Navy was ordered to listen for Martians in 1924

Here's a fun little thread for everyone that show's just how gullible the public was back then but also just how ready we were for other intelligent life,enjoy! and feel free to leave feedback or share any fun find's of yours from back in the day! scifiwire.com...

reply to post by zeroeffect


What's changed between then and now?

Not a whole lot methinks!

I think people were more open and transparent back then where as of now people are more secretive and paranoid...just a thought or observation mind you..

reply to post by zeroeffect


I don't see anything here to suggest the public or anyone else was particularly gullible in the 1920s. According to the book Lonely Planets, Martian life was widely accepted fact in the early part of the 20th century, before we learned how desolate Mars actually is. What the Navy did in 1924 was understandable and practical given what was theorized at the time.

How is this in any way "gullible"? For that matter, how is it different from the SETI project?

Back in 1924, scientists had no reason to conclude that there could not be life on Mars. There was life on Earth; why not Mars? That these scientists admitted that they didn't know, shows only that they were open-minded about the possibility. It does not show them to be stupid, gullible, or otherwise foolish.

At the time, Mars was thought to be criss-crossed by large channels or "canals", which some regarded as evidence of a means of distributing water throughout the planet. Those channels apparently turned out to be the retinal patterns in the eyes of the astronomers, but this wasn't recognized at the time. The best information at the time was that there were these huge "canals". The builders might still be there. We couldn't see any cities or individuals, but perhaps we could detect some of their radio emissions. This was entirely reasonable, and good science.

The War of the Worlds debacle, too, doesn't indicate any gullibility. What happened was that the radio station in question aired a dramatization of H.G. Wells's story. While they announced rthis at the beginning of the show, those who turned in later had no idea.

Imagine if you turn on the TV and see a news report that is talking about some disaster. Unknown to you, it's just a drama. If they keep presenting it as news, you're going to believe it. The radio dramatization started out as just an interruption with "breaking news", which mentioned flashes of light on Mars. Then it mentioned some sort of objects coming to Earth, and so on. All very low-key, returning to the previous programming. Only after these things opened did the "news" take over. If you weren't exactly paying attention in the beginning, you might easily wind up scared out of your wits about an invasion.

It's easy to laugh now; back then, it seemed quite real to people, and reasonably so. The radio was their main source of live news, just as TV and Internet are for us. Back then, people didn't have the luxury of seeking other news sources to double-check. They were lucky to get in a few stations. They couldn't do much fact-checking. So the "invasion" passed as real news for a lot of people.

gullible in the sense that martians and other scifi aliens were predominate in pop culture at this time and the science to detect whether life on mars or other planets had not existed at the level we have now, but i think to emphasize my other point is that mankind was ready back then as we are now to accept and communicate with extraterrestrial life.. it's our sense of wonder and imagination that has made us ready for quite some time

[edit on 7-11-2009 by zeroeffect]

I guess you'd have to go back and read some magazine and newspaper stories about Mars from that era to get some insights into common thinking of that time, but as far as I know Rex and Chiron are both right that there was a lot more we DIDN'T know back in 1924 about Mars and with that lack of knowledge, there was some open-mindedness regarding the possibilities since we couldn't rule out life there.

In contrast, I'd have to say that a belief there is intelligent life on Mars or the moon today (which some people seem to have) shows far MORE gullibility than was shown in 1924 because we have sent numerous probes to Mars and the moon and know a lot more about them today than we did in 1924 or even 1938 when the war of the worlds was aired.

Also, if I understand this story correctly, the idea to listen appears to have originated with astronomers, not the general public, so from that basis also it doesn't demonstrate gullibility of the public.

Speaking of astronomers, and since you opened the door to other extraterrestrial blasts from the past, here is a 1902 movie where they planned a trip to the moon called "A trip to the moon" where they encounter the aliens who inhabit the moon. It takes them less than 5 minutes to start an extraterrestrial war. (12 minutes, flash):

retrovision.tv...

A Trip to the Moon (French: Le Voyage dans la lune) is a 1902 French black and white silent science fiction film. It is loosely based on two popular novels of the time: From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells.

A Trip to the Moon is the first science fiction film, and utilizes innovative animation and special effects, including the iconic shot of the rocketship landing in the moon’s eye.

It's narrated in English by a guy with a French accent.

I have seen clips from it before, where they get shot to the moon in a cannon, but this is the first time I ever saw the whole thing, it's fun to watch.



[edit on 7-11-2009 by Arbitrageur]

That's the spirit Arbitrageur every please feel free to share link's and similar photo's video's and what not this is a fun thread to compare zany science for the 20's through the 40's and yes arbit i have read some documentation of man trying to make a super cannon to shoot explorers to the moon but obviously how would they have gotten back and i believe this research went as far back as 1918 if i remember correctly