ancient alien theories?

[b-rabbit]

these ideas undoubtedly include discussion about the mysterious and, dare-i-say, wondrous architectural accomplishments of early man such as the pyramids, mayan temples, and stonehenge...
but the one i really can't wrap my head around is the ruins of puma punku. for those of you who may not have heard of this place, or who need a refresher, please read into it. for me it was mindfreak, head asplode!
Ancient Mysteries - Puma Punku in Tiahuanaco
Pumapunku - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
YouTube - Did Ancient Aliens Visit Earth part 1 of 3.mp4

could someone please explain this to me so i can understand. thanks

[WillburForce]

My immediate thought on aliens having been here....if they're that tech savy (to travel through space) why would they build some shit stone things then fuck off?

[WillburForce]

but that puma thing is pretty cool. Crazy South Americans.

[a500lbgorilla]

It's not impossible that Aliens visited the planet and helped build this and that just to say "Hi."

I mean, our way of saying hi was building a satellite and strapping this to it:


but certainly the more likely explanation is terrestrial. People have always demonstrated that they can do some keen shit with enough free time and resources.

[a500lbgorilla]

Watching the video - Just because we don't know how it's done doesn't give us license to leap to our favored magical explanations. That's like saying that because you don't understand how "the tides go in and the tides go out, never a miscommunication" could form naturally, God did it.

edit Those doodles in the dirt are obvious. It is not difficult to understand scaling. How to follow a pattern on a piece of paper and create something so large that you could only appreciate it from the sky. Saying that "it's like it was designed for people who can fly" is silly. They could have easily thought they were pleasing their gods with some art.

[WillburForce]

they could have some cool internet style humour.

"I'll just leave this here..."

[bigred]

haha, the original trolls. Maybe the pyramids was the universe's equivalent of FIRST!. Stonehenge translates to Simpsons did it.

[wufwugy]

We never have, nor ever will, had alien visitors. The closest thing to aliens we will ever come in contact with is ourselves given the aminos that birthed our dna could have come from asteroids.

Beyond that, physics virtually determines that aliens do not ever contact each other or even engage in inter-solar system travel. The energy required to expand and stabilize a wormhole is impossible to harness in both quantity and type. Besides, any civilization capable of such things would not be biological, would be likely unrecognizable, and likely not even have incentive to do them.

Because it's spacetime, not just time, conventional methods of travel and communication could not work for any type of interspace activity. Any civ capable of bypassing these would live in post-scarcity and would do things via quantum leaps and such, but again, it's not even possible to do these things

[baudib]

tell that to the Annunaki

[Monty3038]

Wow... wuf seemed pretty serious about that one.

I was going to say something like... what if all of the things that are required are possible, but only by a higher intelligence...

But fuck it, I say let's go back to styrofoam eating containers.

[supa]

At one time scientists thought the atom was the smallest thing in the universe. They we're wrong.

[Stacks]

A possible technique for how blocks in Stonehenge may have been moved.

YouTube - Man Moves Huge Blocks!

[b-rabbit]

ok...back to OP. someone please explain to me puma punku. i guess my point is that you can't easily do that. it would be ridiculously hard, some say impossible, to replicate such a structural feat even with today's technology. the factors of size, weight, and types of stones used + the amazingly precise cuts and custom fits that were accomplished by a civilization that by all records didn't even have written language, much less advanced tools, all add up to wtf.

[Penneywize]

ok...back to OP. someone please explain to me puma punku. i guess my point is that you can't easily do that. it would be ridiculously hard, some say impossible, to replicate such a structural feat even with today's technology. the factors of size, weight, and types of stones used + the amazingly precise cuts and custom fits that were accomplished by a civilization that by all records didn't even have written language, much less advanced tools, all add up to wtf.

OMG UR RIGHT IT MUST BE ALIENS OMG WTF AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh

think about it for more than 10 seconds and you'll come to the conclusion that even early civilizations could have accomplished such feats.

[Jack Sawyer]

more wtf

Dogon people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[oskar]

The only possible eplanation is alien intervention. I mean, come on. Some of those stones are HUGE. No man could possibly... maybe cattle, but then cattle doesn't have the dexterity to carve them... so... aliens it is!



It's funny to me how some people, when they don't have an explanation for something IMMEDIATELY jump to the most complicated convoluted and insane conclusion possible.
Like omg I don't understand why the wheat grows so obviously there must be a god who lives in the sky who wants me to sacrifice a goat at an alter that I shall build for him!

[a500lbgorilla]

ok...back to OP. someone please explain to me puma punku. i guess my point is that you can't easily do that. it would be ridiculously hard, some say impossible, to replicate such a structural feat even with today's technology. the factors of size, weight, and types of stones used + the amazingly precise cuts and custom fits that were accomplished by a civilization that by all records didn't even have written language, much less advanced tools, all add up to wtf.

I don't care what "some people say."

Some people could say anything is impossible and some people could be wrong.

Just because you can not understand how it is that something happens does not mean that you can jump to the first magical explanation available.

It's like going to see Penn and Teller live and walking away fully convinced that they're magical.

Bill O'Reily literally just used your point for the existence of God saying that you can't explain how the Moon or the Sun got there, therefor God.

You just said you can't be told how they made those structures, therefor aliens(???).

Sometimes you encounter some things in this world and you just have to suck it up and say, "I really have no idea."

I really have no idea how they made those things, but surely the more likely explanation is bounded to this Earth. What they did was not impossible for man kind, the same man kind that put some of its own on the moon.

My personal opinion is that we need more information. And certainly if you wanted to make a case for Alien intervention it would be based on evidence that Aliens showed up and not on evidence that we don't yet understand.

[a500lbgorilla]

more wtf

Dogon people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That is awesome.

They reported that the Dogon believe that the brightest star in the sky, Sirius (sigi tolo or 'star of the Sigui'[17]), has two companion stars, pō tolo (the Digitaria star), and ęmmę ya tolo, (the female Sorghum star), respectively the first and second companions of Sirius A.[18] Sirius, in the Dogon system, formed one of the foci for the orbit of a tiny star, the companionate Digitaria star. When Digitaria is closest to Sirius, that star brightens: when it is farthest from Sirius, it gives off a twinkling effect that suggests to the observer several stars. The orbit cycle takes 60 years.[19] They also claimed that the Dogon appeared to know of the rings of Saturn, and the moons of Jupiter.

Still does not take Aliens to know these things, though. It does take a little human brilliance, though.

[bigred]

We never have, nor ever will, had alien visitors. The closest thing to aliens we will ever come in contact with is ourselves given the aminos that birthed our dna could have come from asteroids.

Beyond that, physics virtually determines that aliens do not ever contact each other or even engage in inter-solar system travel. The energy required to expand and stabilize a wormhole is impossible to harness in both quantity and type. Besides, any civilization capable of such things would not be biological, would be likely unrecognizable, and likely not even have incentive to do them.

Because it's spacetime, not just time, conventional methods of travel and communication could not work for any type of interspace activity. Any civ capable of bypassing these would live in post-scarcity and would do things via quantum leaps and such, but again, it's not even possible to do these things

My response:

"Some years back, Gates said '640K is more memory than anyone will ever need.'

[a500lbgorilla]

Also re: "some people"

You could buy these articles and see what these guys have to say in their peer-reviewed published works - JSTOR: An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie
"Interpreting the meaning of ritual spaces: The temple complex of Pumap" by Alexei N Vranich
ingentaconnect The Construction and Reconstruction of Ritual Space at Tiwanaku, ...

"The construction, use, and subsequent modifications, substantial and ephemeral to the Temple Complex span 500 years"

Substantial modifications on an Alien structure over the course of 500 years? Or just about what you would expect from a human construction of this nature?

[a500lbgorilla]

And for the Dogon-lovers.

Blacks in science: ancient and modern - Google Books
JSTOR: An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie
1977Obs....97...26P Page 26

[Monty3038]

My response:

"Some years back, Gates said '640K is more memory than anyone will ever need.'

I don't believe you have it right... I think he said 64K... but I might not have enough memory to hold that fact correctly.

[oskar]

Obvious made up quotes are obvious.
And thx stacks, that video was awesome!

[wufwugy]

Things like Puma Punku being some kind of great mystery are usually false reporting. People are hardwired to believe make-believe, so even the smallest of speculations or un-truths easily grow into enormity and spread like wildfire

If it were true that there was some crazy unknown tech going on here, we would know it. Leagues of scientists and journalists would be all over it, trying to figure it out. Scientists chase mysteries for a living.

My response:

"Some years back, Gates said '640K is more memory than anyone will ever need.'

What one man says is different than what scientific theory says.

With conventional travel, you cannot beat light speed. This determines that civilized intergalactic travel and communication via conventional means is impossible. The only other option is a warp along the lines of discovering the existence of wormholes, discovering a source of power that is about a million times more powerful than anything the Universe has ever done, figuring out how expand and stabilize a wormhole, and things like not instantly dying upon going through it, not being transported into a different timeline/universe, and actually knowing where you're going. But even if you succeed for all that, you have to violate the laws of thermodynamics

It's like this: time travel is theoretically possible on some level, but it's practically impossible. Something is going on in the quantum world that involves the craziest travels imaginable, but we know that the quantum world and "our" world do not appear to have any crossover. Despite the fact that the physics won't allow for human time travel (which isn't any different than any sort of bypassing light speed travel like warping), physicists believe that if it were "possible" the Universe would would simply not even allow it to happen because it would create the ultimate paradox that might even destroy the Universe itself. Besides that, the amount of energy needed would probably just destroy the device that creates it. We're talking things like enough anti-matter that it would take a civilization more advanced than us a million years to harness, and energies so great that they make supermassive blackholes and supernovas look like kitty kibble. Harnessing and stabilizing that energy is impossible. There's a reason that when energies get to huge levels, things explode or are distorted into oblivion

[jyms]

I think saying things are impossible based on our limited knowledge of the universe and physics a little unfair.

[wufwugy]

I think saying things are impossible based on our limited knowledge of the universe and physics a little unfair.

In a way it is, but only in a peculiar way. That way is that it is impossible to prove anything, which means it's impossible to know anything for certain. Even something as simple as 2+2=4 is an assumption. This is because we do not have complete knowledge, thus we cannot completely determine that 2+2 does in fact =4

However, claiming that because the most fundamental things we "know" are assumptions we then cannot "know" anything is silly. Existence itself appears to be an uncertainty with a greater than zero probability of anything and nothing, so there isn't any way to ever be fully certain since the Universe itself may not even have absolute certainty

Now, getting into more hard science instead of science philosophy, science is like a structure that builds upon itself. Adding a new floor or a new type material doesn't mean you tear the entire thing down. Our knowledge is a process of deeper discovery and confirmation, not of entire overhauls. Incomplete theory should not be confused with wrong theory. All theory is incomplete, but also they get a whole lot right that doesn't change

So when we see that in order to travel faster than light, we have to violate thermodynamics, we know it's just not going to happen. Particles can do it, we have no idea how, but humans will never do it. There is a stark contrast between what the fabric of existence can do, and what matter borne of that fabric can do.


A couple interesting things to think about

If intra-universe time travel were possible, it would create an infinite progression of matter creation and destruction. Not only can matter not be created nor destroyed, but there is no evidence that the Universe has infinity. The way this infinite progression would be created is, imagine this, you're in one room, you travel back in time to the next room, you walk back to the room you traveled from and watch yourself travel back. Not only was matter destroyed, created, in a pattern ad infinitum, but were you not always there watching yourself, and were not your other selves always there watching your other selves?

It's the grandfather paradox, and the main reason physicists believe that any sort of time travel would have to be inter-universe instead of intra-universe. This beats the infinite progression paradox, but not the matter creation/destruction problem. On top of that, how in the fuck could a human even survive a warp? Faster than light travel is some kind of crazy quantum effect, and in order to do it we would have to break ourselves down into particles then regroup on "the other side". Which is not possible. We could not create a device immune to this particle break down that could survive to reassemble us.

The other option would be to bypass the quantum world and simply "walk through" dimensions and universes and forces. Not gonna happen. Let's call it a Universe hull breach. If you ever see somebody distort the fabric of existence to that degree, you're not going to be around to see what happens next. If we ever developed the math to claim this was even possible, it would probably show us that the energy levels are impossible and that the Universe would react in an unfathomably cataclysmic way


Also, our knowledge of the Universe is not as limited as one might think. It is limited inasmuch as there is only so much we can learn, but not that shabby when it comes to how close we are to learning what we can. We're already nearing our peak capacity to understand things. Advanced theory is almost entirely a product of hardly testable math now, and we can only crash particles at so close to the speed of light

Physics education will reach a limit. I don't know when it will be, but I predict it will be before its theories are all molded into one. Even then, a physical theory of everything will tell us very little about other universes or existence in general simply due to having no reference point

[Jack Sawyer]

What one man says is different than what scientific theory says.

With conventional travel, you cannot beat light speed.

And how can you be so certain that aliens are conventional?

You overestimate our current science; you seemingly think that there are currently documented answers for everything. Remember, it was just 400 years ago that the Geocentric Model was still in full force.How long have humans been around? 200,000 years? At most 250,000 years? And yet, humans have only been able to fly for like the past 250 years or so. Yet in those 250 years, we've been able to

A) Cross the Atlantic in no time
B) Send people to the moon (some may argue this)
C) Send a robot thing to Mars
D) Send a probe to the outer limits of the Solar System, launched 40 years ago that still communicates with us to this day.

Cell phones are ubiquitous now, but only 30 years ago they were pretty much science fiction.

250 fucking years out of 200,000. What will we be capable of in the next 250? What will we be capable of in the next 200,000?



A more appropriate question and line of thought would be: do we really want to meet aliens? Remember, throughout our civilization, every time a people met another people it ended in bloodshed and oppression, with the ones with the bigger weapons writing the history.

[a500lbgorilla]

But one thing you can't ignore about all the advances in human history is that they've been on a relatively human-sized scale. Yeah, we've jumped a speed class or two recently but that's all on the backs of discovering increasingly denser sources of power (Oil, fuck yeah!). The speed of light, the size of the universe, and the energy to play around with these are in a class of their own.

Inherent into your question of if we'd want to meet aliens are a whole slew of assumptions that, themselves, are interesting. I would like to meet any of the aliens we have a chance of meeting - mainly little bacterium dudes on Mars or Europa.

To say that Aliens may be unconventional is like saying that they themselves could have come about by means other than evolution. Sure, they could have, but weighing the likely-hoods of them managing to become themselves without having evolved versus having evolved is akin to weighing the likelyhoods that they have found a way to doodle-around with the universe without first pushing through some of the conventional limitations of the universe. They could, but to accept this premise you must also accept that you're basically just shrugging and saying, "and I haven't even the faintest idea how."

Yes, such Aliens as you're imagining are possible, but the chances of them existing probably vanishingly small. And the likely-hood that we'd ever know about them is even smaller.

tl;dr yes, Aliens could do some cool shit if they found a way to harness larger and larger sources of energy. I would consider these "conventional" ways of solving the problems inherent in traversing the universe.

If you want to say they could just have some magical technology that utilizes laws we don't even know exist, let alone understand, it has to be coupled with the concession that the chances of this are vanishingly small. But that shouldn't be hard, because in an infinite universe the chances of everything are 1 and the chances that you'll observe them are 0.

[wufwugy]

And how can you be so certain that aliens are conventional?

You overestimate our current science; you seemingly think that there are currently documented answers for everything. Remember, it was just 400 years ago that the Geocentric Model was still in full force.How long have humans been around? 200,000 years? At most 250,000 years? And yet, humans have only been able to fly for like the past 250 years or so. Yet in those 250 years, we've been able to

A) Cross the Atlantic in no time
B) Send people to the moon (some may argue this)
C) Send a robot thing to Mars
D) Send a probe to the outer limits of the Solar System, launched 40 years ago that still communicates with us to this day.

Cell phones are ubiquitous now, but only 30 years ago they were pretty much science fiction.

250 fucking years out of 200,000. What will we be capable of in the next 250? What will we be capable of in the next 200,000?



A more appropriate question and line of thought would be: do we really want to meet aliens? Remember, throughout our civilization, every time a people met another people it ended in bloodshed and oppression, with the ones with the bigger weapons writing the history.

On the contrary, physical science theory is extreeeeeemely advanced. We're figuratively light years ahead of engineering capacity. In fact, developing that elusive theory of everything would do very little to change our engineering. We know the physical limitations quite well, and our engineering limits are mainly a product of limited energy and power.

No level of computing power will teach us how to violate thermodynamics, but it will show us how to engineer really cool shit. In many other posts I've stated that we're going to achieve crazy tech levels like immunity to aging and indistinguishable virtual reality, even possibly quantum factories, but that's because that stuff is theoretically possible. Breaking spacetime disagrees with our already very strong understanding of physics

[wufwugy]

Breaking spacetime disagrees with our already very strong understanding of physics

And even if we did discover it didn't disagree with some level of theory in physics, we would need the kinds of energy on the level output of entire galaxies in order to actually do it. Just not gonna happen. Good luck getting a fraction of that power without exploding or distorting its very existence

[wufwugy]

Look at it this way

Every single time we've seen high densities of matter and energy, we witness an overhaul of that matters' expression. It either goes boom or bends everything to its will

[couriermike]

Francis Crick, of the Nobel Prize winning DNA duo Watson and Crick, believed that life on earth began when aliens seeded the planet through a process he called 'directed panspermyia.' Bit of trivia.

---

I liked the aliens in Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling. They were basically booty-driven traders who left behind cargo cults in their wake. The other alien species, who were even more advanced, had apparently killed themselves off due to excessive curiosity, not sure what he meant by that.

LeGuin's Hainish or Heinlein's disincorporated Martians would be pretty cool. But who's to say? The aliens could even be more insect than humanoid.

[boost]

wuf (or anyone that has any clue), would it be possible that an alien be something besides carbon based?

[a500lbgorilla]

Yes, but it'll probably be carbon because carbon effing loves bonding with stuff.

[boost]

Does all life really require the same things? For example, NASA looks for water as a sign of possible life. Is it possible for life to exist in the absence of water? Could this be the case for non-carbon based life?

[a500lbgorilla]

Water is the universal solvent, presents an environment for all the bits and pieces of non-life stuff to swirl around and randomly be-jigger itself into life.

I would probably say no, no water - no life. But that's only because I don't trust my imagination to figure out how else it could be.

[boost]

Fair enough.

[wufwugy]

Non-carbon life can exist in an area where there is no carbon to out-compete it. I do not know cosmological chemistry enough to know whether these places exist

I think a liquid solvent is required. Doesn't necessarily have to be water

[b-rabbit]

ok ok guys. perhaps i was misleading in my original post. i have not jumped to any conclusions myself that 'omg i don't understand it, aliens must have done it!'
to clarify, i just think its perplexing that i can't find a solid scientific explanation of puma punku and other similar ancient world marvels. these sort of things have scientists, historians, archaeologists and the likes scratching their heads. <- might be flirting with the 'some people' aggregate. more or less, its just a fun topic of discussion. blaze me all you want internerds, but i'd rather have an actual discussion. perhaps i should rename this topic as 'lets talk about puma punku' or something because thats all i really want to do.

[wufwugy]

Watched a documentary with detailed explanation about how the Pyramid of Giza was likely built, but I couldn't find it again. For some reason, finding the information on how these things were made isn't the easiest thing in the world. I think it's because the people who know don't bother explaining in popular media, and the findings don't merit publication in scientific media either

[b-rabbit]

that may be true. just reread the pumapunku wiki page. the section that talks about the actual cutting and intricate placement of the stones does not give mention of tools or technique. would like to read up more about that.

[CoccoBill]

My $0.02:

- Intergalactic travel is not, in theory, quite as unfeasible as it sounds like. When approaching light speed the time dilation makes the observed time for the travel significantly shorter for the traveler. When from a bystanders perspective it will take say ~2.5 million years to travel from Earth to Andromeda, if the speed is close enough to light speed, the time dilation and length contraction make it feasible to achieve the journey within a human lifetime.

- Likewise, time travel into the future is completely possible based on our understanding of time relativity, but it's impossible to go back in time.

- Regarding non-carbon based life, Carl Sagan coined the term "carbon chauvinism". The fact that we haven't encountered non-carbon based life does not mean they do not exist, we just have a hard time figuring out what they might be like. Some people have of course come up with theories such as silicon, nitrogen and phosphorus, boron, sulfur and various metals together with oxygen as possible candidates. We've discovered a plethora of various organisms called extremophiles that survive in conditions unsuitable for any "conventional" life on earth, living in places like hydrothermal vents at the ocean floor, deep subsurface permafrost, the asphalt lake in Pith Lake (Pitch Lake - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and theoretically perhaps in the subsurface ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa.

Extremophiles give clues to alien life – Cosm Feb 05, 2010 | CosmOnline

[a500lbgorilla]

ok ok guys. perhaps i was misleading in my original post. i have not jumped to any conclusions myself that 'omg i don't understand it, aliens must have done it!'
to clarify, i just think its perplexing that i can't find a solid scientific explanation of puma punku and other similar ancient world marvels. these sort of things have scientists, historians, archaeologists and the likes scratching their heads. <- might be flirting with the 'some people' aggregate. more or less, its just a fun topic of discussion. blaze me all you want internerds, but i'd rather have an actual discussion. perhaps i should rename this topic as 'lets talk about puma punku' or something because thats all i really want to do.

The scientific evidence is in the peer-reviewed articles. You should check them out if you're really interested in learning more. The difference between "some people" and "experts" is that some people are being interviewed by the History channel and the experts are publishing articles in scientific journals.

scholar.google.com

You don't get the luxury of saying "some people say it would be impossible" in a peer-reviewed publication. You have to say why it is impossible so that other people can reference you and your reasons.

edit I'd like to be clear about something - if historians, archaeologists and scientists alike are scratching their heads, then the reasons why would be published in scientific journals. You can't trust the word of the History channel that it's as big a mystery as they'd like you to believe. Remember, in the next half hour they'll claim that experts are baffled by ghosts.

[CoccoBill]

Watched a documentary with detailed explanation about how the Pyramid of Giza was likely built, but I couldn't find it again. For some reason, finding the information on how these things were made isn't the easiest thing in the world. I think it's because the people who know don't bother explaining in popular media, and the findings don't merit publication in scientific media either

Or it could just be that we simply don't know, yet. Look at the Moai statues on Easter Island. For decades it was a complete mystery how they got there and how they could have been moved around, it should have taken thousands of men to lug them around. Then they did some pollen analysis and figured out the island used to be covered with trees, that could have easily been used to make rollers enabling them to be transported just by a few dozen people. Problem solved.

Them ancient folks were smarter than we think, even neanderthals made tools, ornaments, arts etc.

[triumphant cracker]

the only thing that scares me more than space aliens is the idea that there's no space aliens.

[b-rabbit]

The scientific evidence is in the peer-reviewed articles.

the scientific evidence for what exactly?

anyways. in my search i stumbled across a different non-poker forum where the op shares similar views as me and is much more thorough. good pics as examples too.
Puma Punku

[BennyLaRue]

Speaking of extremophiles, just wait until the Russians bust open that lake 12km below the ice in Antarctica. There should be some crazy life forms found there.

[Luco]

Speaking of extremophiles, just wait until the Russians bust open that lake 12km below the ice in Antarctica. There should be some crazy life forms found there.

You'll have to wait 8 months to find out

[b-rabbit]

i bet they built some cool ice sculptures!!

[a500lbgorilla]

the scientific evidence for what exactly?

anyways. in my search i stumbled across a different non-poker forum where the op shares similar views as me and is much more thorough. good pics as examples too.
Puma Punku

I don't really know as I haven't read them. But the best source you'll find on Puma Punku will be a peer-reviewed publication.

It's not a knock on you, I'm saying that if you were really interested in this stuff, you should google around on google scholar and see what you can find.

[BennyLaRue]

Oh, I didn't realize they stopped drilling. (And I don't know where I got the 12km...seems like it's 4km.)

I look forward to it though. Whatever evil they release from the lake will devour us all but it will be exciting in the meantime.

[Luco]

As long as it's not Swamp Thing II

[b-rabbit]

you check out that other thread i posted anyone hmmm??!??1
got some perty neat pictures!!

[Penneywize]

humans have only been able to fly for like the past 250 years or so

Am I missing something? wasn't the first powered flight in very early 1900s

[BennyLaRue]

Am I missing something? wasn't the first powered flight in very early 1900s

Hot air balloon, muthafucka!

(I wonder if those words have ever been put together before. I'd like to think not.)

[Jack Sawyer]

Am I missing something? wasn't the first powered flight in very early 1900s

LOL yeah, the Wright brothers was the first thing that came to mind. However, upon some digging, I found out that:

1)

The first generally recognized human flight took place in Paris in 1783. Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes went 8 km (5 miles) in a hot air balloon invented by the Montgolfier brothers

2)

The first published paper on aviation was "Sketch of a Machine for Flying in the Air" by Emanuel Swedenborg published in 1716.

3) The first man to actually fly a heavier than air aircraft was a chap named Samuel Pierpont Langley, some time before the much more popular Wright brothers ever did.

I know "some people" frown at Wikipedia, but here's the link:
Aviation history - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


While it is correct that the powered flight probably happened until the early 20th century, the theories and overall tech had to develop from since the people took to the skies, and that is why I rounded that number to about 250 years. But still, we have been able to accomplish a whole lot in a proverbial blink of an eye. I wonder what the future brings.

[Gopentelp]

hello

[spoonitnow]

IT'S ALL WRIGHT CUZ IT'S ALL WHITE

[MadMojoMonkey]

Project Orion is a feasible, realistic spacecraft that could be built with modern fuels, materials and technology that could achieve speeds capable of interstellar travel.
Also, not only does time dilation affect the time experienced by the traveler, space contraction shortens the distances in the direction of travel. So you can reach a star that is 7 light years away in ~1 year (in your own time frame), assuming your average speed of travel is 99% the speed of light for the year.

As has been repeatedly stated in this thread, "I don't know how..." leading to "It must be..." is a ridiculous line of thought. DUCY

There is no evidence that human intelligence has changed over the last 250,000 years. Knowledge, yes, but problem-solving and creativity is well evidenced in the prehistoric record. At what level of sophistication does it become shocking? Teepees? Wigwams? Pueblos? The Cahokia Mounds? The pyramids at Giza? Mohenjo Daro? Chichen Itza? The Temple at Tikal? Machu Picchu?

[kiwiMark]

At what level of sophistication does it become shocking? Teepees? Wigwams? Pueblos? The Cahokia Mounds? The pyramids at Giza? Mohenjo Daro? Chichen Itza? The Temple at Tikal? Machu Picchu?

Solving checkers/draughts, obv.

[Luco]

Speaking of extremophiles, just wait until the Russians bust open that lake 12km below the ice in Antarctica. There should be some crazy life forms found there.

No signs of life from Lake Vostok &ndash; so far - life - 22 October 2012 - New Scientist

I am dissappoint

[MadMojoMonkey]

If I couldn't disappoint, I would have no point.

[a500lbgorilla]

No signs of life from Lake Vostok &ndash; so far - life - 22 October 2012 - New Scientist

I am dissappoint

Or maybe it's a lesson - the craziest form of life is no life at all.

No that's lame.

[BennyLaRue]

No signs of life from Lake Vostok &ndash; so far - life - 22 October 2012 - New Scientist

I am dissappoint

They're fucking Russian. They don't know what they're doing. And they're all drunk.

[Penneywize]

I find it so fucking funny that this thread got revived by a random post from a spammer and everyone just kinda went along as though the discussion never stopped.

[kiwiMark]

They're fucking Russian. They don't know what they're doing. And they're all drunk.

Physicist once told me a joke: How do you spot a russian ass vibrator? It doesn't vibrate and won't fit in your ass.

It was weird.

[givememyleg]

hi

[spoonitnow]

WHAT UP GMML

[BennyLaRue]

Physicist once told me a joke: How do you spot a russian ass vibrator? It doesn't vibrate and won't fit in your ass.

It was weird.

No, no. That's fucking brilliant.

Hello!

[kiwiMark]

If you insult my eyesight one more time I will fucking gut you.

[a500lbgorilla]

If you insult my eyesight one more time I will fucking gut you.

Your gut looks amazing.

You'd never know though, on account of your being blind-eyed.

[BennyLaRue]

If you insult my eyesight one more time I will fucking gut you.

You seem to be insulted by when I insulted you. I don't understand.

[kiwiMark]

The lasik eye surgery spam got removed, making me look like a FOOL.

[BennyLaRue]

Well, then I pity you. Big black man told me to.