Why it is dangerous to believe aliens built the pyramids
And other flamboyant conspiracy theories
Scientists, Inflation, and Documentaries
The other day, in the office, one of my colleagues was telling me about a documentary he watched the night before. I can’t remember which one exactly, but Brian Cox was the presenter, and the universe was the subject. My colleague was in absolute awe.
He was going through what he’d learned with enthusiasm, and I was nodding, trying to hide my patronising grin, making an effort to encourage his curiosity, until he said something I could not let slip. He placed the “inflation” period before the Big Bang.
As a certified space geek, I had to intervene.
I told him inflation—not the economic one—came after the Big Bang. Immediately after, in fact, and he was not happy with my correction.
After a little back and forth, he finally let go what he wanted to say since the beginning: “Do you want to argue with Brian Cox?”
We had to Google it. And even after that, he wasn’t convinced.
The Internet is Evil
How many times I thought I knew enough of a subject just because I’ve read 2 lines from the visible part of a Facebook post?
The exchange with my colleague remained with me for some time. He knew nothing about astrophysics. He had literally just discovered that humans have theories about how reality came to be, and yet, the idea of him being wrong was unfathomable.
Which sparked the question; how many times I’ve been in his position?
How many times I thought I knew enough of a subject just because I’ve read 2 lines from the visible part of a Facebook post?
That’s scary.
So, here’s my theory: the internet is evil.
Just joking. The internet is not evil, just like iron is not evil, but the way it developed doesn’t help humanity be the best it could be.
Let me expand.
The Delusion of Competence
Having the answer to every question ever asked literally at your fingertip is bad enough, but having hundreds, maybe thousands of answers to each of these questions is much, much worse.
Imagine arguing with a Nobel Laureate in physics because you have Google.
I don’t refer to the possible creation of polarising bubbles, where an individual is only exposed to content aligning with their belief system. This is actually quite rare, as the technique social media platforms use to keep you glued to the screen is much more nuanced—watch this video if you want to know more.
What I’m complaining about here is a generalised and extreme Dunning–Kruger effect we all are victims of.
From Wikipedia:
The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people with limited competence in a particular domain overestimate their abilities.
Now imagine this particular domain to be… everything.
Imagine arguing with a Nobel Laureate in physics because you have Google. Or with a record-setting athlete. Or with a surgeon. A prime minister. An archaeologist. A historian. Now tell me you’ve never seen it done in a comment section.
This behavioural pattern reminds me of “Lest We Remember”, a short story by Isaac Asimov where an average man takes a drug giving him perfect memory recollection. Thinking he’s now superhumanly clever, he tries to blackmail his superiors to climb the corporate ladder, but memory is not intelligence, and he’s not able to accomplish his goal.
Google is like perfect memory (although you can and will find wrong information in Google even before you have the chance to misinterpret it). It doesn’t make you smart. And it doesn’t make you competent.
There are plenty of research papers even highlighting how an extensive use of tools like Google can reduce your generalised knowledge, and if it sounds surprising, think again.
The Proliferation of High-Status Pseudo-Scientists
The most outrageous side effect of what we discussed above is the recent proliferation of high-status pseudo-scientists.
If something makes sense, it doesn’t mean it’s true.
People like Ben van Kerkwyk, or Graham Hancock, who have reached an enormous number of people through podcasts and shows, many more than any legitimate academic ever could through traditional channels.
Now, let me be clear, these people are not crazy. They’re not claiming that the Earth is flat, or that you’re injected with a mind-controlling micro-chip during vaccinations.
Their theories make sense.
Not in scientific terms, of course not, but in the same way the prologue to a post-apocalyptic novel makes sense.
But if something makes sense, or even if it’s perfectly logical, it doesn’t mean it’s true.
What’s the problem, some of you might ask. If I want to believe there was a super-advanced civilization 12,000 years ago who taught humanity how to survive, or if I want to believe that to build the pyramids, the Egyptians must have used tech beyond our comprehension, why can’t I?
Well, while I think anybody is entitled to believe whatever they want, I find some specific theories problematic.
For example, believing that a specific ethnicity is dangerous can lead to pretty nasty consequences.
The Dangerous Part
So, what are the consequences of taking Google and Joe Rogan as your maximum knowledge exponents?
The danger, I believe, is a loss of critical thinking.
Just like a muscle, critical thinking needs to be trained to work properly. Stopping at the “it-makes-sense” level does nothing for your brain. Being satisfied with the explanation that took you 2 seconds to find doesn’t make you a better thinker.
Furthermore, it creates a habit of expecting stuff to be easy.
To someone who can solve any of their problems within 10 minutes of browsing, of course it must seem impossible to build the pyramids with the tools in their shed. Alien tech aligns more with their experience of reality.
But if we deem this as an acceptable belief, where do we stop?
How long before someone says Mozart must have used generative AI for his symphonies?
How long before someone says the Holocaust never happened because organising that amount of train trips would have been too daunting?
This is a slippery slope. Especially in this historical context.
You can do seemingly impossible things, even while scared. Even while uncomfortable.
In fact, you should.
On a more relaxed note, believing only Aliens could have built the pyramids may also affect how much you think of yourself.
By dismissing great accomplishments, you might end up believing you can’t accomplish great things.
When, in fact, you can.
You can do difficult things. You can do seemingly impossible things, even while scared. Even while uncomfortable.
In fact, you should.
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