Ancient Aliens

[Nonton]

Anyone seen Ancient Aliens on Netflix?

Half way through and not sure what to make of it tbh. Really entertaining and the theories are an interesting way of looking at things we take for granted. Is it credible though?

Any thoughts?

@MrsTerryPratchett

Scientific theories are compared like nature nurture etc. But not nature nurture aliens! You compare realistic options all the time in all sciences.

Exactly. If scientists had to spend time taking every crank’s idea seriously they’d never get anything done.

There’s also a slight element of western privilege in some of these ideas. Someone upthread mentioned Machu Picchu. Machu
Picchu was built 1400 years after the Coliseum, but no-one ever questions whether Rome was really built by humans. Why is it only some civilisations we consider too stupid to build complex structures?

I always thought it more likely to be humans from the future than Aliens. Time travellers.

@TheLeadbetterLife yeah I read an article suggesting that Ancient Aliens has racism at its heart. They do talk about the bible and England (coronation rituals etc) too.

It’s a good point why they don’t delve into the ancient Romans and Greeks. Their architectures are pretty impressive. Why aren’t they from aliens?

Am also going to checkout the ancient aliens debunked website.

@MrsTerryPratchett

Scientific theories are compared like nature nurture etc. But not nature nurture aliens! You compare realistic options all the time in all sciences.

I’d agree. Except, I’d replace “realistic options” with “realistically available options”.

Think I read that the likelihood of alien existence is realistic, but we just don’t have enough available data to assess it to be an option at all. At least for now.

Somewhere else I read that if aliens exist and are intelligent enough to be visiting earth, then it makes sense that they do it in a radio silence so as not to be caught.

Can you imagine if we turned on the news one day and they announce an actual alien encounter? The public reaction would be so unpredictable. It would be so alarming!! Just can’t imagine it happening. It’s more likely that governments would hide the aliens or exterminate them for research…

We don’t talk about Greek and Roman culture coming from aliens because it’s clearly a ridiculous idea when applied to civilisations we feel we understand better.

For example, consider present day America. You have crumbling, badly designed infrastructure side by side with the most insanely advanced computing technology. Imagine that, for some reason, a thousand years in the future no written records survive of the current era. Future archaeologists have to make sense of the material remains and some crank decides that the same culture that was using such primitive railways couldn’t possibly have also developed hand held personal computers that could make satellite phone calls to anywhere in the world. Only aliens could have done it.

@TheLeadbetterLife

We don’t talk about Greek and Roman culture coming from aliens because it’s clearly a ridiculous idea when applied to civilisations we feel we understand better.

For example, consider present day America. You have crumbling, badly designed infrastructure side by side with the most insanely advanced computing technology. Imagine that, for some reason, a thousand years in the future no written records survive of the current era. Future archaeologists have to make sense of the material remains and some crank decides that the same culture that was using such primitive railways couldn’t possibly have also developed hand held personal computers that could make satellite phone calls to anywhere in the world. Only aliens could have done it.

Aliens are the new “God of the gaps”.

@TheLeadbetterLife

That’s the thing. The show might be more credible if it wasn’t obsessed with “only aliens could have done it” theory. If there was some balance exploring how humans could equally (or more likely) have done it, then it would help with the show’s credibility.

The criticism is probably that these guys (and strangely, it is mostly guys on this show!) don’t seem to consider more mainstream ideas alongside their more out there ideas.

I doubt the show’s primary concern is credibility.

I thought the aliens are still here? Didn’t they make a deal with one of the US presidents and have a base at the bottom of the ocean 🤔

@TheLeadbetterLife

I doubt the show’s primary concern is credibility.

True. Plus, I don’t think they’d be allowed to share their ideas if they were credible.

In theory, it’s quite a sensitive subject. It’s all good fun as a quirky show with a guy who looks like a mad scientist. But in reality I can’t see any government wanting news of actual alien visitation getting out.

There might be actual evidence, but even these ancient alien theorists will not be privy to it. Too sensitive. Top secret stuff.

@OppsUpsSide

I thought the aliens are still here? Didn’t they make a deal with one of the US presidents and have a base at the bottom of the ocean 🤔

Really?

Interesting if true. Apparently we know more about space than we do about our own oceans. Shows our priorities…

I don't want to ruin it for you but there's plenty of debunking ancient aliens videos on YouTube.

I really enjoyed the series though except I can't get the 'ancient astronaut theorists believe' line out of my head still and I watched the bloody thing years ago

Why would an alien fuck around building pyramids though?

I mean wouldn't they just eat us or something?

Apparently we know more about space than we do about our own oceans. Shows our priorities…

Apparently NASAs original purpose was to explore the ocean and soon enough they started looking up instead... some people are theorising that maybe NASA didn't like what they found below and are looking for a way outta here haha

@MyCreateIsUsernamed have you watched the show?

They suggest lots of theories. One of the disturbing ones is about blood sacrifices coming from a worshipping of ancient alien ritual.

Others suggest the aliens built stuff for their own purposes, such as creating flight paths and alignment with the stars etc.

It is interesting.

@CheddarGorge yes I’m going to get into the debunking material next for some balance. Everything on this show is “ancient alien theorists say it was aliens”.

I’ve always thought divinity was a strange idea that came to humans. What did our ancestors experience to hold such beliefs? The show makes some interesting observations.

I also love the wonder of the world we live in.

I find it mind blowing that the stars are all moving away from each other so our future humans will eventually see nothing but sheer blackness in the night sky.... if we don't wipe ourselves out by then ;)

@CheddarGorge also, the stars we're looking at have already moved or have died because it's taken so long for their light to get to us. So when we gaze in wonder at the sky we're actually gazing into cold dead darkness but we don't know it.

Think I read that the likelihood of alien existence is realistic, but we just don’t have enough available data to assess it to be an option at all. At least for now.

Conflating two things. Aliens almost certainly exist. It would be extremely unlikely for us to be alone in the world. That's not actually that controversial.

Aliens built the pyramids. Really really vanishingly unlikely. Like REALLY.

[quote Nonton]@MyCreateIsUsernamed have you watched the show?

They suggest lots of theories. One of the disturbing ones is about blood sacrifices coming from a worshipping of ancient alien ritual.

Others suggest the aliens built stuff for their own purposes, such as creating flight paths and alignment with the stars etc.

It is interesting.

@CheddarGorge yes I’m going to get into the debunking material next for some balance. Everything on this show is “ancient alien theorists say it was aliens”.

I’ve always thought divinity was a strange idea that came to humans. What did our ancestors experience to hold such beliefs? The show makes some interesting observations.[/quote]
@Nonton have you read about the Fermi Paradox? That’s a great deep dive into various solutions explaining why we haven’t met alien life yet - astronomy.com/news/2020/11/the-lonely-universe-is-life-on-earth-just-a-lucky-fluke
I find that Ancient Aliens is quite good at creating solutions to fit the narrative they want viewers to follow - what proof exists of lasers that can lift blocks to build the pyramids? Lasers are a common enough feature in science fiction, therefore there is no other explanation for how blocks were moved for the building of the pyramids.
Your point about the creation and development of divinity is an interesting one though - I find it endlessly fascinating that different beliefs around the world can have such close links despite developing in isolation.

I’ve always thought divinity was a strange idea that came to humans. What did our ancestors experience to hold such beliefs?

You answered this question yourself upthread - they’re gods of the gaps. Religion was a way for humans to explain and control what they couldn’t explain or control (like weather or earthquakes).

The problem with “alien experts” is that they’re creating the gaps as well as the gods. You don’t need space lasers to lift blocks.

@TheLeadbetterLife

But why do you need an alien explanation at all, when there’s no reason to think it’s not human technology and storytelling?

To a hammer, everything looks like a nail. To someone obsessed with aliens, it’s always aliens.

Yes and why aliens and not magical dwarves or pixies or some god creature?

It’s sad that adults can jump from being told there’s no explanation for the pyramids to aliens did it. Even if there was no explanation why jump to something so fantastical?

@MimiDaisy11
I guess their point is that aliens are not fantastical.

As @MrsTerryPratchett says, Aliens almost certainly exist.

Magical beings like pixies are accepted as not existing.

Because they don’t have enough evidence about aliens, the theorists have more scope to speculate.

@livingwithbees no not heard of Fermi Paradox. Will read the article. Thanks!

It's not credible at all, most of it has been debunked... doesn't stop me watching it, though! I love it.

Yes MimiDaisy, this is science, fairies and that are not science!

Far better to believe that, for some reason, the same species that went from discovering how to fly to landing on the moon in less than a hundred years couldn’t have worked out how to move stone blocks over the course of a few thousand years.

Goblins and suchlike couldn’t have done it, because they don’t exist, obv.

Gods? Well no, see above.

Aliens is really all that’s left.