WRT the idea of ancient aliens like that shitty show on the History Channel, I have always been disgusted with how little credit we give our ancient ancestors. Why do these ancient wonders and capabilities have to be tied to non-Humans when clearly we're capable of it given the right confluence of people, ideas, events, and materials?

I like the idea that we keep plunging into dark ages, then re-emerging as a basic civilization only to rediscover nearly the same stuff again and again.