Chariots of the Gods

 

What if some of the greatest mysteries of human history have been misunderstood?

Imagine standing before the Great Pyramid of Egypt, looking up at millions of enormous stones fitted together with remarkable precision. Or imagine seeing the giant statues of Easter Island, the mysterious lines of Nazca, or ancient drawings that seem to show strange machines and flying objects. Who built these things? How did they do it? And where did their ideas come from?

In Chariots of the Gods, Erich von Däniken takes these questions and pushes them in a dramatic direction. His central idea is controversial: perhaps visitors from other worlds came to Earth thousands of years ago, and ancient people misunderstood these visitors as gods.

Von Däniken travels across history looking for clues. He examines ancient monuments, maps, myths, religious stories, and unusual artifacts. He points to places such as the Egyptian pyramids, the Nazca Lines in Peru, Tiahuanaco in Bolivia, Easter Island, and ancient Maya cities. He argues that some of these achievements seem difficult to explain using the technology we normally associate with ancient civilizations.

He also looks at ancient stories. What if descriptions of gods flying through the sky were not stories about supernatural beings—but memories of real visitors arriving in advanced machines? What if ancient pictures that appear to show strange vehicles or figures in unusual clothing were attempts to record encounters with technology people did not understand?

It is important to remember that Von Däniken's ideas are controversial. He often presents questions and unusual possibilities as evidence for his theories. Many historians and archaeologists disagree with his conclusions and argue that ancient Egyptians were capable of extraordinary engineering without help from extraterrestrials.

As you read, don't simply ask, “Do I believe Von Däniken?”

Ask the historian's questions:

What is the evidence? What other explanations are possible? Is the evidence being interpreted fairly? What information is missing? And what evidence would convince me that the claim is true—or false?

The mystery is not only what happened in the ancient past.

The mystery is also how we know what we think we know about it.

Motel of Mysteries

 "History is a Greek word," wrote British historian Arnold Toynbee, "which means, literally, just investigation." The process of investigating what happened long ago is a process that involves analyzing evidence, determining a source's credibility, and evaluating different points of view about what is important and why.

These are all essential critical-thinking skills, not just for the history classroom, but also for life. You will need to exercise these skills whenever you make an important decision about your own future. These skills will also help you make more informed decisions about public issues as a citizen and voter.

Listen to the story and then use the process of investigation to answer these questions:

1) What historical evidence did the archaelogists find?

2) How credible was the evidence?

3) Evaluate their point of view.  What did they get right?  What did they get wrong?

4) What does this story teach us about our study of the past?

What is History? Why do we study it?

Suppose you are a historian who found this stone etched with a statement.

What questions would you ask about this stone?

How would you use it to interpret the past?

For centuries, scholars puzzled over the hieroglyphs they found carved onto ancient Egyptian ruins, tablets, and papyri. But in 1799, a unique discovery would finally help unlock their meaning. It was a stone inscribed with three different texts: Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Demotic Egyptian, and Ancient Greek. 

Read the introduction in the text, then watch this video in which Franziska Naether shares how scholars decoded the ancient message of the Rosetta Stone.

Ancient Egyptians used hieroglyphs to communicate ideas through pictures and symbols. Today, you're going to create a personal hieroglyph—a symbol that represents YOU.

The 60's

There has never been a decade quite like the sixties; the diversity, conflicts, hope, anger, the music. The 60s decade was a decade of change. Not only were those changes evident in pop culture, music, & fashions;  they changed the course of history.

As you watch the film in class read the corresponding sections in the text:

41.3 Marriage Families and a 'Baby Boom'

44  Civil Rights Revolution: "Like A Mighty Stream"

45.1 Redefining Equality: From Black Power to Affirmative Action

47 The Age of Camelot

49 Emergence of a Counterculture

50 - The United States Gets Involved in Vietnam

51.4 Growing Opposition to the War

Answer these questions in your final essay.  One paragraph per answer.

I. Why did the counterculture fall apart?

II. Were the 60's good or bad for America? Why?

III.  What lessons did the 60's teach us?

IV,  Which character in the film did you relate to most?  If you were them what would you have done differently?

V. Would you have wanted to live during the 60's?  Why or Why not?

  

Zero Sum Game

The friendliness of Tic-tac-toe games makes them ideal as a pedagogical tool for teaching the concepts of good sportsmanship and the branch of artificial intelligence that deals with the searching of game trees. It is straightforward to write a computer program to play Tic-tac-toe perfectly, to enumerate the 765 essentially different positions (the state space complexity), or the 26,830 possible games up to rotations and reflections (the game tree complexity) on this space.

An early variant of Tic-tac-toe was played in the Roman Empire, around the first century BC. It was called Terni Lapilli and instead of having any number of pieces, each player only had three, thus they had to move them around to empty spaces to keep playing. The game's grid markings have been found chalked all over Rome. However, according to Claudia Zaslavsky's book Tic Tac Toe: And Other Three-In-A Row Games from Ancient Egypt to the Modern Computer, Tic-tac-toe could originate back to ancient Egypt.^[1] Another closely related ancient game is Three Men's Morris which is also played on a simple grid and requires three pieces in a row to finish.^[2]

The different names of the game are more recent. The first print reference to "Noughts and crosses", the British name, appeared in 1864. The first print reference to a game called "tick-tack-toe" occurred in 1884, but referred to "a children's game played on a slate, consisting in trying with the eyes shut to bring the pencil down on one of the numbers of a set, the number hit being scored".

Use the Tic Tac Toe handouts at the front of the room to challenge your classmates and then answer these questions:

1) What strategies did you use to win?

2) Why does Tic Tac Toe lose its appeal the more you play?

3) Is Tic Tac Toe an example of a Zero Sum Game?

4) What comparisons can we make between Tic Tac Toe and Global Thermal Nuclear War?

5) What is the only way to win?


Today gamblers can challenge a Tic Tac Toe Playing Chicken.

Can you beat the bird?

The Prisoners Dilemma

 During the Cold War the opposing alliances of NATO and the Warsaw Pact both had the choice to arm or disarm. From each side's point of view, disarming whilst their opponent continued to arm would have led to military inferiority and possible annihilation. Conversely, arming whilst their opponent disarmed would have led to superiority. If both sides chose to arm, neither could afford to attack the other, but at the high cost of developing and maintaining a nuclear arsenal. If both sides chose to disarm, war would be avoided and there would be no costs. Although the 'best' overall outcome is for both sides to disarm, the rational course for both sides is to arm, and this is indeed what happened. 'Mutually Assured Destruction' was the idea that waging war would be so destructive to both sides that neither could possibly win. Both sides poured enormous resources into military research and armament in a war of attrition for the next thirty years until reform in the Soviet Union caused ideological differences to abate.

The Cold War and arms race can be modeled as a Prisoner's Dilemma. The Prisoner's Dilemma is the story of two criminals who have been arrested for a heinous crime and are being interrogated separately. Each knows that if neither of them talks, the case against them is weak and they will be convicted and punished for lesser charges. If this happens, each will get 20 years in prison with the possibility of parole. If both 'rat' on each other, its a slam dunk case for the prosecution and they both face death sentences. If only one person 'rats' and testifies against the other, the one who did not cooperate will get the death sentence while the other will go free.

1) What would you do? Why?

2) What did your partner do? What was the result?

3) What was the surprising outcome of the Hollywood version we watched in class?

4) What is M.A.D. and how has it kept us safe from nuclear annihilation?

5) What are the risks of nuclear war in the future if more countries get the A-bomb?  What might be an even bigger threat?

How is this famous variation different from our class example? What was the surprising outcome?

Whatever happened to the 'Daisy Girl' from the 1960's commercial?

Origin Stories: NATO & the Warsaw Pact

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established in 1949. The primary goal of this "league" was to ensure security against incursions from the Soviet Union and to prevent the expansion of communism across Europe. It was built on the idea of shared interests and cooperation between the United States, Canada, and Western European nations.

Much like NATO, the first official 'Justice League' was founded when 'Super Friends' Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Superman, Batman, Martian Manhunter, Flash, and Green Lantern united to stop an invasion of alien warriors. Following the victory, Batman suggested forming a "club," which the Flash named a "league against evil." They would later meet in their headquarters, named the "Hall of Justice."

The Warsaw Pact represented the organized opposition to NATO. A defining feature of the Warsaw Pact was the Soviet Union’s control over its "satellite states" in Eastern Europe. This mirrors the structure of the Legion of Doom (or Injustice League), which is often depicted as a collection of powerful villains working under Lex Luther, Superman's singular, dominant nemesis.

 

1) How did the United States become a 'Superpower?' What was our origin story?

2) What are the similarities/ differences between NATO & the 'Justice League?' 

Between the Warssaw Pact and the 'Legion of Doom?'

3) What are the benefits of being part of NATO?  Risks?

4) How has NATO evolved & changed over the decades?

5) In your opinion should the United States continue to lead NATO? Why/ Not? What does President Trump think?