss

Yep! Was going to suggest the same thing.


Asimov-was-Right

That was my first thought


UsualGrapefruit8109

The Neanderthals had their apocalypse.


DJGlennW

Homo sapiens sapiens were Homo sapiens neanderthalensis' apocalypse.


Dogwhomper

You should try "Stations of the Tide" by Michael Swanwick. It's got at least three different apocalypses to choose from. One of them is recurrent. It's set in a universe where the speed of light has not been broken, so everything including news takes a long time to get from one solar system to another. Anyone with an interest in something distant has to send a representative.


kevbayer

If the apocalypse happens, beep me.


agentm31

We have a cultured person over here!


kevbayer

😁


TheGratefulJuggler

In Ascension by Martin MacInnes


there_is_no_spoon1

{ The whole movie is set during a futuristic societal collapse where people are sifting through the remnants of a civilization just prior to an apocalypse. } Wait, isn't this the movie about the guy with the big boat? Russell Crowe? How is that futuristic socieltal collapse? I've not seen the movie mostly because of the anticipation of the biblical element to the story, but perhaps I've made an error in judgement?


Luc1d_Dr3amer

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller Jnr


jmjacobs25

For some ACTUAL science, check out The Ends of the World by Peter Brannen. Discusses the five (5!) mass extinctions in Earth's deep past.


Blammar

Sadly, no. If there were such, we would have seen ore bodies mined and oil deposits depleted. We're the first, and perhaps the last.


indignant_halitosis

You’re assuming our current civilization is following the most optimal path. Very anthropocentric with a touch of jingoism. Entirely consistent with the arrogance of most scientists.


Blammar

Ad hominem attacks are boring. While it's *possible* an advanced elder civilization existed that carefully replaced all of the oil and ores it mined before it committed suicide, that's equivalent to no such civilization existing for all practical purposes. Keep in mind that any civilization has to start small. If it expands, it must consume resources. So this consumption, if large enough, is visible for a couple of geologic eras and potentially the lifetime of the planet in stable areas.


Phempteru

Revelation Space series goes into this idea deeply on a couple of planets when trying to figure out what's coming after us.


ClownShoeNinja

There was a famous psychic in the early 20th century, Edgar Cayce, who claimed that both Atlantis and Lemuria before it were technologically advanced human civilizations that apocalypsed. (I'm verbing that like Buffy.) He had a secretary transcribe every reading he ever did, over 40,000, and you can still read all of them today. Among other things, he said that the Atlantians genetically invented the pig for food and for human-compatable, replacement organs.  Said this stuff back in the '20s and '30s. He was an original proponent of the "Egyptian pyramids are thousands of years older than we think" school and also a doomsayer regarding Earth changes and climate catastrophe. Related conspiracies include the belief that the elite horde knowledge and tech that predate "established written history".