The Space-Gods Revealed [antikvár]

Foreword Lately I find myself giving a relatively large number of popular lectures on the possibihty of extraterrestrial Ufe, and it is a rare lecture after which I am not asked about the works of Erich von Danikén. His writings are very popular - although sometimes for peculiar reasons. I once overheard a couple discussing Chariots of the Gods? at a bookstand: 'Oh, don't you just love those Roman adventure stories?' 'But this one is kind of religious, I think.' They then went off comparing Chariots of the Gods? unfavorably with the movie version of Quo Vadis and The Robe. While it was evident that neither had read von Danikén, the comparisons seemed appropriate. Von Daniken's thesis is that a significant fraction of the monumental architecture, ancient artifacts, and some smaller works of graphic art of past ages were constructed not by humans but by benevolent beings from outer space. There is nothing a priori absurd in this contention; it is absurd only a posteriori. The possibihty of extraterrestrial intelUgence is something I and many other scientists take very seriously - to the point of using large radio telescopes to hsten for possible signals sent our way by beings on planets of other stars. If there were good evidence that in the past we were visited by such beings, our task would be 9