[petters]

My favorite weird theory is the "Siluran hypothesis," which states that our industrial revolution was not the first. There are some events in sediment that look like what our industrial revolution will look like. (many millions of years ago, so yes, reptiles)

[watersb]

Yes.

Trying to grasp a time span of one million years feels impossible, in the context of development of culture and technology.

It seems quite unlikely to me that we are the first such development on this rock.

[metalliqaz]

Seems likely to me that we are, given the age of the oldest fossils.