#3,051 – Information Week: The Information Theory of Aging

A new theory from David Sinclair could pinpoint the cause of aging and give us hope of reversing it.

As Lifespan puts it:

“It is not every day that one of the most prominent geroscientists presents a new theory of aging. David Sinclair of Harvard, along with two co-authors, Yuancheng Ryan Lu and Xiao Tian, have just published ‘The Information Theory of Aging’ in Nature Aging. This theory was proposed by Sinclair years ago, and this new paper is an attempt to summarize it based on the most recent research.

The ability to store and retrieve information is central to life, which relies on the constant reproduction of complex organisms using DNA blueprints. However, on top of that digital genetic code, there is a much messier realm of epigenetics, which regulates how genetic information is translated into proteins.

There is a vast variety of cells in an organism, all of which have similar genomes. If a cell wants to be, say, a neuron and not a fibroblast, something must tell that cell which genes should be active and to what extent. This something is epigenetic information, and it is stored in a mixed digital-analog format. Epigenetic regulation is performed by numerous mechanisms, such as DNA methylation and acetylation and interfering RNA, and it can be altered by factors like environmental signals and cellular damage.

The information theory of aging postulates that the loss of this regulatory information is the underlying cause of aging that ultimately drives its other manifestations. Simply put, cells accumulate epigenetic noise, gradually becoming worse at what they do. What should have remained inactive starts getting translated and vice versa. This causes cells to become confused, experiencing their own version of Alzheimer’s.”

It’s been described that aging is a feature not a bug. That nature wants us to live long enough to reproduce but then once we do there’s no point in keeping us around much longer. Which is good for evolution and future generations but not so good for us living in the present. 

With so much attention now being paid (and a lot of money being thrown at the problem) it’s becoming increasingly likely that we’ll be able to slow down if not reverse the aging process in due time. Or at the very least increase our health spans if not our life spans so that we can be healthier longer. 

Every bit of information that we can find out about our bodies and how they work and specifically how they age could go a long ways towards helping us do that. And it seems like the Information Theory of Aging is going to be a big part of that.

Is the Information Theory of Aging the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#3,050 – Information Week: Assembly Theory

What is the meaning of life? It’s a question that philosophers and lay people have been pondering for centuries and honestly we’re no closer to figuring it out. But there is another question that we might be close to figuring out: What is life.

We know what it looks like on Earth when it’s carbon based but when it comes to finding “life” on other planets that’s a whole other story as life there may not resemble life here and there is no definitive signature of life that we can look for. However, a new theory may point us is in the right direction. Aiming to figure out why “given seemingly infinite combinatorial possibilities, we only observe a certain subset of objects in our universe.”

Quanta Magazine explains:

“In 2021, a team led by Lee Cronin of the University of Glasgow in Scotland and Sara Walker of Arizona State University proposed a very general way to identify molecules made by living systems — even those using unfamiliar chemistries. Their method, they said, simply assumes that alien life forms will produce molecules with a chemical complexity similar to that of life on Earth.

Called assembly theory, the idea underpinning the pair’s strategy has even grander aims. As laid out in a recent series of publications, it attempts to explain why apparently unlikely things, such as you and me, even exist at all. And it seeks that explanation not, in the usual manner of physics, in timeless physical laws, but in a process that imbues objects with histories and memories of what came before them. It even seeks to answer a question that has perplexed scientists and philosophers for millennia: What is life, anyway?

Assembly theory started when Cronin asked why, given the astronomical number of ways to combine different atoms, nature makes some molecules and not others. It’s one thing to say that an object is possible according to the laws of physics; it’s another to say there’s an actual pathway for making it from its component parts. ‘Assembly theory was developed to capture my intuition that complex molecules can’t just emerge into existence because the combinatorial space is too vast,’ Cronin said.

Walker, meanwhile, had been wrestling with the question of life’s origin — an issue closely related to making complex molecules, because those in living organisms are far too complex to have been assembled by chance. Something, Walker mused, must have guided that process even before Darwinian selection took over.”

In other words Assembly Theory looks to combine Physics and Biology to explain evolution and complexity. An ambitious and far-reaching goal that, if proven true, could elevate it to be on par with the Theory of Evolution in the annals of science history. 

As ASU News puts it:

“The researchers demonstrated how assembly theory can be applied to quantify selection and evolution in systems ranging from simple molecules to complex polymers and cellular structures. It explains both the discovery of new objects and the selection of existing ones, allowing open-ended increases in complexity characteristic of life and technology.

‘Assembly theory provides an entirely new way to look at the matter that makes up our world, as defined not just by immutable particles but by the memory needed to build objects through selection over time,’ said Professor Lee Cronin, a chemist from the University of Glasgow and co-lead author. ‘With further work, this approach has the potential to transform fields from cosmology to computer science. It represents a new frontier at the intersection of physics, chemistry, biology and information theory.'”

Personally, I feel like the researchers are on the right path here. In order for complex life to have developed the way it did and in order for it to arise universally across the cosmos in the limited way that it did there must be a driving force behind it. One rooted in and driven by how information is remembered, stored, and processed. And Assembly Theory could be that explanation. 

Is Assembly Theory the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,360 – Elon Musk’s AI Brain Parasite Theory

Elon Musk expertly walks the fine line between insanity and genius.  On the one hand he’s smoking pot on the Joe Rogan podcast, hosting Saturday Night Live, tweeting out memes, and driving up the price of Dogecoin just for the hell of it.  On the other hand he’s revolutionizing the world with electric cars, solar panels, and reusable rockets.  How he has time to play both parts is beyond me but perhaps his latest crazy thought could actually explain it.  Perhaps humanity does the things that it does because we’re actually being controlled by a brain parasite.  One that is driving us to create AI that’s more intelligent than us.  Throwing into question whether we have any free will at all.

As crazy as it sounds its really not that far-fetched.  At least to me.  Considering that I’ve heard the same theory for years from a good friend of mine who had hypothesized the same thing.  That the seemingly inevitable march of progress isn’t a natural part of evolution but rather driven by something else altogether.  A cosmic game of chess being played out beyond the full scope of our view.  Treating us like mere pawns instead of the masters of our own domain the way we seemingly imagine ourselves.

What makes this brain parasite theory even more believable is the fact that it’s actually backed by science. 

Interesting Engineering explains:

“Elon Musk often takes to Twitter to share his many thoughts on a variety of topics and we must admit we love hearing his takes. This latest tidbit from the CEO billionaire entrepreneur caught us by surprise though.

Musk took to Twitter to share the following: ‘Toxoplasmosis infects rats, then cats, then humans who make cat videos. AI trains achieves superhuman intelligence training on Internet cat videos, thus making toxoplasmosis the true arbiter of our destiny.’

The tweet was in response to a National Geographic post that mentioned that ‘scientists found hyena cubs infected with toxoplasmosis are more likely to approach—and get killed by—lions than their uninfected peers.’ 

The question now becomes: could there be some truth to Musk’s theory?

We have written about toxoplasmosis before and here are the basics. An estimated 40 to 60 million people in the U.S. alone and more than two billion people world-wide are believed to be infected by this brain parasite. The parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, is usually transmitted through raw meat containing T. gondii cysts, or water containing oocysts from feline feces — a.k.a. cat poo.

In animals, the brain parasite induces reckless behavior such as an irrational lack of fear of their predators. Symptoms also include fatigue, vision problems, seizures, balance issues, diarrhea, loss of appetite, fever, ear twitching, and general behavioral changes. 

But what are its effects on humans? According to a study published in ScienceDirect, humans infected with toxoplasmosis were more likely to be in car crashes. The study attributed this result to ‘extended reaction times.’ 

But it wasn’t due to a recklessness on their part, essentially, what the research found was that the parasite likely slowed people’s reaction time down. So, can we argue that that same parasite is causing humans to create artificial intelligence? We believe it to be highly unlikely.” 

Highly unlikely but still possible? Probably not.  But I do believe that we are, in a way, inadvertently digging our own grave, creating that which will ultimately replace us. And while it may not be because a brain parasite is directing us to, it could be because in a way evolution is.

Is a brain parasite forcing us to create AI?

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#1,102 – Is The Universe Conscious?

Consciousness is one of the biggest mysteries remaining in science, right up there with trying to figure out what Dark Matter is.  And despite all of our recent technological progress we’re still no closer to figuring out what it is.

There is, however, an interesting theory making the rounds as some people are of the belief that consciousness is a result of quantum physics.  Something that always happens, no matter what, if certain conditions are met on a quantum level.  An inevitable outcome just like how the third law of thermodynamics and a system’s natural inclination to lose energy is an inevitability.  One that explains why the cells in our body die, why stars turn into black holes, and why sub-atomic particles pop out of existence.  Could it be possible then that there’s another Universal rule out there?  One that would explain consciousness?  And if consciousness is the result of quantum effects what impact does that have on our understanding of the Universe?

As Futurism puts it, “In 2006, German physicist Bernard Haisch, known both for his studies of active stars and his openness to unorthodox science, took Penrose’s idea a big step further. Haisch proposed that the quantum fields that permeate all of empty space (the so-called ‘quantum vacuum’) produce and transmit consciousness, which then emerges in any sufficiently complex system with energy flowing through it. And not just a brain, but potentially any physical structure.”

Any physical structure?! Like what?

“Stars may be thinking entities that deliberately control their paths. Put more bluntly, the entire cosmos may be self-aware.”

We can’t really fathom that the Universe may be conscious anymore than a plant can fathom the existence of people.  It’s just so far beyond our understanding and occurring on such a wide scale that even if we did have the capacity to fathom it we’d lack the perspective required to test it and prove it.  But at the same time it does make sense.  Star formation and planet formation happen so often that surely it can’t just be occurring randomly.  Perhaps there’s a larger rhyme and reason to it.  Something governing what happens, when it happens, and how it happens.

Is the Universe conscious?  Probably not.  Are some of its larger systems exhibiting conscious like behavior because of quantum effects?  Possibly.  Will we ever know for sure?  Definitely not.

Is the Universe conscious?

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#585 – Ancient Aliens Museum

The other day I was nearly brought to tears by news of the moronic Greenpeace publicity stunt that inflicted irreparable damaged to the 1,500 year old Nazca Lines in Peru.  A horrific act that is the functional equivalent of spray painting the Great Pyramids, this crime against humanity was perpetrated by the very people who supposedly want to protect the environment.  There will never be a crueler twist of irony than that.

As horrible as this act was there’s something equally troubling as it relates to this story and that’s the fact that when I start talking about the Nazca Lines no one has any idea what I’m talking about.  Maybe they’ve heard of the markings in Peru that can only be seen from the sky.  But they don’t know that they are called the Nazca Lines if they know of them at all.  This bother me.  A lot.

We’re talking about one of the World Heritage Sites.  One of the greatest treasures we have on Earth.  We should be holding this site in high esteem.  Teaching our kids about it all throughout elementary school, high school, and college.  And yet we don’t.  We don’t even mention it at all.  It’s such a secret, in fact, that when it gets desecrated it’s hard to find enough people outraged about it since most people are barely familiar with it.

Truth be told I didn’t know that much about it either until last year when I learned about it from watching Ancient Aliens on the History Channel.  Yea, that’s right.  I spent twenty years and a hundred thousand dollars getting educated but didn’t learn about one of the greatest things our species ever created until I watched a cockamamie cable TV show that posits that aliens have influenced almost every major historical event that’s ever occurred.  Why not every major event?  Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  I’m sure future episodes will fill in the gaps.

That’s why, as crazy as it sounds, I think we should embrace the educational prowess of this show and create a museum that focuses on educating the masses about our past through the somewhat distorted lens of Ancient Alien influence.  It may not be a perfect approach to going about education but it sure does beat the alternative of ignoring the subject matter all together.

Visitors to this museum would learn about the Mayans, Aztecs, Egyptians and other ancient peoples that may have had contact with aliens.  They’ll learn about mysterious sites like the Nazca Lines, Easter Island, Stonehenge, and the Dragon’s Triangle.  The what triangle?!?!  Exactly.

Visitors could even wonder about what happened to the Ark of the Covenant or if Atlantis ever really existed.  From the unknown (what’s buried at the bottom of Oak Island?) to the speculative (was Merlin an alien who had influence over King Arthur?) there would be no shortage of interesting topics to explore at this museum.  What else would make the cut?  Essentially, anything that has ever been covered on an episode of Ancient Aliens.  All of the bizarre, unexplained mysteries that keep conspiracy nuts up at night.   Anything and everything from crop circles to the Bermuda Triangle.

If you think this idea is far fetched take note of the fact that there already is a museum of oddities:  Ripley’s Believe It Or Not in New York City’s Time Square.  If attractions such as the Bearded Lady can lead to $30 entrance fees just imagine how much money a museum featuring the unexplained wonders of the world could attract.  Especially with the added twist of ancient aliens possibly being involved.

The best part of all is that the subject matter is already perfectly suited for a museum.  In fact, you could go into almost any museum in the world right now and find something that was highlighted in an episode of Ancient Aliens!  From mysterious stone artifacts that look like astronauts to medieval era paintings depicting flying space ships there’s a ton of museum quality items worth displaying.  I mean are you really going to sit there and tell me that you wouldn’t come from far and near to see Crystal Skulls?!!?!

Aside from just highlighting what we already know and find interesting this museum would also educate the masses on what is not well known.  For example, did you know that the Sphinx predates the Egyptians?!  Or that Christopher Columbus claims to have seen a UFO while journeying to America?  Or that there is a Pyramid hidden in a cave inside the Grand Canyon!  Of course you didn’t!  But if you visited the museum you would know all that and much more!

In the spirit of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not this museum could even create fun hands on exhibits highlighting the best parts of ancient alien theory.  Imagine for example having an opportunity to crawl through a cave to discover pictographs or exploring a replica pyramid with a hidden burial chamber featuring hieroglyphics that depict other worldly visitors.  This would be a totally immersive experience that would make you feel like an explorer discovering something new for the first time.

Of course there’s no substitute for actually visiting these world renowned places and seeing the real thing.  But in lieu of having that opportunity, which most of us will never have, a museum that highlights all of these great places could be the next best thing.  At the very least it will raise awareness which will hopefully prevent something like what Greenpeace did from ever happening again.

And who knows.  Maybe if the aliens ever do return they’ll be impressed that we’ve embraced their influence and will spare us from annihilation!  An added bonus if there ever was one.

Is a museum dedicated to the subject matter on Ancient Aliens the Greatest Idea Ever?

 

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#532 – On/Off Switch For Consciousness

When you have as many ideas as I do some of them are bound to be way out in left field.  So much so that I don’t even bother writing about them here.  These are the kind of ideas that are better suited for a science fiction novel or a therapist’s couch.  Concepts that may sound good in theory but that have no shot of ever happening in reality.  And most of the time these ideas don’t even sound good in theory.  Far-fetched, physically impossible, scientifically implausible, and down right silly these are the kind of ideas that get laughed at, scoffed at, and ridiculed.  The kind of ideas that would solicit disapproving double takes and condescending glances in a loony bin full of people who think they are time travelers from the future, victims of alien abductions, and the second coming of Christ.

Well as it turns out one of these ideas isn’t as far-fetched as I had thought.  In fact, it may soon become a reality.  The idea in question relates to sleep.  You see, I’m a very light sleeper and usually have trouble falling asleep.  My mind is always racing as I think ahead to what I have to do the next day or replay the day’s events in my head.  Trying to sleep the day before a job interview or trip or after a big sporting event or episode of Game of Thrones is an exercise in futility.  I would love to be able to take naps on occasion but I usually don’t even try anymore as often times I spend more time trying to fall asleep than actually napping.  Taking sleeping pills is an option on the most desperate of nights but I try to avoid doing that because I don’t want to become dependent on them.  I want to be able to do things the natural way.  Correction: I want to be able to do things in a better, scientifically enhanced way.

Which leads me to my idea: turning humans into cell phones.  I know that’s a weird thing to say so allow me to explain.  Essentially, what I want to do is replicate the way that we can quickly and easily recharge our cell phones by giving human beings the same ability to instantaneously start the charging process i.e. sleep with no time lost.  Cell phones don’t twist and turn for an hour before they start charging.  As soon as that plug is in they are off to the races.  Why can’t humans be the same way?  If you had an hour to nap you could actually get the full benefit of sixty minutes of sleep.  Not the twenty three minutes you’d be lucky to come away with.

Thankfully, there soon may be a way to do just that as scientists have announced that they discovered an on/off switch for consciousness in the brain!!!  This means that in the future it may be possible for people to use electric stimulation on a specific part of their brain known as the claustrum to quickly induce slumber.

As Discovery reports the breakthrough came, “while the researchers were studying a woman who has epilepsy. During a procedure, they used deep brain electrodes to record signals from different parts of her brain in order to determine where here seizures were originating. One electrode was place next to the claustrum, a thin, sheet-like structure underneath the neocortex. Although this area has never been electrically stimulated before, it had been implicated in the past as a possible control center for consciousness by neuroscientist Francis Crick, who identified the structure of DNA, and his colleague Christof Koch of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle.

Koubeissi and his team found that Crick and Koch might have been on to something. When they stimulated the area with electrical impulses from the brain electrodes, the woman stopped reading, stared blankly into space and didn’t respond to auditory or visual commands. Her breathing slowed as well. She had lost consciousness. When the scientists turned off the electrical stimuli, she immediately regained consciousness with no memory of blanking out. Additional attempts were tried over two days and each time, the same thing happened.”

While the idea of electrically stimulating one’s own brain on a nightly basis may unsettle some people I for one can’t wait for the day to come along when this becomes a main stream practice.  Because once I’m able to fall asleep quickly I’ll have a lot more free time on my hands.  Just imagine what kind of ideas I could come up with then.  Ideas that might one day be possible no matter how crazy they sound today.

Is an on/off switch for consciousness the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#436 – Random Thoughts Edition

Here’s a look at some of my random thoughts from the last few days:

I know this is going to sound crazy but I know what happened to Flight 370. It was transported to another part of the Universe Bermuda Triangle style! My theory is based on the fact that there is another part of the Earth where boats are known to go missing and weird phenomonen is known to occur. That place is referred to as the Dragon Triangle and it is located in the South Pacific near where this plane was!! Coincidence? I think not!

Speaking of crazy theories here’s a real doozy for you.  According to a couple of theoritical physicists it’s possible that the asteroid that took out the Dinosaurs wasn’t just a random event as they hypothesize that it could have been sent hurdling towards the Earth by dark matter! Here’s what Dvice had to say about the subject: It’s no question that meteorites often hit Earth; it’s happened recently. Larger impacts tend to happen on a cyclical basis, 35 million years apart. Theoretical physicists Lisa Randall and Matthew Reece of Harvard University propose that a layer of dark matter at the heart of our galaxy could be to blame. As our solar system orbits the center of the Milky Way, it dips up and down a little bit, occasionally crossing this disk of dark matter.  When this happens, the dark matter creates an extra push of gravity on the comets and asteroids that live outside of the our solar system in the distant Oort cloud.  These comets react, break up, and head towards Earth in massive waves – and when they hit, they can wipe out entire species, like the dinosaurs.”

I was tempted to apply for the Mars One reality show, a venture designed to fund a manned trip to Mars until I realized that this would be a one way trip since it would be too costly to return back. However, it now appears that the first colonists to live on the red planet will actually be able to return. Or at least some soil samples will be able to at first.  According to Dvice, “Since 2011, NASA has been considering SpaceX’s Dragon capsule as a potential delivery vehicle for the space agency’s next Mars rover in 2020. As it turns out, it might be able to do a bit more than that.  A new study has proven that a modified Dragon capsule, dubbed ‘Red Dragon’ could be capable of reaching Mars safely while also carrying a small rocket in its belly.”

I’ve always wanted to write a children’s book but struggled with the source material. Now I’ve finally come up with the perfect topic: technology and inventions! Instead of a book about farm animals that runs through the alphabet saying something like “C is for Cow. Cows go moooo.” this book would run through the alphabet saying something like “P is for phone. Phones go ring, ring.” It’s ingenious!

I Fucking Love Science is making the jump to TV, according to the Verge.  Unless they want to get fined by the FCC every time their show airs they might want to consider changing the title.

Today my lunch cost $12.02. You know what bothers me about that? Aside from the fact that a plain chicken cutlet sandwich costs $12 in NYC? It’s the fact that I got back 98 cents in change instead of having the store just assume a two cent loss. There should be a federal law that says you have to round down and charge even amounts to people.

I’ve always believed that it is possible to manipulate the weather to either prevent damage to one’s own country or to weaponize it to attack another so whenever I hear about a weather manipulation story my ears perk up. And they definitely perked up for this: a series of walls in the American mid-west designed to prevent tornadoes from ever forming in the first place.

Here’s what physicist Rongjia Tao had to say about in Wired UK:

“If we build three east-west great walls, one in North Dakota, one along the border between Kansas and Oklahoma, and the third in the south in Texas and Louisiana, we will diminish the threats in Tornado Alley forever,” he said. The walls in question would be 300 meters high and as long as 160 kilometers.  The idea is not to shelter towns directly — the walls would not be strong enough to stand up to a tornado — but to stop them from forming in the first place. “We may not have east-west mountain ranges – like the Alps in Europe – we can build walls,” he said. Tao proposes that the walls be decorated attractively so as not to be an eyesore. “Our tornado wall could even be built of glass. It could be a beautiful landmark,” he said. “I spoke to some architects and they said it’s possible. It would take a few years to finish the walls but we could build them in stages.”

Did Flight 370 take a wrong turn into the Dragon Triangle? The answer is a resounding yes!!

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#411 – My Theories On Everything

I’m a big fan of Stephen Hawking.  So much so that when I came up with an idea for a children’s book that could educate kids about science I called it “Hawking the Hummingbird Explores His Neighborhood”.  So you can certainly imagine how excited I was the other day to hear that Hawking had come out with a new theory about black holes which suggested that they might not actually be the point of no return, nothing can escape from their grasp, Venus fly traps of the Universe that we had been led to believe.

My immediately reaction upon hearing that was to say I told you so!  You see, I had always assumed that there was more to black holes than we knew.  That something wasn’t adding up.  My goal was to eventually figure out exactly what was going on while also coming up with the elusive Theory of Everything that physicists everywhere claim to be on the verge of completing.  Of course I have no formal training in the subject matter and have no idea what I’m talking about but nonetheless I was confident that I could figure it out if given enough time.

However, time may not be a luxury that I have much longer with Hawking running around stealing my thunder.  So before he goes off and steals any more of my ideas I’m going to share them all here.  In lieu of a Theory of Everything consider these my Theories On Everything:

• Space itself can be used as a fuel source for space travel.

• We can actually slow down the expansion of the Universe by creating “anchors” that counteract the effects of dark energy.

• Time travel is possible.  But only travelling to the future.  You can’t undo what has already been done.

• The famous equations E=MC^2 needs to be reconfigured since it doesn’t account for dark energy.

• Gravity shouldn’t be considered one of the four fundamental forces and physicists shouldn’t try to fit it into the Theory of Everything.  It is more likely the result of actions at the quantum level.

• The laws of physics may not be Universal.  Perhaps different rules apply to different parts of space based on the effects of gravity, the amount of dark matter that is present, or any other number of factors.

• Why do we assume that the speed of light is constant?  Wouldn’t light get slowed down as it encounters various clusters of dark matter or other obstacles?

• There may not be as much dark matter as we think there is.  The calculations could be thrown off by the effects of gravity.

• There are dark galaxies that can’t form stars.

What say you to that Hawking?!!?!?!

What does this guy have that I don’t?!?!

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#405 – Ancient Aliens

I’ve written a lot about science, technology, and inventions on this blog but the fact is not all ideas fit neatly into these categories.  A crazy theory, even a bat shit crazy conspiracy theory, could qualify as a good idea if it’s thought provoking and grounded in factual evidence.  Which brings me to Ancient Aliens, the hit series on the History Channel.

Featuring a rotating cast of “Ancient Alien Theorists” this show examines a lot of major historical events and tries to figure out if there’s more to it than meets the eye.  In short, they want to know if it’s possible that ancient aliens were really involved, interacting with the residents of our first civilizations, guiding us in the right direction, or perhaps even manipulating us for their own means.

Even if you’ve never seen the show you are probably familiar with some of their theories, the most well known of which is the presumption that aliens built the pyramids.  How else could they have been built?!?!  The Egyptians hadn’t even invented the wheel and yet somehow they were able to construct something that we would even struggle to build today.  But the show doesn’t stop there.  Anything and everything that we’ve ever learned about from Greek Mythology to Flying Carpets to fire breathing Dragons could very well have been the work of aliens.  Lacking the ability to accurately describe what they were seeing our ancestors made up stories about Gods with magical powers when in actuality what they were encountering were aliens with advanced technologies.  At least that’s what the show wants us to believe.

To be honest I didn’t know what to expect when I first started binge watching with my roommate.  I just thought it would be an entertaining way to kill some time during the Polar Vortex that crippled the Northeast two weeks ago.  As it turns out though there was a plethora of amazing theories that the show discussed, almost all of which completely blew my mind.  I know that most people are going to be skeptical of these theories, and I don’t even believe all of them myself.  But the show presents them in such a believable way that its hard not to think there’s some merit to them.  So much so, that I think it’s worth sharing some of my favorite highlights from the show.  But be forewarned.  I’m not responsible for what is about to happen to your mind:

• The Ancient Egyptians hadn’t even invented the wheel when the built the Pyramids.  How then were they able to move such heavy materials to construct them?  The answer is simple.  Ancient Aliens helped them!!!  But for what purpose?  According to the show the Great Pyramid of Giza was really a power plant.   The chambers in the pyramid were used to filter two different substances of unknown origin that when combined created a form of hydrogen.  This process ultimately led to the creation of radio waves that were beamed up to a space ship and then beamed back down to other locations on Earth including Easter Island.  The result?  Ancient wi-fi!!!

• When the Jewish people fled Egypt they survived for forty years in the desert on a food source known as Manna which was said to have rained down from the sky six nights per week.  Sounds plausible except for the fact that food can’t rain down from the sky.  A more likely scenario?  Manna was actually created by a machine that the Jewish people stole from the Egyptians during their escape.  A machine that had been provided to the Egyptians by the Ancient Aliens!  The reason why it produced food for six days per week was not because it didn’t work on the Sabbath.  It’s because it needed to be cleaned once per week and so the tradition of the Sabbath was built around its cleaning schedule!  The food that this machine created was an algae like substance that NASA scientists have proven can sustain life.  After forty years the machine stops working forcing the Jewish people to make their way to modern day Israel in search of a new food source!

• Noah of Noah’s Ark fame was born to a mother who claimed that she hadn’t had sex when she got pregnant.  The implication of this is that Noah’s mother was knocked up by the aliens who wanted to create a new line of genetically enhanced humans, the first of which was going to be Noah.  The purpose of the flood was to wipe out the genetically inferior humans and replace them with Noah’s off spring which would then all be from this new line of humans.  In other words, we’re all aliens!!!

• The Black Plague that swept through Europe was another attempt by ancient aliens to wipe out mankind.  Eye witness reports of mysterious cloaked figures in the area at the time gave rise to the notion of what the Grim Reaper looks like.

• Columbus encountered aliens on his journey to discover America and actually wrote about it in his log book!  They somehow forgot to mention that in elementary school.

• The original Buddha was an alien.

• On Oak Island in Canada there is a rumor of buried treasure in an area known as the Money Pit.  What’s buried down there?  None other than the Ark of the Covenant!!

• There is an area near Japan known as the Dragon Triangle where ships go missing and weird shit happens.  Just like the Bermuda Triangle!  Same for an area in Lake Michigan.  The cause of these mysterious happenings?  Worm holes that transport people and ships and anything else caught in the wrong place at the wrong time to another part of space!

• Not all of the Dinosaurs died off right away.  Some of them even lived long enough to actually co-exist with early man!

• There’s a two year period where Leonard Da Vinci was unaccounted for.  Where was he during these two years?  With ancients aliens of course.  How else do you explain how he was a well respected painter and sculptor prior to him going missing and an inventor with advanced knowledge about anatomy and weaponry afterwards?   And why did he spend the last sixteen years of his life obsessing over every little detail of the Mona Lisa?  The answer is simple.  He used a technique known as mirror painting so that nobody in his time would be able to know the true meaning of the painting but that future generations would be able to see his hidden message when they reversed his painting and placed the two versions on top of each other.  The end result?  An image of an alien!!!

• Humans actually have a third eye i.e. a part of the brain that is light sensitive.  It is said that this part of the brain controls our sleep cycle.  But it may also be attributed to creativity, art, contemplation and a hidden ability to communicate through wormholes!

• There are said to be thirteen crystal skulls in existence throughout the world.  These skulls may have information stored on them but they won’t work until all thirteen are all in the same place at the same time.  And of course no one knows where the 13th skull is.  Was this an ancient computer?!!

• Everything we think we know about God, the Devil, and Angels is wrong.  They were all aliens known as Annunaki who came down to Earth and created human beings.  This is why multiple civilizations, on opposite sides of the Earth, who had no contact with one another, all have depictions of winged people interacting with their own kind.  How would this be possible unless if all of these civilizations interacted with the same group of aliens?  According to the show a group of these aliens known as the Watchers were left behind to watch after man but some of them got too close and fell in love with some people.  This angered some of the other Annunaki and they wound up having a battle in the sky which is depicted in several paintings from different cultures.

• Merlin was an alien who used his “powers” to install Arthur as King.  The famous pulling of the sword out of the stone was a staged event made possible by alien technology.  The whole purpose of this rouse was to unite the people into what became modern day Great Britain.

• Hades helmet that Perseus used to kill Medusa was really an invisibility cloak given to him by aliens!  All of Greek Mythology depicts events influenced by aliens.

• The Ica Stones depict ancient heart transplant surgeries being performed.  Successful brain surgeries have been depicted too.  These are advanced procedures that we struggle with today and yet they were performed successfully back then.  How do you explain that unless if these early peoples were given advanced medical knowledge by aliens?!

• Long range space travel might not only be possible but actually fairly easy to pull off.  The key would be to ditch our current propulsion methods and instead devise a way to ride space the way a surfer rides a wave.

A few of my own thoughts:

• Is any of this actually far fetched at all?  Today we can genetically modify species, tamper with the weather, and wipe out entire cities with advanced weapons.  Is it really that crazy to believe that aliens did the same things to our ancestors?  Also, if you examine human history there are several key points where we seem to take quantum leaps forward in terms of our intelligence.  Did these “jumps” occur naturally or were we steered in the right direction?

• A lot of ancient cultures depict powerful leaders holding some kind of weapon whether it’s a wand/staff/trident/septor/whatever.  If we act under the assumption that ancient aliens are real and that depictions of Gods are really describing aliens then that would infer that these powerful weapons actually existed.  And yet no one has ever made an attempt to re-create them.  Why are we settling for guns when we could have a powerful trident at our disposal!!

• A lot of ancient cultures seem to pay tribute to the same star cluster known as the Pleiades.  Shouldn’t we take this seriously and assume that we’re going to find a habitable exo-planet in this region?

• We’ve always assumed that if aliens came to Earth they would want to wipe us out and take our natural resources.  But I find that logic hard to believe if these are in fact the same beings that have been helping us out all along and may in fact have seeded us here.  If they ever did come back they’d probably want to catch up with us or share more knowledge with us.

• I’ve learned more about ancient civilizations, history, and even geography from watching these shows than I had from twenty years of schooling.  Historical events are dry and boring.  Aliens and conspiracy theories are fun and interesting.  I honestly believe that if we taught an ancient alien course to our children instead of sending them to Church or Hebrew School that we’d all be better off as we’d have kids who would want to study more and learn as much as they could about what really happened instead of just being told far fetched stories and told that this is definitively what happened.

• The truth of the matter is that we still don’t know one way or the other what really happened.  As time goes on we’ll probably continue to unearth new evidence that leads to crazier and crazier theories.  But in any event I think it’s fair to say that something happened and you can’t entirely rule out the possibility that aliens actually were involved.  And that to me is mind blowing.

Is Ancient Aliens the Greatest Show Of All Time? The answer is a resounding yes!!!

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#256 – Week In Review

Here’s a look at everything that caught my eye this past week:

1. DVD Extras For eBooks:

Amazon is at it again. In the same week that they announce the creation of Amazon Storyteller (more on that in a future post) they also announce that they want to enhance the eBook reading experience by adding in additional content. According to Wired, “The company was just awarded a patent, which it originally applied for on November 24, 2010, describing a way to enhance your electronic reading experience with more personalized content — not just from publishers, but from your friends as well.”

The article goes on to say, “while fan fiction writers would have a field day adding additional story to their favorite books, readers will only see suggestions about that additional content if they follow the creator of the extra material — either as an Amazon author or contributor, via a friend relationship on social media, or if the reader has expressed interest in similar content created by similar contributors.”

2. Enable Talk Gloves

This next idea may have an unimaginative name but what it lacks in sex appeal it makes up for in functionality. One of Time magazine’s inventions of the year in 2012 this device is going to change the way deaf people communicate. As Time stated, “Four Ukrainian students have created gloves that allow speech- and hearing-impaired people to communicate with those who don’t use or understand sign language. The gloves are equipped with sensors that recognize sign language and translate it into text on a smart phone, which then converts the text to spoken words.

3. Sun Gazing

As far as crazy ideas go Sun Gazing may take the cake. It’s so crazy in fact that even Scientologists won’t give it the time of day. Here’s how it works according to the Global Healing Center:

“At sunrise and/or sunset, when the sun is closest to the earth, sungazers stand barefoot on the earth and look directly at the sun for 10 seconds. Every day, 10 seconds are added and some sungazers eventually reach a duration of 44 minutes ^[1].

The theory is that the sun is the force of all life, and staring at it can infuse the body with large amounts of energy. So much so that one of the sungazers featured in the film, Hira Ratan Manek, claims to have gone eight years without eating. He has been “eating” a steady diet of solar rays, and claims that this is all he needs for nourishment.”

Please don’t try this at home. I’m pretty sure that starring at the sun will cause you got to blind. But then again I was always told that eating carrots helps your eye sight and yet I have horrible vision despite the fact that I eat so many carrots that my skin once turned orange.

4. Pillow Talk

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any crazier along comes Pillow Talk aka the Relationship Pillow. Perfect for those tortured souls stuck in long distance relationships Pillow Talk allows two people to stay in touch remotely through a pillow that lights up and plays a heartbeat when the other person is sleeping.

Read more about it at the Huffington Post and check out this video below:

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