To test the given hypothesis, I would start by studying the “unexpected leaps forward in science and technology” provided. Since the hypothesis is proposing that the only way for these developments to have occurred is through the intervention of advanced alien technology, I would first look at how the material record explains how these technologies came to be. The “leaps” supposed to be affected by aliens are agriculture, pyramid building, and writing. For starters, anyone could look at any one of these and with simple deductive reasoning disprove this hypothesis.

Take into consideration the historical development of agriculture, for example. This hypothesis seems to argue that agriculture was a leap for humankind as if it was a sudden and inexplicable development but that’s simply not the case. Agriculture, generally speaking, was something human beings developed over long, long periods of time as they transitioned from gathering plants, to simple horticulture, to more advanced farming. Saying that this advancement was given to us by aliens doesn’t really add up with the evidence worldwide of humans developing agriculture throughout time. If aliens provided human beings with agriculture, then why did humans across the world develop such different methods over such a long period of time?

Again, this logical method of thought can be applied to most of these arguments. If aliens truly intervened to provide us humans with all the innovations that we’ve ever had, then we wouldn’t have evidence of development throughout time in the material record. Even early forms of writing started off simple and developed into more complex, and vastly different, systems of communication. When some critical thought is applied to this hypothesis, I think it’s fair to say that many of these “leaps” have very real and reasonable explanations that don’t involve otherworldly intervention.

While we’re all still wearing our logical thinking caps, let’s discuss Erich von Daniken’s “Chariot of the Gods?” and some of the arguments he makes. Where to even start? One of my favorite parts of what we read in his book was his discussion of the maps of Piri Reis in chapter three. I just love how he starts with how this man was, essentially, a naval admiral in the Turkish navy and then enters this wordy and purposefully obtuse chain of events where Reis’ maps are passed from hand to hand until it is discovered that his maps could have only possibly been taken from aerial photos done by aliens.

This is such a good, almost subtle, example of his ethnocentric and racist mindset. He writes as if a Turkish cartographer could not have possibly made such accurate maps therefore it had to be aliens. Instead of giving credit to the amazing skill of Piri Reis and his maps, von Daniken has to drag his readers through a lengthy and preposterous series of explanations that end with aliens as the answer. The most simple explanation for the accuracy of Piri Reis’ maps was that he was a well-traveled and talented cartographer and that it is likely regions like South America were distorted on his maps because they were hand drawn and perhaps even drawn via second hand knowledge. The argument that aliens took aerial photos and passed them around 18th century Turkey isn’t valid just because the maps are accurate. The most complicated, outlandish answer can’t be given as the truth if the most simple, obvious answer can’t be disproven and this idea makes von Daniken’s entire book feel like an exercise in lunacy.