Tag Archives: Ancient Aliens

Explorers of ideas are no enemy of science

By DAN HODDINOTT

I had an opportunity a little while ago to indulge in some speculative conversation with Giorgio Tsoukalos, producer of the Ancient Aliens TV series, on the topic of why it might be that evidence of advanced prehistoric civilizations is systemically dismissed by traditional scientists, educators and social engineers.

Giorgio Tsoukalos, left, and I

WE MIGHT BE ALIENS: Or we might not. Here I am discussing the possibilities with Giorgio Tsoukalos of Ancient Aliens fame.

Note that I didn’t say evidence of alien intervention in human history. We were talking about physical, not interpretative, evidence — in particular, precisely engineered megaliths of staggering proportion, many with astronomical reference points and exhibiting similar building styles wherever they’re found around the world. In spite of his in-show enthusiasm and the Internet memes that might lead you to believe Tsoukalos always arrives at the same conclusion — “aliens did it” — he expressed confidence that early humans likely carried out the work, under the tutelage of advanced instructors, whomever that might be.

We see eye to eye on some points and have differing viewpoints on others. Nevertheless, I found his insight refreshing, in part I’m sure because in him I see a fellow traveler predisposed to welcoming for consideration ideas that don’t check first with authority before flexing their wings. On the matter of whether extraterrestrial intervention might figure into ages-old mysteries that modern science has no tools to solve, I would defer to his insight — the perspective of one having immersed himself in practical research on the subject — over pronouncements made by an obedient believer in some official orthodoxy. Unlike those wont to toe official lines, the impression he left with me during our conversation at the “George Noory Live” event in Toronto is that he has little regard for merely being right, preferring instead to be correct in contributing to the body of human knowledge.

That is a position I can respect. It creates an environment where ideas can live or die by their own merits, not because they were propped up by conventional expectation or snuffed out by well-armed thought police. Continue reading