Looking for thoughts to break a stalemate

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

why does earth have to be our home planet?

Because there's an awful lot of historical, archaeological and biological evidence you have to handwave away to make things be any other way.

[prophet224]

Yeah, prison planets and such are difficult because of all the evidence, plus the genetic similarity to other earth life.

That said, it's pretty easy to drop in an extra few thousand years of development in there somewhere.  When you are looking at a species lifetime of 150K years or so, missing 4-6k years near the end isn't that tough.  Also, since we don't know what finally sparked the BIG CHANGE (other than, perhaps, population density?) to where we as a species are now, it's reasonable to throw in that it actually happened a few thousand years earlier.  Suspension of disbelief is easier, too, if it's not just "we forgot about these aliens" but actually "A huge and powerful galactic society actively destroyed our earlier society and worked to hide it from us".   

At least I think it's easier...

[The Corvidian]

You could also take the tac that we were canon fodder for another race. They were wiped out, and the reminants of their cannon fodder, our ancestors, were imprisioned on earth.

[jaezon]

What happens to the historical records after becoming Earthbound again?  Were all records by that time kept electronically and therefore lost to the nanites?  Once we hit a certain point in technological advancement, we seem to skyrocket and you may not need as much time as you think.  I think our advancement is significantly exponential in this regards.

In the first book, at least; I could not stomach reading any further.

Sidenote: Finished all ten or whatever novels, and totally not worth the time I wasted.

[OZ]

Sidenote: Finished all ten or whatever novels, and totally not worth the time I wasted.

I liked the first few but I quit reading when I felt they bogged down. I don't mind a short series (trilogy) which is a novel in parts. Long series must have individual plots within each book that are tied up. One of the things I have liked about TDF, an overarcing plot for the whole series but individual plots that are tied up in each book.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

What happens to the historical records after becoming Earthbound again?  Were all records by that time kept electronically and therefore lost to the nanites?  Once we hit a certain point in technological advancement, we seem to skyrocket and you may not need as much time as you think.  I think our advancement is significantly exponential in this regards.

Sure, but the archaeological record isn't going to go away just because most records are on electronics; and you're not going to convince me the future has no sysadmins paranoid enough to make off-site hardcopy backups.

[prophet224]

So perhaps the question is: How much destruction and damage can a sufficiently advanced civilization do to another technological civilization who is basically at their mercy?

I think that there is a certain "critical mass" to technological societies that allows a pretty darn sharp growth... there doesn't need to be that much time.  Looking around, it seems that as long as you don't try to make it the focus of the story, the concept passes pretty well.  Look at Niven's "Known Space" universe.  Thanks all, I really appreciate all of this discussion!  It has helped!

Side note: Read a fair portion of the books and got fed up around about 6.