[Marcov]

I'm curious about this statement from Bosch:

"32 years ago on the Altair system, Vasudan scientists discovered the remnants of an extinct civilization we now call the Ancients. And here we found the secret to defeating the Shivans. How close did we come to being a footnote in the history of a future species, that would happen upon our ruins 10,000 years from now. "

So, does this actually mean that the Ancients were a powerful empire that lasted for 10,000 years till the Shivans exterminated them?

[Solatar]

Says absolutely nothing about the length of time their empire existed.

All that statement says is that somebody (us) discovered their ruins 10,000 years later...

[Aardwolf]

Not even that. It speculates that if we had been annihilated, some other species might have come along 10,000 years later and discovered us.

[Marcov]

But didn't Bosch state that the Ancients were defeated 8,000 years ago? Not 10,000 years ago.

[Jeff Vader]

(Based on the assumption that Bosch actually knew this) The Ancients were defeated 8,000 years prior to the events of FS1.

The Ancients may have had a thriving empire 10,000 years prior to the events of FS1.

The Vasudans stumbled upon the ruins of that empire.

Right?

[Klaustrophobia]

it's all speculation.  really the only thing that can be known to a reasonable degree of accuracy is how long ago the Altair colony was destroyed. 

[Goober5000]

Aardwolf is correct.

"How close did we come to being a footnote in the history of a future species, that would happen upon our ruins 10,000 years from now. "

Bosch is saying that just as Terrans happened upon the ruins of the Ancients, so might have a future species happened upon the remains of the Terrans.

[Solatar]

Even if he's trying to draw a parallel with the Ancients (which I assume he is), it's just a poetic thing.  Honestly, 'Ten Thousand Years' has a nice, round ring to to it.

[Droid803]

8000 is close enough to 10000, since Bosch was being poetic, and yeah, he was referring to the Terrans/Vasudans found the ancient ruins after ~10k years and was wondering what another alien race would think of the Terrans/Vasudans if they come upon their ruins 10k years later.