"Ancient Aliens" Documentary

[madmac]

Ancient Aliens :alol:

I popped this hilarious documentary series off my library shelves the other day in a fit of desperation for rainy day entertainment. It is a series that basically tries to convince it's viewers that we were visited by Aliens many times in the past and that they gave us technology and know how to accomplish things that we simply could not have done without their help (ie...The pyramids ).

It then goes on to try and convince us that these Aliens actually mated with some of ancient mankind to create the intelligent beings that we are today! :lol:

As anyone that even has a basic grasp of Biology knows, I would have a better chance of procreating with a Cat than an alien would mating with a human! :rofl:

I'm somewhat of an amateur Astronomer and when you look at the impossible odds of us having EVER been visited by an Alien civilization, you gotta' laugh as you watch this series!! I usually try to explain it to people this way. If you were standing on Miami beach and each of the grains of sand on it were stars with possible planets revolving around them.....and....assuming that you could walk the entire beach within your lifetime looking ( The Astronomical equivalent of travelling many times the speed of light), you would NEVER find the lone star (Grain of sand) that was our Sun!

It is simply impossible for us to ever have been visited by Aliens and it is impossible that we ever will be. Furthermore, if we were to ever be visited then or now, trust me in knowing that they would make a rather grand appearance that we would never forget or doubt! 8O

The thing that kills me about this series is that it contains many boxes (7 series at least!). How long can you sustain this kind of ridiculous thought process??!! :roll:

3/10 stars for a good laugh and some chuckling entertainment.

[Ovation]

What bothers me more is that it is a production of The History Channel. The potential for presenting valid, informative and entertaining ACTUAL history via The History Channel (in the US) or History Television (English Canada) or Historia (French Canada) is immense. Sadly, each of these networks, while occasionally offering something of value, has fallen into the propagation of tripe like "Ancient Aliens" and other ridiculous nonsense. I've long since abandoned History Television and Historia on my cable package (somewhat telling for an historian whose main research interests include the use of media to disseminate historical knowledge).

If people want to watch stuff like this, fine. What one finds entertaining is a purely personal matter. However, if a network like The History Channel had any respect for its apparent mandate, it would present such material with an eye to critical analysis. Fiction has considerable influence on historical thinking but any treatment of fiction from an historical perspective needs to clearly identify it as such, not attempt to pass it off as reality. (ok, historian's rant over ).

[Hdale85]

Actually the show it self doesn't try and pass it off as fact, the people on the show have very strong beliefs on it. The show it self is just sharing idea's for the most part that maybe we don't know as much about our past as people think. Not saying I'm a believer of ancient alien theory but I'd never say anything is impossible.

And Dan I don't know why you'd get the idea that interstellar travel is impossible? It's impossible for us with current technology that doesn't mean it's impossible for someone else that's been around much longer than we have. Generally scientist believe that physics allows for things like folding space, worm holes, etc but we don't have that technology yet, but there's a good chance we aren't the oldest civilization out there, even in our own galaxy possibly.

[Ovation]

Well, actually, we only have one data point regarding life--earth. One data point is insufficient to make any predictions about the likelihood of life elsewhere in the universe. Should a second data point emerge, then we can start making predictions (though they will remain extremely tentative, even then). At a casual level of observation, the discovery of hundreds (perhaps thousands--not up on the latest figures) of planets appears to bolster the idea that life exists elsewhere. But that would conflate correlation with causation. Nothing, as of yet, indicates life exists elsewhere (though there are tantalizing hints). Additionally, even if it does exist elsewhere, some life form (by that I mean a planetary ecosystem that sustains life, not a specific species) had to be first. No evidence exists to suggest we are not first (again, because we don't have enough data from which to extrapolate).

As for "impossible"--in practical terms, many things are impossible, even if, mathematically, there is a chance of a specific, seemingly impossible thing actually happening. But I can still say for example, with an incredibly high degree of certainty, that it is impossible for a person to walk off a 1000 foot high cliff edge and hover in the air with no other devices or equipment to make it happen. I'd rank visitation by extraterrestrial life as equally impossible.

[Hdale85]

Many things throughout history have been said to be impossible. I don't rule out anything. Pretty much every scientist agrees that the scale of the universe mean that even at a very very small percentage of life existing there would be 1000's of planets with life out there, and for there to be no other life but us would be mathematically impossible. I didn't come here to argue, just saying we don't know everything about history, we don't know everything about our own planet even, and we know very very little about the galaxy beyond our planet. For you to say "impossible" on all those things you've mentioned is just not an intelligent thing to say. Heck we're still learning new things about the realities of physics, time, and so on every year.

[madmac]

Good discussion guys! I absolutely believe that there is very likely life out there. There are zillions+ of stars out there, even in our own galaxy, many with planets revolving around them. The sheer numbers alone makes this case. However, even with interstellar travel possible (Worm holes....folding universes etc) the chances of any other life finding us is next to impossible. Furthermore, the chances of these 'aliens' even looking remotely like us or even being a carbon based life form is highly unlikely.

When this series proposes that Aliens possibly mated with ancient humans is laughable! When this series proposes that these Aliens looked somewhat like us equally laughable. That ancient humans possibly had flight is laughable again.

This series reminds me over and over how much us humans have a stellar imagination and they certainly used it to create this series!

[bigburner]

What bothers me more is that it is a production of The History Channel.

I agree.

Any credibility that The History Channel has is completely destroyed by producing and/or screening material like that. There is a place for that sort of program - on a completely different channel. A good name for it would be The Hocus Pocus Channel. There will be plenty of people who watch it, particularly if they add programs on paranormal activity, psychics, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, the Bermuda Triangle, intelligent design, etc.

Nigel.

[madmac]

I agree.

Any credibility that The History Channel has is completely destroyed by producing and/or screening material like that. There is a place for that sort of program - on a completely different channel. A good name for it would be The Hocus Pocus Channel. There will be plenty of people who watch it, particularly if they add programs on paranormal activity, psychics, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, the Bermuda Triangle, intelligent design, etc.

Nigel.

Agreed!! While I watched this, it reminded me of conspiracy theory type shows that try to convince people of outrageous claims of how and why things happened in history. This stuff is NOT history.........it's imagination based conspiracy history!