There is
a show on the History Channel called Ancient Aliens. The show premiered on April 20, 2010. The show, while criticized for promoting pseudo-science and pseudo-history, is in it's fifth season. Apparently there is a following.
I never watched the show but my sister Nancy is a avid fan and viewer. Nancy has always been interested in the paranormal, the interpretation of dreams, the spirit world, and life beyond our planet.
Having spent the last two Friday evenings with Nancy, I had the chance to watch the show and, during the commercials, get her commentary and views on the subject covered in that weeks show and as well as the whole concept of aliens having visited this planet and helping us to either build perfect building, astronomically aligned, and on scopes and scales that seem out of place for when they were built. Think pyramids and the like.
I gave her my standard skeptics arguments regarding the creation of such structures. First, labor was plentiful and cheap in ancient times and even more so if slavery was involved and it often was. With an army of cheap labor, there is no limit to what can be done with even the crudest tools.
As for the alignment of the structures with perigees and equinoxes and other astronomic pivot points of the year, the answer to me was equally simple. They had no TV, internet, phonographs, tapes, CDs, iThese, iThose, or even crystal radios. They did have one thing: a total lack of ambient light at night. Thus there was nothing to mute the stars. And there are lots and lots of stars visible in such circumstances. The curious and clever would watch them before falling asleep and no doubt noted their motion and patterns over the years. The motions and patterns were noted with the changing seasons and passed down as lore. There is no surprise to me that Egyptian and Aztec pyramids and other edifices including Armenian churches are aligned to mark or take advantage of significant astronomic events.
So, there is no surprise that in ancient times there were these grand human creations built on slave labor and taking advantage of the geometry and engineering that was available in the great empires of the day. It is not like there are hundreds and thousands of these ancient edifices. There much fewer as compared to our modern skyscrapers and other magnificent architectural gems that are all about us these days.
Something else struck me while watching this show. I understand how aliens might have come and gone back in the day. They would reveal themselves to a select few and disappear. They might kidnap some of us for tests while giving advanced technology to others. They had their reasons. But, today, with the vast array of electric gizmos and gadgets all connected to the internet, why aren't they sending us emails, broadcasting their own commercials during the Super Bowl, rigging elections, and such. They are, after all, advanced beings and have been ahead of us for ages. Why not just take over every channel on the planet, every radio station, send everyone a tweet and an email, post on everyone's Facebook, and do it all simultaneously in every language on the planet.
What would they tell us? Whatever they want. I guess that would depend on if they were benevolent and helpful or mean and nasty intelligent life forms.
If they exist they could do this. Any explanation of why they wouldn't or have not? Perhaps aliens extremely introverted and thus very shy. You would think years of watching Dr. Phil would have helped them.
Well... this is my humble contribution to this pseudo-science.
I never watched the show but my sister Nancy is a avid fan and viewer. Nancy has always been interested in the paranormal, the interpretation of dreams, the spirit world, and life beyond our planet.
Having spent the last two Friday evenings with Nancy, I had the chance to watch the show and, during the commercials, get her commentary and views on the subject covered in that weeks show and as well as the whole concept of aliens having visited this planet and helping us to either build perfect building, astronomically aligned, and on scopes and scales that seem out of place for when they were built. Think pyramids and the like.
I gave her my standard skeptics arguments regarding the creation of such structures. First, labor was plentiful and cheap in ancient times and even more so if slavery was involved and it often was. With an army of cheap labor, there is no limit to what can be done with even the crudest tools.
As for the alignment of the structures with perigees and equinoxes and other astronomic pivot points of the year, the answer to me was equally simple. They had no TV, internet, phonographs, tapes, CDs, iThese, iThose, or even crystal radios. They did have one thing: a total lack of ambient light at night. Thus there was nothing to mute the stars. And there are lots and lots of stars visible in such circumstances. The curious and clever would watch them before falling asleep and no doubt noted their motion and patterns over the years. The motions and patterns were noted with the changing seasons and passed down as lore. There is no surprise to me that Egyptian and Aztec pyramids and other edifices including Armenian churches are aligned to mark or take advantage of significant astronomic events.
So, there is no surprise that in ancient times there were these grand human creations built on slave labor and taking advantage of the geometry and engineering that was available in the great empires of the day. It is not like there are hundreds and thousands of these ancient edifices. There much fewer as compared to our modern skyscrapers and other magnificent architectural gems that are all about us these days.
Something else struck me while watching this show. I understand how aliens might have come and gone back in the day. They would reveal themselves to a select few and disappear. They might kidnap some of us for tests while giving advanced technology to others. They had their reasons. But, today, with the vast array of electric gizmos and gadgets all connected to the internet, why aren't they sending us emails, broadcasting their own commercials during the Super Bowl, rigging elections, and such. They are, after all, advanced beings and have been ahead of us for ages. Why not just take over every channel on the planet, every radio station, send everyone a tweet and an email, post on everyone's Facebook, and do it all simultaneously in every language on the planet.
What would they tell us? Whatever they want. I guess that would depend on if they were benevolent and helpful or mean and nasty intelligent life forms.
If they exist they could do this. Any explanation of why they wouldn't or have not? Perhaps aliens extremely introverted and thus very shy. You would think years of watching Dr. Phil would have helped them.
Well... this is my humble contribution to this pseudo-science.
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