From: petertrei@gmail.com   
      
   On 1/13/2026 4:15 AM, Jerry Brown wrote:   
   > On Mon, 12 Jan 2026 15:57:05 -0500, William Hyde   
   >  wrote:   
   >   
   >> Christian Weisgerber wrote:   
   >>> RIP, Erich von Däniken (1935-2026), Swiss writer who became an   
   >>> international bestselling author by opportunistically writing about   
   >>> fringe and pseudoscience topics. He popularized the idea that early   
   >>> human cultures were visited by extraterrestrials who helped build   
   >>> monumental works and became revered as gods; a concept that was   
   >>> picked up numerous times by science fiction writers.   
   >>>   
   >> I believe that SF writers got there first.  But in those stories the   
   >> aliens were more clever, passing on information rather than building   
   >> useless objects.   
   >>   
   >> Still, given how stupid we are, perhaps aliens would also be dumb enough   
   >> to think:   
   >>   
   >> "We need to help these poor people! Gimme three pyramids, stat!"   
   >   
   > I recall Arthur C Clarke saying[*] that they came very close to going   
   > with a pyramid-shaped monolith before choosing the slab, and how it   
   > might have had a deleterious effect on 2001's performance, due to the   
   > association with von Daniken.   
   >   
   > *: probably "The Lost Worlds of 2001"   
      
   2001 is based (loosely) on Clarkes short story 'The Sentinal',   
   which does indeed  have a pyramid-shaped monolith.   
      
   pt   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)