An ancient civilization engineered the galaxy on a massive scale (building megastructures, seeding life) and disappeared, leaving artifacts that current civilizations fight over without understanding their purpose.
Models the Fermi paradox through inheritance: what if our galaxy was designed by predecessor civilizations? Relevant to SETI artifact searches and the risks of using technology you don't understand.
Domains: Space Exploration and ColonizationExistential Risk and Civilizational CollapseGovernance and Political Systems
Scenario Types: Thought experiment / What-if
Outcomes: Ambiguous / MixedCautionary
Tags: ancient-engineersgalactic-megastructurepredecessor-civilization