# Ancient Astronaut Theory.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 22, 2015, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862 "2015-07-22T08:06:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/1 "2015-07-22T08:06:45Z")
I think reports of UFO’s are highly unlikely. I agree with Neil Degrasse Tyson. If some advanced alien race could traverse such great distances, their craft wouldn’t just fall apart when they get here. But I actually wonder if Ancient Astronaut theory doesn’t have at least a little merit to it.
In case you don’t know, Ancient Astronaut Theory claims aliens have been meddling with the human race since time immemorial. I think this is at least possible.
Follow my logic. Some planet are thousands of years ahead of us, one way or another. And Fermi’s Paradox wonders aloud where they are. Maybe they have always been _ **here** _, we just never noticed it (or at least never noticed the evidence they were here in any event).
I don’t fully subscribe to Ancient Astronaut theory either. But I think parts of it does have merit. I know on Star Trek, they had stories on parts of the theory. I am just saying, maybe they seeded our oceans long ago. Or maybe they are watching us covertly, letting us develop naturally (also like Star Trek–cf. the Prime Directive [and the Zoo Hypothesis, not found in Star Trek]).
What do the rest of you think?
:):)🙂
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### Author:  [@Hiker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hiker)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/2 "2015-07-22T08:21:53Z")
Yes, it is possible.
If you place a chimpanzee before a computer and let him hack away merrily at the keyboard for a few hours, he might by sheer coincidence type a complete copy of “Romeo and Juliet”. It is possible.
IMHO both are about equally likely though.
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/3 "2015-07-22T08:25:32Z")
Why would they do this and where are they now?
I read “Chariots of the Gods” when I was maybe 14 years old, and thought some of it was very plausible. After a few years I decided it was bunk.
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### Author:  [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/4 "2015-07-22T09:14:36Z")
If aliens have been meddling with our species they’ve done a crappy job of it. I rate the likelihood a lot closer to “elves are real beings from a parallel dimension” than to “the Chinese visited North America”. And the latter is not very likely.
The universe is really, really big. Even if someone could traverse it, return trips aren’t likely. Popping by now and then to meddle just doesn’t make sense, and none of the evidence is convincing to someone not stuck in teenager mode.
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### Author:  [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/5 "2015-07-22T10:20:21Z")
If they were going to even bother, which I doubt. I would think given a relatively short lifespan or the necessary man(alien)power that would be required it would probably actually be some kind of automated probe or thinking computer like the monoliths in 2001 a space odyssey movie.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/6 "2015-07-22T10:50:37Z")
There are endless possibilities of things that have happened and have been without leaving any measurable evidence of their occurrence or existence. There’s no reason to assume ancient aliens are any more likely than leprechauns.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/7 "2015-07-22T11:08:41Z")
Just like the lack of evidence for Ancient Aliens, I see no evidence of a debate, here.
Off to IMHO.
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/8 "2015-07-22T11:25:50Z")
They were here.
But the Chicxulub impactor wiped out their most promising experiments, and so they wrote this system off as a bad investment.
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### Author:  [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/9 "2015-07-22T11:30:54Z")
One of the problems with Ancient Astronaut theories is there is a subtle racism in them. It’s only the accomplishments of African and South and Central Americans that get credited to aliens. “Everyone knows Europeans could do amazing feats of engineering but obviously Aliens helped them build that Pyramid.”
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/10 "2015-07-22T12:29:10Z")
There’s a hell of a big difference between, “somewhere in the universe, there may be a race of beings that have been intelligent for thousands or millions of years longer than we have”, which is perfectly reasonable supposition (though without evidence) and “those beings have been traveling to Earth for millennia and interfering with humanity in secret and are responsible for these mildly impressive things that we can explain perfectly well without resorting to aliens”.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/11 "2015-07-22T12:37:18Z")
Naah, **Quimby** , stuff like Stonehenge and the Antikythera Mechanism gets the AA treatment too. At least, by that Greek dude with the big hair on TV they do
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### Author:  [@JerrySTL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerrySTL)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/12 "2015-07-22T12:41:22Z")
That ol’ speed of light thingee puts a damper on this ‘theory’.
Even if there are things like wormholes to work around this issue (and I hope there are), I’ve heard of no real evidence of ancient aliens or even new and improved aliens showing up on Earth.
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/13 "2015-07-22T13:24:53Z")
Seems to me those who advance theories of ancient astronauts building pyramids and such lack the imagination and understanding of basic engineering principles. Plus some of them are just flakes…
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### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/14 "2015-07-22T13:36:29Z")
Possible? Just maybe. But just like in looking at the clouds and finding different shapes my brain recognizes (that one looks like an elephant - dressed a tutu - wearing a hat) I can look at various artifacts and buildings and have my brain try to turn them into things it recognizes. Look, that’s a rocket, that ones a mushroom cloud. Its more likely just a sign that our brains are complex and mysterious things than it is signs we’ve been visited by aliens.
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### Author:  [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/15 "2015-07-22T14:24:36Z")
Is it possible in the entire history of the earth it was once visited by aliens or a probe?
Sure I guess.
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### Author:  [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/16 "2015-07-22T16:22:11Z")
But, then again, who would be interested in dismissing the existence of ancient astronauts? Why, the aliens themselves, that’s who.
I’m keeping an eye on everyone in this thread, so you know it.
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### Author:  [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/17 "2015-07-22T16:44:43Z")
> [@Sr\_Siete](#):
>
> But, then again, who would be interested in dismissing the existence of ancient astronauts? Why, the aliens themselves, that’s who.
>
> I’m keeping an eye on everyone in this thread, so you know it.
↑↑↑ Thread win… 😃
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### Author:  [@MostlyUseless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyUseless)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/18 "2015-07-22T16:45:01Z")
The few times anymore I pause on the “History” (read, Hitler and aliens) channel, I am always amazed that anyone would give 1 second of credence to the idiot with the goofy hair. That guy sees aliens EVERYWHERE. I imagine he pours his morning bowl of corn flakes and sees alien influence in the shape of the flakes, of which he, too, is one.
😕
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### Author:  [@tullsterx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullsterx)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/19 "2015-07-22T16:56:33Z")
They could be us, or we could be them. We could be the product of some “seed ship” or something.
I’m not sure what’s more believable; that this all evolved from some primordial soup; or was planted somehow; was created by some god-force. . . it’s all rather fantastic to consider.
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### Author:  [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ancient-astronaut-theory/725862/20 "2015-07-22T17:05:46Z")
Yes, but if evolution is too head-scratching to believe, where did the first ‘seeder’ come from?
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