"...Can YOU handle the truth?"

[Sharpandpointies]

Don't have to have the Twitter to read the tweets - you can find them all you like without an account.

I don't know how to do that.

Thank god.

[Duskman]

I don't know how to do that.

Thank god.

Ain't worth the effort.

[Duskman]

Can you handle the truth, or, will you just not buy the new HDD, and refuse the information?

What's with this assumption that the truth would actually have some soul-shattering effect? Given the absolute bullshit some people believe, the Truth, more often than not, is so disappointingly mundane, there's a reason people make up elaborate conspiracy theory bullshit.

[Endless_Legend]

Like I said, other than some state secrets, there's probably nothing in the drive that would be shocking.

But having access to all the lost ancient writings would be hugely interesting from an academic perspective. I think I might spend some time reading them all, write a few papers that win me some Noble Prizes, and then anonymously turn the drive over to the Smithsonian.

[T51R]

Like I said, other than some state secrets, there's probably nothing in the drive that would be shocking.

What, the complete tome of Bruce Lee's writings from when he developed Jeet Kun Do, the musings of Malcom X and the fighting philosophies of Mohammed Ali aren't interesting?

[Endless_Legend]

What, the complete tome of Bruce Lee's writings from when he developed Jeet Kun Do, the musings of Malcom X and the fighting philosophies of Mohammed Ali aren't interesting?

Interesting =/= shocking.

There is tons of stuff on the drive that would be interesting. That's why I would keep it for myself for a bit. I did just mention that I've love to read all the lost writings of the ancient world.

[Duskman]

What, the complete tome of Bruce Lee's writings from when he developed Jeet Kun Do, the musings of Malcom X and the fighting philosophies of Mohammed Ali aren't interesting?

Not in the least.

[MorphyVSFischer]

Basically, though, if you are an educated man of science and history, this hard drive is not going to hold any real surprises. It's going to be like CERN finding the Higgs-Boson last year, when they all went "Oh... it's exactly what we expected to find...".

Unless you know there's wrong. It's massively arrogant to assume absolutely everything we know about the past right now is accurate or wouldn't hold any useful information.

[Endless_Legend]

Unless you know there's wrong. It's massively arrogant to assume absolutely everything we know about the past right now is accurate or wouldn't hold any useful information.

No, it isn't arrogant, because you're misreading what I said.

Just because there are no surprises doesn't mean that there won't be interesting stuff to read. There will be tons of stuff that's interesting to read. But there will be nothing that fundamentally changes our entire worldview. Nothing earthshaking. And *no*, it's not arrogant to assume that.

[T51R]

But there will be nothing that fundamentally changes our entire worldview.

I'd say this is correct, because in the context of this thread we've already experienced a civilization that seemingly has no limits set on what they can do, besides the limits they set for themselves. In this regard, nothing we've done in the past to ourselves or for ourselves will be as surprising.

As a by-the-way thing, its also given us something massive to reach for as a civilization.

So I'd concur with Legend here.

[MorphyVSFischer]

No, it isn't arrogant, because you're misreading what I said.

Just because there are no surprises doesn't mean that there won't be interesting stuff to read. There will be tons of stuff that's interesting to read. But there will be nothing that fundamentally changes our entire worldview. Nothing earthshaking. And *no*, it's not arrogant to assume that.

Define a entire worldview.

Because yeah we probably won't find that aliens built the pyramid's or that the Greeks made a death ray or whatever but undiscovered tech? Undiscovered texts? Its impossible to say how much that might influence us.

Also no surprise's does imply you somehow think that receiving the a completely accurate view of our history wouldn't reveal anything we don't already know. Which yeah, is wrong. There *will* be surprises.

[Endless_Legend]

Also no surprise's does imply you somehow think that receiving the a completely accurate view of our history wouldn't reveal anything we don't already know.

Nope, I wasn't implying that. Wrong.

*You* are reading that into what I said. Fine, whatever, I don't really have any control over whatever delusions you decide to project on to other people's words.

There will be academically interesting stuff to read. Lots of ancient writings about the doings of various historical personages. That's great, and I'd love to read about all the stuff that, for example, the Myceneans were up to that we don't know about, since we have very few of their records. Or whatever else Aristotle wrote that has been lost.

But, guess what? Science works. We are not going to find Secret Hidden Technology in the ancient world, because it didn't exist. We know how the world works. This is 2014, and ignorant hand-wringing about knowledge lost through the ages is an immature things that you should be past by now.

Interesting literature, interesting historical records, aweful secret Cold War operations, that's what we'll find in there. We are not going to find the solution to unifying Quantum Gravity with the Standard Model of physics in some ancient papyrus. Sorry, but no.

*shakes head*. I never cease to be surprised at how much people don't understand that, now, right now, humanity has more access to knowledge, the dissemination of it, and the ability to discover new knowledge than any other time in history. There was no Atlantis. There was no Golden Age that we've forgotten about because the records have been lost. That's ignorant superstition.

Right now is the Golden Age. Right now is the time in history that is the tip of the spear when it comes to human knowledge, science, and advancement. Not in some lost scrolls that were burned during one of the several times that Alexandria's libraries were burned. Right now.

[Charlotte DeBel]

Nope, I wasn't implying that. Wrong.

*You* are reading that into what I said. Fine, whatever, I don't really have any control over whatever delusions you decide to project on to other people's words.

There will be academically interesting stuff to read. Lots of ancient writings about the doings of various historical personages. That's great, and I'd love to read about all the stuff that, for example, the Myceneans were up to that we don't know about, since we have very few of their records. Or whatever else Aristotle wrote that has been lost.

But, guess what? Science works. We are not going to find Secret Hidden Technology in the ancient world, because it didn't exist. We know how the world works. This is 2014, and ignorant hand-wringing about knowledge lost through the ages is an immature things that you should be past by now.

Interesting literature, interesting historical records, aweful secret Cold War operations, that's what we'll find in there. We are not going to find the solution to unifying Quantum Gravity with the Standard Model of physics in some ancient papyrus. Sorry, but no.

*shakes head*. I never cease to be surprised at how much people don't understand that, now, right now, humanity has more access to knowledge, the dissemination of it, and the ability to discover new knowledge than any other time in history. There was no Atlantis. There was no Golden Age that we've forgotten about because the records have been lost. That's ignorant superstition.

Right now is the Golden Age. Right now is the time in history that is the tip of the spear when it comes to human knowledge, science, and advancement. Not in some lost scrolls that were burned during one of the several times that Alexandria's libraries were burned. Right now.

The people still believe in ancient Indian anti-gravity crafts. But vimanas were the creation of mythological gods, not the ones of the humans who recorded them. So - "there was a paleocontact and some tribesmen made records of it" is interesting but not ground-breaking, as we won't get the technical data of civilization ancient Indians contacted.
The stuff like "Nasca tribes shamans knew how to make balloons from animal skins and used them in their rituals" is also interesting but does not lead to some technological breakthrough.

[MorphyVSFischer]

Nope, I wasn't implying that. Wrong.

*You* are reading that into what I said. Fine, whatever, I don't really have any control over whatever delusions you decide to project on to other people's words.

There will be academically interesting stuff to read. Lots of ancient writings about the doings of various historical personages. That's great, and I'd love to read about all the stuff that, for example, the Myceneans were up to that we don't know about, since we have very few of their records. Or whatever else Aristotle wrote that has been lost.

But, guess what? Science works. We are not going to find Secret Hidden Technology in the ancient world, because it didn't exist. We know how the world works. This is 2014, and ignorant hand-wringing about knowledge lost through the ages is an immature things that you should be past by now.

Interesting literature, interesting historical records, aweful secret Cold War operations, that's what we'll find in there. We are not going to find the solution to unifying Quantum Gravity with the Standard Model of physics in some ancient papyrus. Sorry, but no.

*shakes head*. I never cease to be surprised at how much people don't understand that, now, right now, humanity has more access to knowledge, the dissemination of it, and the ability to discover new knowledge than any other time in history. There was no Atlantis. There was no Golden Age that we've forgotten about because the records have been lost. That's ignorant superstition.

Right now is the Golden Age. Right now is the time in history that is the tip of the spear when it comes to human knowledge, science, and advancement. Not in some lost scrolls that were burned during one of the several times that Alexandria's libraries were burned. Right now.

Now who's reading into things? I literally specifically said that I wouldn't expect to find exactly the sort of things you just wrote. And I'm hardly hand wringing over things lost to ancient tech. I merely objected to you saying there would be no surprise's, which is obviously false, unless by surprise you mean ''changes how we view everything, irrevocably.'' No one but people who watch ancient aliens seriously thinks were going to find **** you described, and I don't appreciate the insults and accusations of ignorance.