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Old 25th November 2012, 11:12 AM   #81
HansMustermann
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Originally Posted by Correa Neto View Post
Assuming, of course, the alien craft would look like our airplanes and dogfight Star Wars-style (which is actually WWI-style).

Even nowadays' air war is nothing like that. Fights usually are beyond visual range, missiles fired from far away hit the targets. From the ground, if you are lucky, you'll see a dot flying high above, a moment later its blown to bits and some seconds later you'll hear the explosion. Usually you'll just hear the explosion and watch flaming debris falling from the sky. Ancient aliens tech is outdated... Well, it has to be, since they are ancient aliens...

Thinking is not good for the ancien aliens business. It will only work well if the customers do not think too much about the huge pile of stupidity they are buying. I find ironically depressing the fact these folks quite usually call those who do not buy that sort of trash "close-minded", "sheeple", etc.
Well, I only gave airplanes as an example because I didn't want to write a whole tome about what would be more natural analogies even for ancient people about all other kinds of weapons. E.g., I'm pretty sure John of Revelations fame, if he saw armies of tanks, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't call them horsemen.

But yeah, you're right, when one thinks about modern combat, that kind of analogies breaks down even more spectacularly.

And indeed it's funny how all the awesome stuff from a supposedly more advanced civilization -- or for that matter the prophecies supposed to happen in the future according to the fundies -- look so incredibly antiquated.
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Last edited by HansMustermann; 25th November 2012 at 11:18 AM.
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Old 25th November 2012, 01:51 PM   #82
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There is a massively romantic and attractive scenario for people where profound truths which explain "everything" are just sitting there hiding for us to realize or discover as obvious and simple things we just never considered possible, hidden and dismissed due to hubris and myopic view points.

As with any conspiracy, it's you against the close minded, ironically. So very, very ironically.

The idea that cold fusion is something an alien could whisper in a child's ear that would seem face palmingly obvious is a story people love and you see this archetype constantly being reused.

Last edited by Halfcentaur; 25th November 2012 at 01:53 PM.
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Old 25th November 2012, 01:54 PM   #83
Correa Neto
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Yeah, I got that. Whenever interpretations of myths as ancient aliens are discussed, I feel its important to point how inadequate they are. Take that Mayan carving of the tree of life said by ancient aliens "experts" as actually showing someone in the controls of a spacecraft, for example... So, those folks could travel between stars but their spacecrafts looked like something from the 60's?

There's no way out. The whole ancient aliens stuff is stupid, the interpretations are stupid. One must be quite ignorant (willing or not) to believe in this garbage. I know its not exactly polite to say that, buts its the truth.
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Old 25th November 2012, 02:34 PM   #84
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Originally Posted by Soapy Sam View Post
...
Pakeha. The following wiki entries are a good start point for the sort of floods that follow the end of glacial periods.
The water released to the sea also causes eustatic rise in ocean levels, flooding coastal areas, where many ancient settlements may have been, (but that does not mean those settlements involved technology beyond what we expect of the neolithic or the Bronze Age.
.... But there is no doubt people saw the Altai floods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altai_flood
From your link:
Quote:
Most of the water discharge is thought to have occurred during 1 day, with peak discharges of 1e7 m3/s (Herget, 2005). The maximum lake volume was 6e11 m3 wwith an area of 1.5e9 2m. The ice dam was about 650 m high.
1 day?? That must have been a terrifying thing to witness.

Quote:
The third link refers to refilling of the Black Sea basin as sea levels rose in the Mediterranean. I'd agree with Correa Neto that it's a bit simplistic to equate this event (which remains highly contentious among palaeoclimatologists and geologists) with the OT deluge, but I also think it's unlikely these events are not in some sense connected to the very widespread legends of huge floods in a species expanding into the north as the climate amelioration permitted,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_S...uge_hypothesis

Here's a home grown Scottish example of a glacial ice dammed lake that periodically drained producing immense , short duration flash floods. The erosional features form the Spean Gorge, with the sand & gravel deposits filling a large area of the Great Glen near Fort William.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Roy
Thanks for the links!
I read a bit about the Black Sea hypothesis when it came up in the thread and it's always good to read more.
Spean Gorge is now on my list of places to see in Scotland.
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Old 22nd December 2012, 06:07 AM   #85
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Originally Posted by mike3 View Post
So do you think that by "climbing" the "intricate mountain" of "the universe" "using the crampons and ropes and teamwork of science" and "a lot of effort" to secure the "true escape route from the mess we (or they) perceive in world culture today" we will be able to build a civilization that will endure for age upon age?
Sorry I lost contact with this thread a few weeks ago, and just now found it on a window that hasn't been available on my desktop for awhile! It's reappeared!

And right there in front of me was your question, Mike3. Sorry not to have answered it before.


Given human nature, I reckon we'll find a way to ruin every civilisation phase eventually, so that cycle of recreating culture will probably continue... and diversify if we ever get off this planet... even more so if we ever manage to get to the stars!

But I do reckon that science, once totally absorbed into the bedrock and the "DNA" of a culture (so to speak), would be the only hope of maintaining any particular civilisation for any cosmically significant time.
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