Fingerprints of the Gods - Book Review

[Forum Monk]

Hyperdiffusion is a possibility if the 'tree of knowledge' was maintained by an elite class or a priestly class and not dispersed among the general society. Otherwise, knowledge is a pretty tough thing to lose. For example, now that we know how to build a hydrogen bomb will there ever be a time in the future when we don't know how? When the cat is out of the bag its very hard to put him back in. Unless those who knew all died at relatively the same time.

[Beagle]

Maybe we need a thread on hyperdiffusion?

That sounds ok to me. Also, what about seeing if Michelle would let you padlock this thread later tonight - after one more personal note?

[MichelleH]

Maybe we need a thread on hyperdiffusion?

That sounds ok to me. Also, what about seeing if Michelle would let you padlock this thread later tonight - after one more personal note?

This is not a problem. Consider it done when you are ready.

[Minimalist]

Maybe just split off the last few posts into a new thread? I see the control for that but I don't want to screw with it.

For example, now that we know how to build a hydrogen bomb will there ever be a time in the future when we don't know how?

Sure. Let's say there is an asteroid strike which, after the ensuing nuclear winter, kills off 99.9% of the population. First off, in the surviving 1/10 of a percent you would need at least one nuclear physicist and then you'd have to deal with the reality that both the technology and infrastructure to build one would have taken a beating. The survivors would have more immediate problems...like dinner that night, to worry about building a bomb.

Humanity would be starting over.

I think what Hancock is suggesting, or rather Santillana and Von Dechend, is that incorporated in these myths is precessional mathematics which would not be recognizable as such until such time as humantiy had climbed back to a certain level of scientific knowledge.

[Beagle]

Fine with me Min. Whatever is easiest. I just think that, all things considered, we should close this baby out. Finis.

[Beagle]

I came away with much the same feeling about GH as you did Min. He seemed to readily accept the viewpoints of other researchers, past and present, such as Posnansky, Hapgood, West, Bauval, et al. Whether he meant to come across that way I'm not sure. But in doing so, he didn't seem to come across with his own position very well.

That position to me seems to one of Hyperdiffusionism, meaning that there must have been a higher civilization in humanities past and it had been lost, rather than the smooth linear growth to civilization that we are taught today.

Nothing else he said made more sense to me than the fact that at the end of the last glaciation, enough prime real estate was submerged as to equal the size of a continent. With the melting ice and subsequent rise in sea level, also came dramatic climate change. Steppes became forests, and lush savannah became arid desert. This created a human diaspora larger than any before or since. With that diaspora went bits of former culture, language, and knowledge. I personally believed this before I read this book.

More than reading this book however, the real education I got was experiencing the reactions of some people to the review, and their overt attempts to silence it. Before that I didn't realize such primitive attitudes still existed, even though history is full of the tragedies of Spanish monks and Nazi book burnings, so perhaps I shouldn't have been too surprised.

All in all, to the novice who is interested I recommend the book, along with a study of orthodox explanations. Too much of either side can create imbalance.

Thanks to Min for agreeing to help and act as the protagonist. That was in the beginning anyway. He didn't give it up. For myself, I had a lot of fun.

In addition to my final statement, I also want to thank Michelle, who has probably been tempted to lock this thread before now. We're probably going to continue with some of his thinking on hyperdiffusion, but the book review is over.

[MichelleH]

Farewell to a good discussion......thanks guys!