Tampering with Primitive races - have we been retarded by aliens?

I am going to tell you something that is indeed very skunky, however, I have came to this conclusion...

If we were visited by aliens in primitive times, perhaps have they caused harm to our development, explaining why we suffer from many developmental problems as a species?

I will illustrate with examples:

Language and knowledge

An alien language might prevent the natives from developing their own, and thus their development would be affected because they have simply copied that language as opposed to developing it over many generations. Thus, they really would not have learnt how to speak on their own terms - using a language designed by other races however still unable to truly communicate on familiar terms, dealing with meanings that are foreign to their cultures.

In the developmental phase, there was a stage where language was experimental, where language had not yet been standardised, one learnt to make up their own words and even come up with their own style of written communications, one also learnt words and symbols from others and exchanged ideas, a beautiful time of creative expression, hundreds of languages eventually developing, and also creating evolutionary traits that favoured those able to effectively communicate and understand meaning as opposed to a set of inflexible definitions.

We now move to the transferal of knowledge, made possible by the development of written word.

When one creates a question they search for an answer through the application of their own intellect, however, when a native race is given their answers (knowledge) by a foreign race, the natives are affected because they are not required to think for themselves anymore, and this is especially the case when knowledge becomes religion and such knowledge becomes regimented.

Thus, developmentally, the capacity to think independently, the first expression of complex thought made possible by the understanding of language is stifled. When the natives use the foreign ideas and knowledge, and especially when they choose to incorporate it in a system of education, they accept the superiority of the foreign race implicitly, and cease to trust ideas that they had developed on their own.

For example, if an alien book was found and interpreted by a race that had naturally developed their own knowledge base, the native race would likely be able to examine it in detail and also to pose their own questions about the text and thus choose to reject things that they disagree with - if it was found by a race still developing language in the form of the written word, such a text might be accepted automatically without scrutiny, the natives still yet to develop the ability to forge their own thoughts and express their own concepts, they accept what was given to them.

Artifacts

Any object can affect the technological development of a race, a gun is obvious as its duplication can lead to additional fatalities and also in the future might prematurely lead to advanced weapons that could cause extinction-level events.

There are even seemingly harmless items that can cause severe damage.

It can be illustrated with a story:

A scout ship lands on a planet containing developing humanoids, a surveyor, disguised, was able to roam about the surface and take notes. Without his knowledge a small flying children's toy had been in his ship when he landed, and it managed to fly out of the ship an onto the surface of the planet. When one of the natives saw the object, she learnt how to operate it by turning its crank... When it finally flew she went insane, flapping her arms violently, trying to fly like the toy, becoming confused because she could not do the same.

Once her tribe found the object it was passed around to different individuals, to different tribes, and what occurred was that the psyche of an entire race was affected.

Reverse-engineering objects is also a problem as a race can reach an advanced technological level with borrowed technology however still not possess the intelligence that a race would have if they had developed such technology by themselves.

a reply to: SystemResistor

Maybe it was the other way around we were "retarded" before they tampered with us. This would also be explaining the missing link and the erruptive cultural development kicking in around the same time.

If we had been visited by aliens in the past and if they tried to influence the development of mankind, we would see find traces of this today (identical protolanguage, technological developments unexplainable by normal empirical research, artifacts,...)

None of this can be found, and everything points to a normal development of mankind and not a "retarded" one.

a reply to: Develo

It can be something as seemingly harmless as a paper plane.

a reply to: Peeple

When you figure something out by yourself, you are exercising the capacity of your mind. When a race develops over millions of years, researching, experimenting, and thinking, they would be superior to a race that was simply given the blueprints and methodologies to similar technologies.

originally posted by: SystemResistor
a reply to: Develo

It can be something as harmless as a paper plane.

Then we would still see cultural trace of this today like "the civilization of the paper plane" or "the cult of the paper plane" or whatever.

I agree it's a funny thought experiment you propose here, but if you want it to become a plausible theory, it needs much more than pure speculation. Do you have at least something observable today that could support your idea?

originally posted by: SystemResistor
When a race develops, researching, experimenting, and thinking

Are you suggesting it's not what humans are doing?

a reply to: Develo

Not really, the only way that I get around that problem is to propose that there is some kind of advanced "program" that detects such objects and prevents them from being seen or discovered, and also a program that works on memory to edit out parts of our history.

An attempt by some advanced race to protect the human species...

a reply to: Develo

Not at all, we can still come up with our own ideas.

However, there are certain "landmarks" for each race - if we copied the design of a spaceship and it lead to us being an interplanetary race, we would likely develop a "complex" for races that had figured it out on their own.

For instance, if the development of space travel takes millions of years for a humanoid race, such a race would have evolved to travel in space and also would have developed an innate understanding of technology, as opposed to a race that simply copied and reproduced something.

Mankind spends too much time on wars. Limit that and more advancement will happen. Making better death machines isn't the referred to advancement.

Whether we were jump started by another life form, most of development is in our hands.

a reply to: SystemResistor

So basically your theory is "something really outlandish and unnecessary to explain the state of our world happened, and any trace of it has been be conveniently wiped out".


That's a good exercise in fiction writing. Unfortunately I deal with facts mainly, not unverifiable speculations. Also Occam's razor is my dope and this theory is unnecessarily assuming.

a reply to: SystemResistor

So you want to say you and me, all of our fellow humans are uncapable of creative problem solving? Thinking in general? Nobody's stopping you, you know. This just feels like a wild claim from someone who is very disappointed in his fellow humans minds. And given your OP you shouldn't be there are smart(er?) people out there researching, baldly going where no one has gone before, information adventurers, truth seekers, you know: nerds and geeks.
If you want to sustain this claim, maybe you care to share what says blueprinted reversed engineered? And don't start with glass phase, but around our first civilisations, Ur and such, that would be 4000b.c.
They got the idea to use pottery for water transport from aliens? A mule & carriage fell out of a flying over saucer?

a reply to: SystemResistor

I think you are projecting dude.

Do you think the Americans developed a "jealousy complex" because the French invented the car first and Americans only copied it?

Seriously it makes no sense.

a reply to: Peeple

I am not saying that we cannot think for ourselves, it is still possible, however, if we already were given a language then it makes it less likely that we could develop our own languages once such a language has been adopted already.

There would be simply no need for it.

a reply to: Develo

If a peace-loving alien race came here with beautiful ships, do you think we would not be jealous?

If they gave us the designs to their ships, would we experience the same sense of victory or accomplishment that comes with designing such contraptions by our own?

It is a deep issue when it comes to desires, it is not the object itself, it is what the object represents.

a reply to: SystemResistor

There are many languages people developed all on their own, Hildegard von Bingen had one, then there is Volapük, Esperanto, etc. And all of this because we are trying to achieve this unifying world language, which would have been given to us in your storyline, but then it splitted? How where when and why? Since we are trading with eachother before the egypts invented their gods, this language would have been super helpfull and could have prevented many wars. Where is it?

originally posted by: SystemResistor
a reply to: Develo

If a peace-loving alien race came here with beautiful ships, do you think we would not be jealous of them?

Why would we? How could fancy starships make our lives more fulfilling?

Sorry but what you posted here makes no real sense and sounds like pseudo-psychology to me.

originally posted by: SystemResistor
If they gave us the designs to their ships, would we experience the same sense of victory or accomplishment that comes with designing such contraptions by our own?

It is a deep issue when it comes to desires, it is not the object itself, it is what the object represents.

Seriously? Do you feel bad if you don't grow your own vegetables, sew your own clothes, build your own house and assemble your own computer?

Where do you go to find such ideas?




Furthermore, going back to the heart of the matter: that theory is not necessary to explain the current state of the world, it is not supported by facts, and it makes more assumptions than the Virgin Mary herself.

a reply to: Peeple

It is not the language itself that is the problem, it is our capacity to understand different languages.

So it is the facet of interpretation and also of the ability to designate new words.

a reply to: Develo

It is the feeling of accomplishment, when a substantial accomplishment is attained by a species, it unites them.

originally posted by: SystemResistor
a reply to: Develo

It is the feeling of accomplishment, when a substantial accomplishment is attained by a species, it unites them.

Yes and?

Does it means a civilization feels like sh*t when it's not them who made the accomplishment in the first place?

Are you mad it's not your country who built the pyramids?