"Your Inner Giorgio A. Tsoukalos" Topic

OK … admit it … do you have any ancient aliens books? watch that material on media? have an improvised radio telescope on your roof? participate in SETI?

More importantly, do you use such material and ideas for gaming?

For me … yes (to the books) and yes to gaming (I have a couple sets of scenarios on WGV about it and more that I should get around to publishing).

My dad used to have a bunch of such books. FTR: I believe intelligent alien life is possible, and likely. I also believe there is no credible evidence that we have been visited by such, nor is it ever likely. I also don't believe Tsoukalos believes in ancient aliens, but he does believe that he makes a lot of money by producing material about it (Ithaca College, Communications).

I love books on aliens, ancient and otherwise, and yes they tend to make their way into my game settings. I don't much believe in alien contact itself, but the idea is fun to game occasionally

I participated in SETI for several years back in the ‘90s, via their screensaver software that used my computer in downtime to analyze radio telescope data.

Before that I read The Chariots of the Gods, but after I stopped being 15 I realized it was ridiculous.

I do believe that extraterrestrial life is a certainty, and intelligent life is as well. I'm open to the possibility that technologically advanced aliens have observed us, but I don't believe any abduction stories, and the vast majority of UFO cases are either hoaxes, misunderstood natural phenomena or sightings of experimental military/espionage vehicles/drones. And the ones the military are so willing to release to the public? They're ours, and we're bragging— "We are a helluvalot more advanced than you— so back off, Putin and Xi."

Having said all that, I'm a big fan of Stargate-SG1, Stargate:Atlantis, Star Trek, etc., etc.. And if you wanna make the pyramids alien landing pads on your tabletop, set up the game and I'll play, too!

I don't have any books about ancient aliens. I do have some science fiction books where ancient aliens are part of the plot.

I have looked on the Internet for a copy of Flying Saucers and the Scriptures, which came out when I was a teenager. It has a photo of a flying saucer hovering over the water tower in the small town where I went to high school (Nickerson, Kansas, for what that is worth). Copies are priced at $100 USD or so, well beyond its value to me, though--just not that enthused with the local tie-in.

I have some RCW Red troops, and have considered sending them off to investigate the Tunguska Event in the aftermath of the war and perhaps encountering aliens.

Grelber

I think we are alone in the universe, but I love reading/watching/playing sci fi. I've dabbled in reading/watching ancient aliens theories, but I find them to be theories without much proof and a lot of speculation.

I love all that stuff. Say what you will but all those
like Giorgio, Erik, etc. are smiling at the way to the bank. Aliens, UFO/UAPs not withstanding … 👽🛸

Regardless, they exist, IMO … Were they were here, are they here, etc., etc.? I'm about to be 65 … I hope I find out before I get recalled to the Mothership …

big fan of Stargate-SG1, Stargate:Atlantis, Star Trek, etc., etc..

Me too !!!!

I think the videos from the USS Nimitz and the USS Theodore Roosevelt prove something is observing us. That "something" could be experimental US technology; foreign technology; or alien technology. Regardless of origin, with no flight surfaces or obvious means of propulsion, the objects in the video are intriguing.

If it's US, I'm surprised we would be testing it in an insecure environment against an unaware battlegroup. Accidents can happen when that occurs. But I'm hoping that's the case.

If it's foreign, we have been technologically surpassed badly. Very badly.

If it's alien, as Commander Fravor (Nimitz squadron commander) stated, we don't know if it's "ET" or "Independence Day." Threat equals capability + intent. As he said, we know it's capability; we don't know it's intent.

Somewhere around here I have the book "True Cases of the Real Men In Black." I bought it as gaming inspiration and it turned out to be a fun read.

I date back to von Daniken, but I ran out of enthusiasm. Too much willful misinterpretation of evidence for too little actual mystery.

But not for gaming. SF gaming takes place either "long ago, in a galaxy far, far away"--though not necessarily LucasWorld--or at home on classic SF Mars, where I belong.

Read Chariots of the Gods many years ago. Can't stand "Ancient Aliens" show on TV. Will play Sci-Fi but not a believer in Alien visitors.

Nope, but I did watch this.

link

I think the videos from the USS Nimitz and the USS Theodore Roosevelt prove something is observing us.

Yes … at this time I believe those UFOs/UAPs are not foreign tech from Earth. They operate with an entirely new tech not of our understanding at this point.

They most likely are "real" UFOs/UAPs … what that is ? Is still an X-Factor. ETs is most likely IMO …

I don't own any of the books or DVDs or whatever, and I haven't used any of the ideas in game settings, but, you know, I want to believe.

They need to start searching for intelligent lifeforms on Earth before they go looking outside the solar system.

Wolfhag

@robert piepenbrink
I date back to von Daniken, but I ran out of enthusiasm. Too much willful misinterpretation of evidence for too little actual mystery.

Yeah, me too, after I grew a brain I realized that von Daniken didn't have one and i tuned out, still love sci-fi though.

I'm one of those nerds who takes the concept of alien life so seriously that nearly everything posited in fiction or real life claims makes me roll my eyes in exasperation. The mathematical likelihood of life elsewhere is approximately a certainty, but the likelihood of finding life we would call "intelligent" and be able to interact with is a near-impossibility. The time scale of the universe makes even the entire evolutionary history of our species into a single tick of the universe's nanosecond hand; the duration of an evolving mechanized civilization is going to be multiple orders of magnitude shorter. The chances of two civilizations like ours evolving separately and concurrently and close enough together to run into one another are infinitesimal.

Our definition of "life" is itself assuredly primitive and myopic. That too will change as we advance technologically. My favorite fictional depictions of alien intelligence are the most inscrutable, like Clarke's monoliths and missing denizens of Rama.

The most likely way to find remains of a dead civilization we could comprehend is to stumble across artifacts left by a previous species that evolved out of our own biome, then died out or otherwise disappeared. I'm sure I'm not the only geek who is bitterly disappointed there have been no remains of Silurians discovered on the moon or Mars.

All that said, I still think Alien was one of the best horror films ever made.

They need to start searching for intelligent lifeforms on Earth before they go looking outside the solar system.

I think that idea was shelved long ago …

I went to Catholic High School class of 79
I read Chariot of the Gods and Late great Planet Earth
from the religions resource center library provided by the school

and Giorgio looks related to Londo from Babylon 5 so who knows

Von Däniken was entertaining when I was in Junior High School. And pretty soon turned into an important early lesson in learning critical reading and falsification; which was both entertaining and informative!

an important early lesson in learning critical reading

From my dad:

The ratio of the height to the base of the pyramids includes pi as a factor. That could indicate that ancient aliens who aided the primitive humans in the construction of these amazing structures were encoding complex mathematical messages for future generaltions of humans to figure out. Or maybe it was just eaiser for ancient builders to measure the vertical distances with a stick and the horizontal ones by rolling a wheel along the ground …

Ayup. Rolling a wheel along the ground while walking towards a marer in the distance is a good way to lay out a straight line too.

He, he … and the pyramids are aligned to our modern understanding of geography with poll directions and declesion for lattitude. That has to have been planned from orbit. It's not like there's some big, firey marker that crosses the horizons every day for you to align things to …

Yeah! But WHO gave then the wheel? A 'junked 'Flat'? Just joking!
I read the old 'Alien Theory' stuff early 80s… and thought hmmm… but 'making fact fit Theory'… science DOES do this… but… Pyramids due to 'influence'… many centuries apart… Author was on a Roll! lol.

BUT…

No books on ancient aliens, although I have a few on extraterrestrial life. I tend to be more interested, though, in what ideas about extraterrestrial life say about the people holding them than in the extraterrestrial life itself.

I was about to say that I've not used ancient aliens in gaming, but I guess the Great Old Ones and various other Cthulhu Mythos critters technically qualify, so I've used them in RPG's albeit not in minis games. (So "no books on ancient aliens" is true only as far as soi-disant nonfiction is concerned.)

The wheel …

This comic was in my high school geometry book. There was a BC strip like it at the front of every chapter. I have no idea why four decades later I remember this one and none of the others …

Watching "Ancient Aliens" right now. Laugh it up … we humans better be ready to welcome our new Alien Overlords. 👽🛸

if you wanna make the pyramids alien landing pads

Already done it ! In 6mm … Pyramids, Stargates, alien structures, ancient ruins, Henges, etc., etc. 🗿 All I do now is 6mm Sci-fi.

Like miniMo, I read quite a bit of Von Daniken and his ilk in the 70's. Hey, it was the seventies ;))

I've seen stuff I can't explain and I'm not talking about my wife.

Wolfhag

The interesting side of gaming ET is the ability to do dissimilar conflicts. I do remember one from nugget magazine where a plant like thing landed. It had benefits and it had an obvious down side, it might just grow over everything – discuss.

As one well known physicist once said, "Just because you don't know how the ancients built it, doesn't mean they had to have been helped by aliens."

"When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." ~ Arthur Conan Doyle