By Georgia Thompson
This is a deep seeded, passionate hatred of mine. The prerogative of the geek is to be able to lose ourselves in a world of complete fantasy in such a way as to fully immerse ourselves and empathise with the fictional, to be fully enthusiastic without fear of judgement. At the same time, a general rule for geeks is that we tend to be pretty smart. Not to toot our own horns, but we can lose ourselves in these fictions because at the end of the day, that's what we know they are. Fiction.
This is a deep seeded, passionate hatred of mine. The prerogative of the geek is to be able to lose ourselves in a world of complete fantasy in such a way as to fully immerse ourselves and empathise with the fictional, to be fully enthusiastic without fear of judgement. At the same time, a general rule for geeks is that we tend to be pretty smart. Not to toot our own horns, but we can lose ourselves in these fictions because at the end of the day, that's what we know they are. Fiction.
Then there comes programmes like Ancient Aliens. Broadcast on the History Channel, a channel which has long since forfeited the right to use its own name (titles such as Ice Road Truckers and Pawn Stars spring to mind), Ancient Aliens professes to be a 'documentary', exploring unexplained artefacts, crop circles, buildings, land masses, etc. from hundreds to thousands of years ago. The general idea is that they look in to these unexplained occurrences, and attempt to reveal their origins. The idea of structures such as Stonehenge and Machu Pichu having been left by aliens is not an uncommon theory. There is a lot of interesting history surrounding the Mayans and the idea of space travel. All in all, it sounds like it could be a pretty sweet documentary, right? Exploring extra terrestrial possibilities, seeking knowledge beyond the stars, explaining the unexplained. I thought so too. Hence why I swiftly hit series link on discovering it.
Unfortunately, it seems that their grounding in the subject appears to be quite off. At school, I had a teacher called Mr. Reed. He taught us, at the age of 13, how to successfully write essays. He taught us to PEE (ha ha!). Point, example, explanation. Make the point, give an example to back it up, then explain the grounding of your theory. You might be wrong, but if you back it up, at least you make a good go of standing your ground.
Unfortunately, it seems that their grounding in the subject appears to be quite off. At school, I had a teacher called Mr. Reed. He taught us, at the age of 13, how to successfully write essays. He taught us to PEE (ha ha!). Point, example, explanation. Make the point, give an example to back it up, then explain the grounding of your theory. You might be wrong, but if you back it up, at least you make a good go of standing your ground.
I consider documentaries to be a lot like multi-media essays. If I were grading Ancient Aliens, they would probably get an F. Apparently the creators of the show have not been told about the examples and explanations. Shots of ancient civilisations spliced with interviews with 'specialists' who essentially say “yes, Machu Pichu was built by aliens as a landing site for alien craft” or “the Mayans went to space before we did.” And that's as much explanation as the viewer gets. It upsets me that there may be people watching this show, and just blindly agreeing with their claims without questioning it, because a 'scientist' said so on TV. This really grinds my gears, and I will tell you why. There are interesting theories surrounding these ideas. There are Mayan models and paintings that boast interesting anomalies, that warrant research. Even if the research has been done, this show leaves out all scientific grounding for their claims. They merely state “Yep, that's there because aliens.” and we are supposed to accept it blindly.
There are two main reasons this is detestable. First of all, it shows an arrogance on the part of the makers of the show. That they should be believed and accredited merely because they made a statement on television. Secondly, and this part just makes me sad, is because the ratings of this show, and the number of fans it has gained, seem to suggest there’s a large amount of human beings who are simply willing to accept what they are told with absolutely no inspiration to question anything.
If we're not questioning everything we're told, how are we supposed to learn or discover anything new? Instead, millions of people every day are simply accepting ungrounded pseudo-science, because someone who looked important said it. We are better than that, humans. We are so much better than that.
There are two main reasons this is detestable. First of all, it shows an arrogance on the part of the makers of the show. That they should be believed and accredited merely because they made a statement on television. Secondly, and this part just makes me sad, is because the ratings of this show, and the number of fans it has gained, seem to suggest there’s a large amount of human beings who are simply willing to accept what they are told with absolutely no inspiration to question anything.
If we're not questioning everything we're told, how are we supposed to learn or discover anything new? Instead, millions of people every day are simply accepting ungrounded pseudo-science, because someone who looked important said it. We are better than that, humans. We are so much better than that.
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