I wonder if Rupert Murdoch has a stake in the history channel. EDIT: A quick google search reveals "yes". Oh joy.
I watched the entire thing. Yuck. How many times can they pretend that "History" is being represented by this pure conjecture? I want to punch each and every so-called expert in the face for that hour and a half of drivel. The facts they bothered to represent are as follows: 1. We have no 'Effing idea how things were made thousands of years ago. 2. We do not have absolute proof aliens never came to Earth and did shit. 3. We can dream up wild explanations that have exactly zero supporting evidence and offer it as "Proof". 4. The History Channel should be known forevermore as "The Abject Conjecture Channel".
Point 3 (and point 1 too, to some extent) can apply to some .....organisations, which, if mentioned *again* may call wrath of our moderators down upon my head.
This is old stuff. Back when I was a kid, the big ancient astronaut guy was Erich Von Daniken. I'm ashamed to say that I read one or two of his books ("Chariots of the Gods" I think was a best-seller). Then again, I was probably about 9 or 10 years old (I was a precocious kid -- I kept getting kicked out of the adult sections of the library until my mom actually yelled at a librarian). Later I discovered that most of his claims had been debunked, and he admitted that he had gotten stuff wrong, that some of the 'facts' he was basing is conjectures on weren't even true. Yet he continued to publish the same exact stuff that he KNEW was wrong, in reprints of his books, as well as in new books. Being naive is sad, but forgivable, but knowingly spreading falsehoods makes you a liar and a con man.
Awesome quote. I wish it could be tattooed on the forehead of every politician in the world. They are just dreamers that cannot escape the dream. I daydream often. More-so in my youthful drug years. (Well, more like a decade and a half.) But I easily remember that the dream is not real. These people seem to think that if they believe then that belief becomes reality. This is a simple delusion. I pity them. I do not hate them for believing what they each believe. But right or wrong, the majority does not believe the same and they are outcasts because they cannot let go of their beliefs. I once believed in things that I had no conclusive proof of. But time is a patient teacher. Now I suppose I am agnostic in more than just a religious sense. To clarify, I believe there are things about our world and our Galaxy and even the Universe and the spacial dimensions we occupy that we are not currently able to understand. Some reject this as folly.
I think it's fairly harmless entertainment. The history channel goes out of their way to say "this is what they believe" and not "this is true facts about true things." I'm more irritated at network TV sitcoms reinforcing negative cultural/socioeconomic stereotypes than a few people with off-the-wall theories on things no one knows. Or "reality" TV that engineers false drama to play up petty social conflict.
This theory has always fascinated me, but making an assumptive leap from one extreme to the other is kind of silly. I mean there are some anachronisms that are hard to explain (ex: aztec models of what appear to be planes), but who knows? Those things are literally 100s of years taken out of context so we could be totally wrong by looking at it from our cultural lens. I'd rather not make any conclusions until we can be totally sure.
I have a wild theory. Well, no. A hypothesis. What if the master technology of their predictions existed and you had it? Who could you share it with without becoming "dangerous" to those currently in power in the world? If you had a means to produce limitless energy cleanly, power companies and oil giants would have you assassinated. If you could cure all ailments of the body, a wild variety of groups would have reason to want you killed. If such miraculous technology was in my hands, I would be very fearful to show it to anyone even knowing what great good could be done with it. We as a species are too immature to coexist even with primitive weapons and tools. Miraculous tech would destroy us.
I'm sorry but never would happen -- unless you are dealing with criminal types. Companies tend to try to steal things using the law or espionage, rather than with hit-men. And something so valuable wouldn't stay a secret for that long. History shows that to be the case. Science and Technology works in small steps -- things are discovered when knowledge has progressed to the point where such discoveries are more or less close to being inevitable. Nuclear fission and fusion did not come out of nowhere. Neither did Penicillin, or the Automobile or powered flight. Scientists know that the only way to make progress is by sharing knowledge. Governments and the military are really good at keeping secrets when the technology is really expensive and relies on billion-dollar projects. But even nuclear fission was being discussed in popular literature before and during the manhattan project made it a reality (several science fiction writers were seriously investigated for espionage, because the government was too dumb to realize that the information was out there, and only required the littlest bit of intelligence to put the pieces together). But let's say, for arguments sake, that someone comes up with a way of manufacturing compact, cheap and safe fusion reactors. First of all, no one will believe you without a demonstration. After all, frauds and crackpots are rampant on the fringes of science. So all you really have to do is get a lawyer, and arrange a demonstration. Heck, publish it on you-tube. There are so many people out there that are ready to believe in complex conspiracies, when there are so many more lucrative and hence, simpler and likely possibilities that don't require hundreds of people to be paid off or killed.
That said, impressive conspiracies on a smaller scale do actually happen sometimes. Including ones that are just unbelievably, inanely stupid, like the US' boondoggle MKULTRA project. Then there was the Business Plot to assassinate FDR, too, which probably never would have worked.
There is one feasible way to distribute advanced technology in a way that prevent monopolization, and thats to share how it can be made with the world.
Those types of shows on the "formerly-educational" History and Discovery channels irritate me. Because stupid people don't need more help to be stupid. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18692830 Reminds me of this South Park clip lampooning John Edwards. (http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/103515/im-not-a-douche)
