mhauck (10/21/82)
How can anyone say we are alone untill they have looked back throught history? What about the Egyptian Pymramids and the Atezs(spelling?)? What about all the cave drawing that have been found showing what looks like men in space suits? How about Chariots of the Gods? Hasn't any one thought of these. It has been stated that all myths begin in fact. What if a group of space travlers stopped here thousands of years ago. Wouldn't they have been throught of as gods? Just think how we would look to people back then. An airplane could be Apollo's sun chariot, a flame thrower lighting. Just think of it. And to those that believe in God, is not God a superior intelligence? Why could he not have come and started this world, a great intelligence watching the life he placed here grow and develop. Finally what civilization would want to have any thing to do with a planet that seems bent on destroying itself. We can can't even get along with other countries, let alone ourselves, so why even bother with a life form that will destroy itself in a few hundred years. Think about the UFO's, men chaseing them any intelligent life would realize we are to afraid to allow non earth beings to come to this planet, without believeing they are here to conquer. And try to destroy them. mankind is not ready for any visitors from other planets and I think any intelligent life would know it. M.J.Hauck
doug (11/05/82)
I am not sure whether M. Hauck's response was entirely serious, so I might look dumb responding seriously to it - The "Skeptical Inquirer", a few years back, had a pretty good article on these "ancient astronauts" theories. The article tried to sum up the arguments of proponents of these theories into certain classes. My favorite two classes were: (i) "The Oblique Question": "How could something like the pyramids ever have been built without the help of ancient astronauts." The question is then left dangling there as though it supplied its own answer, which of course it did not. (ii) "Our Ancestors the Dummies" : "Well, just look at the amazing Mayan calendars and chess, etc." The implication is that humans just became intelligent (if they ever did) somewhere in the mid-1800s. Of course people have been able to do math-oriented things of great complexity for quite a while now. This does not imply they had extra-terrestrial crib sheets. Doug Lerner doug@uwisc
pcmcgeer (11/10/82)
This reminds me of a story I once heard (sorry, no source) about von Daniken on Easter Island. He spent an enormous amount of time wondering how the primitve natives, who were still around, managed to move those huge stones into position. In any case, he asked a tribal elder, expecting to hear legends that he could construe as prehistoric ET interference...instead, the elder said "Oh, you want some of those stones moved?" - in the afternoon, a few of the villagers had carted them into new positions... Rick.
bc@sri-unix (11/13/82)
I agree with R.E. Maas' sentiments about wanting to enter into harmony with as much of the universe as possible, since it is exactly that ability (plus the ability to remake the universe should the harmony be off) which has made homo sapiens? so successful so far. But please, let's quit trying to put Zen on one side or the other of this argument. Zen takes no stand on whether to sit at home or go out. It teaches how best to do that which you are doing, by being in harmony with yourself as you do it.
Schauble.Multics@MIT-MULTICS (11/16/82)
Perhaps the reason we don't "hear" anyone out there is because everyone who has lasted long enough has learned to use tachyons. Who would want to wait around for a hundred years to find out the answer to her message she sent today when he could have found out the answer to his message yesterday ?