How to Cite
Abstract
Who built the Pyramids of Egypt, the Nazca Lines, Stonehenge and untold numbers of human architectural and technological feats? Humans, of course, unless you’re one of the many individuals who subscribe to one of the ancient aliens theories of human development. Although ancient alien contact theories range from human enslavement (the Annunaki) to alien DNA in human beings (a recent article from The Atlantic, which also examines a horrifying act of potential desecration of human remains), all of these theories pivot on the idea that ancient Egyptians, Sumerians, Akkadians, Celts and others did not possess the intelligence, technological know-how, creativity or capacity to achieve the feats that have been attributed to them. These disturbing theories, as well as many fake news articles, conspiracy theories and other ‘alternative news’ stories may be classified as pseudoknowledge (Introne, et. al 2017).
Unfortunately, these theories are becoming harder to debunk, because the tools available to us include built-in blinders. For instance, 85% of Google searches are not unique – most Google queries have already been asked in the past, and Google draws upon these older search results to attempt to predict what you, the searcher, wants to find. However, Google customisation also plays a role, as we will see below. I offer a demonstration of my own attempt to disprove a claim that the home planet of the Annunaki gods has been recently detected.